IS and the Business Concept

               It is clear that majority of our economy today is not functional without the use of information systems. Businesses over the years have concentrated on how to improve, take advantage, compete, and communicate better with the use of their information systems today. Most companies would not even exist in its absence, and many jobs globally would not even be available to the numerous business and computer workers. With the creation of information systems, businesses would not have been able to store the extreme amounts of data needed in order to successfully run a business. Information systems calculates everything, from conducting business models and graphs, to even managing a company’s profits and salaries to its workers. And many colleges now offer many programs to expand the study and understanding of this new field of business technology. For example, a web description of some of the offered studies at Albany State University state an interesting fact that, “Shoppers in a store aren’t aware of the inventory applications, pricing software, and databases utilized to keep their shopping experience top notch. Employees in large companies may perform tasks through software designed in house without being aware of all the work that went into designing such software. And, unless an employee is a business analyst, most team members and customers are completely unaware of the massive amount of data needed to keep companies running these days.” [1] As much as consumers, and even some employees involved in the business workforce, are unaware of how information systems even works, more information and data are expanding today to get a better understanding of how exactly it coincides with our economy today.

               “Organizations strive to be market leaders in their given industry. In climates where factors such as recession, inflationary pressures and increased competition can hinder the achievement of this goal, companies look for strategies that lead to competitive advantages. One such strategy is the adoption of information systems within the company. Information systems help a company make adequate use of its data, reduce workload and assist with compliance with various mandatory regulations.” [2] Businesses take advantage of their own information systems by applying it to how their means of business reacts in the open world of the economy among other similar companies. With their calculated data, they research on how to take on competitive advantages over other rivalry companies by studying the countless amounts of data computed from costs, sales, and the end result of their overall profits. Many retailers are adapting to this sense of business today, and applying new technology in their stores and products in helping their information systems to function more accurately. And more importantly, an information system can help a company make better business decisions when studying their calculated data, and thus it will help a business do even better in the long run, especially when it comes to how much funds a business is contributing.

               So what kinds of data does an information system provide for a successful business? For the most part, it provides computed data to make business strategies, predictions, and solutions. And even with the numerous amounts of data that a whole information system can provide, there are still some programs and factors that help calculate the process of finding business solutions. “According to CIO.com, Business Intelligence encompasses software apps that analyze an organization's raw data through data mining (identifying patterns and relationships such as members of the same household), online analytical processing (making comparisons of data on multiple fronts, such as when, where and how items were purchased), and querying and reporting. BI adds business value in many ways, including helping understand customers' buying trends and allowing employees direct and immediate access to run reports anytime they are needed.” [3] With this process, it is more essential for businesses to understand their consumers’ behaviors and to better communicate with them. The online web has already been helpful with the creation of online buying and communicating social network sites to share feedback, and businesses apply some of these other benefiting factors into mind when analyzing their overall data.

               Information systems contained in any field requires much work in updating software, analyzing data, and creating more programs to better run the system overall. In today’s society with the use of these systems, it takes several steps in creating and managing an information system, as well as many qualified computer programmers and technicians to help moderate their systems. Even in major business companies today, they have their own technology departments that consist of qualified workers not even associated in the business field. But they are aware of the business factors that will help a company be successful and they apply major business ethics into creating their own information system. “In a large scale data-centric environment for business information systems, there are a number of factors in the determination of an overall success. Among these are:

Project Management, which includes the overall business information system’s architecture, engineering and deployment with special focus on requirements, schedule, and costs.

Data Management, which includes data architecture, modeling, engineering, and deployment along with evolution and maintenance.

Hardware Management, which includes computing and network hardware architecture, engineering and deployment along with evolution and maintenance.

Business Information System Management, which includes business information system requirements, engineering, design, and deployment along with evolution and maintenance.” [4]

               Along with managing a business information system, part of the managerial process is creating and updating new software to better run a business. Computer technology is getting more advanced these days, which means more companies are accessing and taking advantage of it. With the expansion of this around the globe, it is a fact that there will definitely be competition that will develop among these businesses. But with each individual company’s information system, creating new software will help understand not only their consumers, but will also help prevent future errors such as data errors and software issues that could jeopardize the company’s reputation, and more importantly their business. “Business software is often challenged. According to studies performed by companies such as the Gartner Group, the Standish Group, and IDC, an astonishingly large portion of development projects fail to come up with anything useful at all. An even larger portion is challenged for reasons such as not supporting the business as well as the business needs to be supported. When businesses need to change fast to keep up with customer needs and with competition, software is often mentioned as the show stopper; the software used is often too complex and too unrelated to the business to allow the business to change as fast as necessary.” [5] But with business software to run these systems, it is necessary for it to operate in order for a business to succeed, and success and not achievable without the means of better understanding how exactly this software will help their business in relation to its results out in the economical world. “Business software exists for one reason only: to support the business and its activities, or to help change the way business is performed. There's no other reason for business software. If it doesn't support the business the way the business needs to be supported or help change the business, it doesn't matter how technically brilliant the software is. Its value lies in its capability to increase the productivity and efficiency of the business.

