Alignment of IT and Business

IT and business alignment is the best system for modern strategic management of organizations because it reduces the overall costs of operations, promotes effective communication in a company, and enhances faster response and evaluation of business progress.   Besides, it sets a platform for faster changes by an organization in future.However, IT and business alignment has proved to be one of the most difficult aspect for most organizations.   Over 75% of the companies and institutions have not fully aligned IT with their management systems.   However, over 80% of them have partially embraced IT especially in the top management levels (Aileen, 2008).IT and business alignment is an ongoing process that optimizes the IT mechanisms and business management operations at all levels.   It carves the correct climate whereby IT becomes a major strategic enabler of all the business operations.Lack of effective leadership in business operationsAccording to Roland (2008) effective leade rship in a business setting acts as a major platform and a guiding icon towards the correct direction for an organization.   Arguably, it is the role of the business leaders to pro-actively identify the most important aspects that would enhance higher levels of sustainability.Notably, small mistakes taken by conservative rigid leaders are referred as minor shenanigans and mostly not factored in business operations until it has sank into great losses.   Most of the leaders are directly engrossed into the past methods of business operations based on raw products and finished products simplified systems of accounting.   Many organizations are unable to link the extra IT cost to be incurred by the business and the returns to be achieved.As indicated by majority of the large companies that have embraced IT in their systems like Wal-Mart and JP Morgan & Chase, the returns are not instant and may take time before the respective advantages are realized.   Arguably, IT/ Business alig nment is a process as opposed to a one day operation.After launching its Point of Sale services that would link Citibank with its major financial operations information centers, the Bank had to wait for some months before realizing the expected goals (Mahesh, 2007).Poor focus into the future and conservatismAnalysts have linked hardship to articulate IT and business hardships to three superimposed factors of business management namely tactic, strategy, and innovation.   The three factors are effectively superimposed on each other and simultaneously operate for or against IT/ business alignment depending with the prevailing environment.Lack of effective tactics and strategy by business makes the overall demand for modernization to appear vague (Malcolm & Keith, 2007).   Notably, many companies and organizations especially in areas with reduced competition have been slow in aligning IT and their business operations.Southwest Airlines managing director cited his company's success a s a product of effective tactic that incorporated customer and staff management through information technology that assists the airline to respond faster to all the consumer need.Arguably, the current economic down turn could have affected them very negatively as the company offers low cost flights in US (Ann, 2007).Henersen & Venkartraman (1993) points out that poor innovative capacity by organization forms a major stepping block of growth, and development.   Arguably, alignment of IT and business demands high levels of innovative capacity that carves new ways of operating the old models.This has been indicated as one of the hardest nut to crack especially where leaders are greatly old fashioned.   This has been cited as the major setback especially where people manage their own premises as opposed to professionals. There is generally lack of effective cost benefit analysis to determine the overall suitability of the alignment.Organizations financial abilityTo add to that, lack of enough finances has slowed or hindered many company's operations alignment with IT.   Arguably, establishment of IT infrastructure is a costly venture that requires correct budgeting in effecting the overall venture.Though analysts have differed on the statement that finances form the key aspect in aligning IT and business operations, it is clear that very little can be achieved without enough funds (Aileen, 2008).Though the cost of installation and establishing the correct IT systems in business has relatively declined, the overall maintenance and possible establishment of new IT operations department demands enough funds especially at the beginning.   This has been a major cause of failure especially in the last three years when companies' have are trying to reduce the overall cost as much as possible.ConclusionIT/ business alignment is the best system for modern strategic management for effecting change and maximizing profits.   Effective leadership demands that balance is taken to ensure increased focus into the future that will be defined and established on the basis of IT assimilation in the business.Lean management should be assimilated in organizations through IT and business alignment’s as a mode of reducing the overall wasteful systems in its operations.   Businesses should embark on international studies to establish the facts and the vast advantages that are derived from IT alignment in business management operations.