In principle, there are three ways in which business software can support a business and its activities:

1.      A business process improvement project is started to improve the functionality of a specific business process. New or improved software is designed to help improve the way people can perform the business process.

2.      New ways to use technologies become available, making it possible to totally change the way business is performed. For example, Web services have profoundly changed the way a Web shop might interact with suppliers of goods sold by the Web shop. "Web 2.0" might have a similar effect on the way some businesses organize their interaction with customers and partners.

3.      Decision support.” [5]

So why is the information system technology so important to us in the business world? It really comes down to the two most important words in our economy: business ethics. Without business ethics, how would we even know how to succeed out in the world, yet alone make money? Sure, business has been around for many centuries, and some type of transaction between two individuals or companies has been in existence for quite some time. But with information systems applied to long process of making money, the economic system for us today has grown with immense value. “Ethics is another primary area that has been impacted by technology. As more and more technology is assimilated into workplaces, new ethical challenges have emerged that both employers and employees must face. Business processes are primarily connected to information systems and various other forms of technology, and people using automation must act responsibly with the data they transmit as part of their daily tasks.” [6- Page 1]

In conclusion, information systems have played an important role in our technological society today, and more importantly has been a major attribute to the business world achieving success for itself. “Information systems have done a lot more than just expand local markets. They've also affected diversity, ethics and organizational structures. As a result businesses must learn to adapt and embrace these revolutionary changes in order to grow and maintain success.” [6- Page 2] The question we ask ourselves these days is: What comes next? Technology and adaption of information systems will certainly become better for the business and will have room to grow within its domain. But after that is over, what does come next for our economy, or even our way of living? Through the education and better understanding of information systems today, businesses feel that whatever challenges comes their way, they will be prepared.

[1]  http://online.asurams.edu/news/information-technology/reasons-information-systems-are-so-important-in-business/

[2]  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-fundamental-roles-information-systems-business-23681.html

[3]  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/enduser-information-system-improve-business-value-43972.html

[4]  http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/13898

[5]  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266336.aspx

[6]  http://www.helium.com/items/1696597-how-technology-has-affected-businesses

Apps and Services

Applications/Services

1.      CloudOn- This mobile app brings Microsoft services to your phone or tablet (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) and can link with other file services such as DropBox, etc. Users are able to view and create documents such as Microsoft Word, Adobe (PDF), Excel, JPG files, etc. Businesses and their employees can view and edit work files from their phones or tablets, saving them the time from doing all business work strictly on the office computer.

2.      Sparrow- An email system (mobile app) that can enable quick and easy access, as well as provide an organized system of linking and creating email threads for any function or group. Companies can make business emails more exclusive and separate from personal email and spam. Anyone conducting business emails to certain departments of other companies can link emails pertaining to their specific business.

3.      Glyder- This app can quickly send or create any marketing messages and images to any user on their device. Marketing advertisements can also be posted to online social media networks such as FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Marketing developers and companies specializing in their advertising campaigns can transfer and share marketing media through contact lists, address books, and email addresses.

4.      UberConference- Through this mobile app, conference calls are enhanced to bring a visual view to the callers. Linking up with other callers is made easier, and the program provides more personal information about the callers involved through social media networking. Any business conference calls could be enhanced more visually and on the go, connecting with other users outside of the offices. Unlike “Skype”, this app enhances who is currently talking and other listeners on the conference call can search information on the callers listening in.

5.      PlanMaker Mobile- (Android only) Allows Excel files to be opened, edited, and saved from any mobile device. The app displays graphs and spreadsheets clearer, as if it were viewed on any PC. Process of entering data, formulas, and formatting files are enables with this service. Graphs and spreadsheets for any business data can be edited and displayed through mobile devices, thus enhancing this PC process anywhere and anytime on the go. It works well with any business traveler receiving or sending out any of these types of business files to other companies.