Annotated Bibliography High School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Annotated Bibliography High School - Essay Example Within the context of the stated, the act of adultery is just an illicit sexual encounter and not one woman's symbolic defiance of society's shackles. Bender critically analyses mood, symbolism and language in several of Kate Chopin's short stories, including "The Storm." As he contends, Chopin carefully selects language, not only to reflect mood but to convey atmosphere. As an example of this, Bender highlights the language used to describe the love scene, illustrating the extent to which it echoes both the raging weather and the storm of emotions exploding from within the depths of either of the two characters. According to Bender, there is an undeniable lyrical/poetic quality to Chopin's writing. Readers may independently arrive at a similar conclusion. A reading of the scene in question indicates that, length-wise, it is really quite sparse but, nevertheless, language selection communicates meaning behind words.

Causes and effects of recession in uk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Causes and effects of recession in uk - Essay Example The causes and effects of the recession should be examined to help scholars and the local population alike come to full understanding of the worsening situation. Historically the UK has experienced recessions five times between 1974 and 1991. In recent times the economy between July and September 2008, there were signs that the UK was entering a recession when it shrank for the first time in sixteen years. In January of 2009, confirmation that the UK was in recession came from the Office for National Statistics after showing that the gross domestic product fell 1.5pc in the first quarter of 20008. Compared to the 1990s when the economy shrank in a single quarter by 1.2pc this recession is considered to be far worse. There are several causes of the recession in the UK. While the world started to experience a recession the situation in the UK was imminent especially when the United States of America started to decline. International trade is one of the factors of the UK recession. As the economic situations in countries begin to worsen trade suffers because governments in taking several precautions do not trade with other countries as they use to thus making the global recession even worse. Consequently, if imports exceed exports this will have negative effects on the trade gap as was experienced in January 2009. The trade gap went up to  £8.3bn. The Office for National Statistics reported that this was caused by falling exports to non European countries especially the United States. Exports to countries outside of the European Union fell by sixteen percent. Economists have predicted that a weaker pound would have a more positive effect but that was not proven to be so. A signal that domestic d emands for goods were also falling was evident in the figures given for the imports of goods. These imports decreased by 1.8 percent to 28.2bn pounds. The credit crunch experienced in the United States of America was soon felt in the United

The Effects of smoking cigarettes Research Paper

The Effects of smoking cigarettes - Research Paper Example Therefore, whatever they do becomes a norm for the fashion conscious lot of the society. Cigarette has lately become a necessary fashion accessory. People visualize it as a symbol of style. There have been cases when models have given photo-shoots regarding the various ways in which cigarettes can be smoked. In addition to looking stylish, many teenagers feel drawn towards cigarettes because smoking makes them feel mature. Teenage is a period when people normally have a desire to look elder and mature for their age. There is enthusiasm about looking grown up and entering into an independent practical life among the teenagers. In order to look mature, many teenagers give the cigarettes a try and then can not retreat from smoking. Smoking is a waste of health, time and money. Smokers should realize how dangerous cigarettes are for their health. This paper discusses some of the ways in which cigarettes cause harm to the smoker. Smoking is a waste of time and money: Smoking is a waste of time and more importantly money. Once an individual starts to smoke, he starts from only one cigarette a day. He thinks that he would not increase the consumption of cigarettes and believes that one cigarette in a day is just too less to cause him any potential loss in the long run. Such misconceptions are further added to by the individual’s smoker peers, colleagues and friends. ... There is no option. Smoke is in the air. Taking this into consideration, the individual approves of smoking one cigarette a day as it helps in the development of a unique bond with the company of smokers. Having smoked, the individual feels better in the company of smokers. Slowly and gradually, that company becomes an important part of the individual’s social life, and the habits of the peers become ingrained in the individual’s personality and psychology. Once the individual gets used to smoking one cigarette a day, there is little guilt over smoking two in the days to follow. This way, the smoker wastes time in smoking with his friends, and also money in buying packs of cigarettes. Cigarettes cause the smoker to take more drugs: Cigarette often stands first in the chain of drugs that people become addicted to in life. The possibility of drug addiction is much more profound in smokers as compared to non-smokers. One of the biggest drawbacks of the habit of smoking is that it saps a smoker’s ability to give importance to health. The smoker becomes so addicted to it that he smokes despite knowing that it is bad for health. Being addicted to smoking, smokers do not realize the gravity of drug addiction, and easily try more potential means of gaining pleasure than cigarette as cigarettes give little to no pleasure or relief to the smokers as compared to other drugs as Heroine. On the other hand, the non-smokers manage to stay away from drugs just like they said â€Å"no† to cigarettes in the first place. Cigarettes disturb the body and its functions: Cigarettes are extremely harmful for health. Smokers have a much higher tendency of acquiring heart and lung related diseases as compared to the non-smokers. Smoking