6.      Planner Pro- (Apple iOS only) App designed for iPhones and iPad tablets used as an organizational tool help with scheduling, notes, tasks, etc. Program can sync with any other iOS programs containing events and calendars. It contains templates of organizational themes and task tools. This is very beneficial for any business traveler, as well as any business office (secretaries mostly) to help organize meetings, events, and work tasks that need to be prioritized and completed.

7.      The Decision App- (Apple iOS only) An app designed to enhance the process of decision making, providing additional web sourced information and graphs/models to help support each decision. It is very useful for any business applicant, for they can use models such as SWOT analysis and supported graphs to help make decisive business choices.

8.      ProWorkflow- A project management program (Web browser or Mobile) that helps organize any business processes, tasks, staff resources, and helps manage it all in a timely effort. It allows users to connect with other business program software such as QuickBooks and Xero. This program can let any business managers (retail managers as well) to help sort staff directories and help manage any individual business projects, containing resources used and the total time that was spent on each project itself.

Here are the following links I used to research and look up information on each cloud computing program:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3865-20-Best-Mobile-Productivity-Apps-of-2012

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3865-20-Best-Mobile-Productivity-Apps-of-2012/page/2

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3821-19-New-Productivity-Apps-in-Nov-2012-

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3742-18-New-Productivity-Apps-in-September-2012-/page/2

http://www.getapp.com/top-apps

Here is the link for my Zoho Database Table for my Apps/Services:

https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?OBJID=842316000000003023&STANDALONE=true&ZDB_THEME_NAME=blue&DATATYPESYMBOL=false&REMTOOLBAR=true&SEARCHBOX=true&SHOWHIDEOPT=true

E-Commerce: Web or Mobile App?

               E-business, or E-commerce as it mostly known to the world, has revolutionized the way we view, experience, and generate business for our economy today. With the advancement of technology, businesses have taken advantage of expanding their business structures that run their companies, and have transformed everything into a digital, online service. As stated in an article on e-commerce, “Ecommerce was introduced 40 years ago and, to this day, continues to grow with new technologies, innovations, and thousands of businesses entering the online market each year. The convenience, safety, and user experience of ecommerce has improved exponentially since its inception in the 1970’s.” [1] The biggest convenience for e-commerce perhaps is how easy and hands-on it is to use for any user, whether new or experienced to the online world, and very educational to any type of demographic these companies reach out to sell their products. But lately in the past few years, the advancement and creation of smartphones has taken e-commerce to a whole new level of business to consumer productivity. “The growing use of the Internet, tablet devices, and smart phones coupled with larger consumer confidence will see that ecommerce will continue to evolve and expand.” [1]

               Before this new concept had taken over as the new fad of conducting e-commerce, most companies would conduct business transactions to each other over the Internet, or as they call it “Business-to-Business”. This type of e-commerce can be categorized into different sectors of how this process can be utilized in the electronic business economy:

1.            “Company Web sites, since the target audience for many company Web sites is other companies and their employees. Company sites can be thought of as round-the-clock mini-trade exhibits. Sometimes a company Web site serves as the entrance to an exclusive extranet available only to customers or registered site users. Some company Web sites sell directly from the site, effectively e-tailing to other businesses.” [2]

2.            “Product supply and procurement exchanges, where a company purchasing agent can shop for supplies from vendors, request proposals, and, in some cases, bid to make a purchase at a desired price. Sometimes referred to as e-procurement sites, some serve a range of industries and others focus on a niche market.” [2]

3.            “Specialized or vertical industry portals which provide a "subWeb" of information, product listings, discussion groups, and other features. These vertical portal sites have a broader purpose than the procurement sites (although they may also support buying and selling).” [2]

4.            “Brokering sites, that act as an intermediary between someone wanting a product or service and potential providers. Equipment leasing is an example.” [2]

5.            “Information sites (sometimes known as infomediary), which provide information about a particular industry for its companies and their employees. These include specialized search sites and trade and industry standards organization sites.” [2]

Although these types of business-to-business websites are still very functional and useful in the online economy today, many of these functional websites are now being transferred and modernized into the world of “mobile commerce”, which is the process of electronic business functional and processed through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Mobile commerce has made it even simpler for experienced online users to take this advanced concept on the go, where businesses feel it has increased profits for their companies due to the fact that online marketing and advertising is not strictly used just at home anymore. With the popular demand today for smartphones and tablets, consumers are finding ease in purchasing any product or service, where now it is easier to find and the demand is much higher for almost anything these days. But now the question that today’s consumers are struck with when consuming from the online market on the go is: Should I use the company’s website or the application? “The decision to develop a mobile-optimized site or a mobile app can depend on target customers, products you sell, competition, investment required, bounce and conversion rates, and many more. A key consideration is the number of screen formats, resolutions, browsers, and the operating systems that are behind them.” [3] 