SURROGATING BODIES, EMBODIMENT OF THEORIES Essay

SURROGATING BODIES, EMBODIMENT OF THEORIES - Essay Example For instance, Hollywood serves as being a good laboratory for social scientists in order to discuss key elements, phenomena and possibilities or potentials of modern society. Similarly we will conduct an extensive analysis and hold relevant discussion especially through Surrogates and at the same time touching to some core concepts of Foucault, Deleuze, Baudrillard, Agamben and Zizek. The study sociology or social sciences particularly in theory form through popular culture is something familiar for the recent history of intellectual production. However, in conjunction with the above mentioned names on a topic regarding body, life and power, it is entirely new in the ground of popular culture and it can cause a productive / fruitful discussion and thinking process if it is taken in an inter-active and trans-disciplinary academic approach. The Surrogates is one Hollywood movie directed by Jonathan Mostow, based on a comic book written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele (Ven ditti and Weldele, 2006). It provides us the opportunity to discuss several sociological-philosophical concepts of critical thinkers in the West.in the same film the near future of the world and society is discussed in the film.at first the film was designed for military equipment and later it became readily available and affordable to members of the public. The technology enabled people to get involve in social life without limit and the users were kept safe from communicable diseases, crimes as well as discrimination, war among others. It was called as â€Å"a revolution in how we live.† Where people could remain their home and vicariously interacted with the real world through their robotic duplicates in other words their Surrogates and regardless of who you are, you could be anybody with these human-like machines. In power and politics, Michael Foucault has inspired critical thinkers and social movements especially from the second half of 20th century until now by showing critical thinkers in the modern sense that power is a biological process and has deep connections on social constructions of â€Å"body†. He further went on by clarifying that body is not â€Å"individual† at all and in modern times it is marked and socialized through complicated and intertwined ways of domination. Reality in the 21stcentury philosopher Jean Baudrillard explained the meaning of reality. His concept was based on accession of real rather than its destruction. He also criticized consumer society and the theory of body and politics. He claimed that, all contradictory currents are integrated in some circuits and transcription. He went further by accepting surrogates ideas by saying that bodies of people have become technical apparatuses themselves. In the invisibility of â€Å"real body† robots have taken places of real bodies, and in his words, they turned into the reality, or there is no reality apart from them. The â€Å"thing† we call bod y today has become a huge brain / mind and the bedroom turned into the skull.In the case of Surrogates, physical body operating in the society is separated from inside entirely and all real or biological body became â€Å"inside† as a closed and invisible unity. This time technologies and their applications do not seem so â€Å"irreversible† at the first sight. The movie Surrogates is maybe a further expression of this

Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (JULPHAR) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (JULPHAR) - Essay Example More than 800 products of the company are in the dosage forms, and few are yet to enter the market. The company employs more than 2800 employees around the world (Kapur, 2014). Turnover reported by the company at the end of 2013 was AED 1.36 Billion. The company reported various growth strategies in 2013. It performed a GCC wide review of its functions and operations. The new scientific office was launched across GCC under the new director. Additionally, the company launched its first manufacturing facility in Ethiopia at Addis Ababa (Julphar Extends its Global Footprint, 2015). This facility is a major part of the company’s international expansion objective and a milestone in its history (About Julphar, 2015). The objective of IAS 1 is to provide the organizations with the basis for presentation of general-purpose financial statements. It is to ensure the comparability of the financial statements of the previous periods and the financial statements of the other entities. IAS 1 is applicable to general-purpose financial statements that are prepared in accordance with the international Financial Reporting Standards. General-purpose financial statements are prepared in order to provide information about the financial performance, financial position and cash flow of the entity that is useful to a wide range of users for the purpose of making economic decisions (IAS 1, 2015). To fulfil the objective, financial statements provide the information about an entity’s: IAS 1 states that financial statements must present fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash position of the entity. This means that the entity should faithfully represent the effects of the transactions, events and condition in accordance with the criteria of assets, liabilities, income and expenses as mentioned in the framework. Going Concern: the conceptual framework requires the financial

What is ethnicity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What is ethnicity - Essay Example Certainly, they often co-exist and it is hardly uncommon that the latter be invoked by the former but, both contemporary and historical events evidence the fact that nationalism can be independent from the nation.2 Not only may feelings of nationalism precede the geo-political realization of the nation, as in the case of Palestine or Kurdistan but it often survives the demise of the nation, as in the case of Armenia, to name but one example. While some scholars have disputed the separation between nationalism and the nation, others have maintained it to be an undeniable reality which is influenced by the ethnic roots of nationalism. Pending the presentation of definitions for both the nation and nationalism, through reference to several examples, this essay will show that nationalism is more ethnic-based than it is nation-based. Some political scientists maintain that nationalism and the nation are inseparable contrasts, wherein the one cannot exist without the other. This is precisely the argument forwarded by Seymour (1999), a political scholar. As he argues, defining the concept of nationalism without first defining that of the nation is nothing other than a futile and impossible undertaking. The nation must first be defined and to this end, Seymour proposes the following definition: "a sovereign state founded upon the will of the people," and an area which a people of specific ethnic origin claims to be theirs and are prepared to defend this claim against any aggression.3 The nation, in other words, is defined in specific geopolitical terms and refers to a well-defined geographic space. That space invokes nationalism, or feelings of pride, often even defensiveness when real or imagined threats are perceived. When invoked by real or imagined threats, whether internal, as in emanating from within that spac e, or external, as in emerging from without it, nationalism tends to assume an ethnic undertone. In such instance, the nationalism becomes ethno-nationalism, leading to the redefinition of the nation in ethnic terms.4 The implication here is that not only are the concepts of the nation and nationalism inextricably linked but that the invocation of nationalist sentiments, of nationalism, is dependant upon the existence of the nation. Should one reflect upon Seymour's definition and argument, however, one will find that it is somewhat self-contradictory. On the one hand, it maintains that nationalism can only be invoked by the nation, following which it proceeds to define the nation as a concrete geopolitical entity. On the other hand, however, it argues that when the nation, that concrete geopolitical entity, is exposed to threat, not only does nationalism become ethno-nationalism but that the nation itself is redefined along ethnic lines. The implication here is that the core of nationalism is not the nation but is ethnicity which, at the same time, is the center-force of the nation. This is precisely the argument forwarded by May, Modood and Squires (2005). As may be inferred from their argument, nations are formed by ethnic communities and are founded upon ethnicity, wherein nationalism becomes the celebration of a particular ethnic or religious group and the nation the space which protects and sustains this g roup. 5 Israel is a case in point. As Yiftachel (2006) points out, Jewish nationalism, sometimes referred to as Zionism, preceded formation of the Jewish nation and, indeed, the nation was predicated upon pre-existing nationalism6 and not, as Seymour (1999) argues,