Web developers, as well as app developers, are constantly in competition with each other on how much programming is needed to run their program, whereas the more convenient for the consumer will be the program that requires less time to process, containing programming that is also cost effective for the company. It’s certain that with more smartphone users, who use their device constantly wherever they are, are more likely to approach the application method of consuming products. Compared to exploring an online website, mobile applications are not only direct to the company that provides it, but also reduces the risk of viruses and any type of spam media that can easily leak onto any of these public websites on anyone’s computer. In fact, mobile applications today run much faster and smoother than any general web browser installed on smartphones that generate more data usage to consumers. Why use these lagging web browsers when you can download the mobile app for free?

In conclusion, the wide spread of e-commerce has risen to even more opportunities for consumers to experience at their own convenience. Whether it is through website or mobile applications, e-marketing has taken over to our concept of how we act as consumers in today’s economy. “The Internet has raised the bar on consumer expectations. Companies who understand this will succeed, and in turn, provide a Web experience that meets the unique preferences of each of their customers whether they are B2C or B2B.” [4] These companies have expanded their success with growth in profits and expanding online advertising to help boost their popularity, with the updating of technology and new lifestyle of experiencing shopping online. After more years to come with the advancement of e-commerce, it will be interesting to see what the online technology existence has to offer us next, when this era of online marketing becomes an extinct function of business.

[1]          http://www.mivamerchant.com/blog/the-history-of-ecommerce-how-did-it-all-begin

[2]          http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/B2B

[3]          http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3862-Mobile-Commerce-Website-or-App-

[4]          http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/54230.html

Communication and Collaboration

               It’s hard to believe that in only a span of a decade, online communication has taken over as the general form of communicating between any two users. With society adapting quickly to this technological creation, our old form of telephone and post mail have continued to decline in generic communicating. As for businesses, communicating and collaborating through online media and devices have now been the main form of business deals, consumer transactions, and conferencing from business to business. Even in this decade-old technology, there have been new inventions of communication within this field of conversing and exchanging information. “The advantages of Internet-based communications are many. Since you're already paying for an Internet account (or your employer is), you can save money on phone calls by sending someone an instant message or by using VoIP instead of standard local telephone services.” [1]

               Perhaps it all began with the start of emailing and instant messaging. Emailing has been the main source of communication between businesses, and even co-workers within a company. Phone calls take up too much time, and email allows employers to multitask while they’re at work, even if they’re already on a phone call. Instant messaging revolutionized the form of conversation talk between two people, giving it more of a real-time feeling, as if you’re talking to them on the phone. But in today’s business society, majority of all work involves the use of a computer to better accommodate all business when it comes to networking and communicating. Because of the increased use of these methods, the process of interacting with consumers face-to-face has no value at all, and calls for more improved and more beneficial communication between consumers and companies. It is their job to pay more attention on a 24/7 scale of communication, in where businesses most likely now have customer service websites and services to help collaborate with consumers, instead of waiting on the phone being transferred from person to person. “At the same time, the faceless quality of online communication can create hindrances to companies that do much of their business online. As a result, savvy businesses take the time to consider the different areas of Internet communication to ensure that their customers receive the best service available.” [2] Businesses can still demonstrate the same quality they would provide as if it were a face-to-face conversation, with the same qualities and emotions you would show to let the consumer know that you truly care and elaborate the importance of helping them. “While form emails are often essential in companies that do a considerable amount of online business, adding a personal touch to emails also shows customers that the company cares about the business that the customers provide. Delegating a few people – or even a department – to provide personal responses to emails can help customers to see the company as a group of people instead of a large and faceless business.” [2]

               When it comes to good communication, several steps are involved when choosing the right method to communicate a certain business situation. Whether it is customer service through email and customer service websites, or video conferences between two or even multiple companies, today’s vast opportunities of online conversing are easy and accessible to anyone. In an article by Joel Falconer, a freelance writer, he explains how with good online communication comes the process of choosing a medium, its purpose, and how to clarify it. He summarizes this concept by stating, “Running an online business allows you to choose how communication is done, as simple a thing it may seem from a distance. Communication is the thing most businesspeople, including freelancers, end up spending most of the day on. Thus it’s important that you know how you want the communication to happen, how much of it you want to be doing, and how to make sure that communication is both efficient and effective by developing a skill for only communicating with clarity and purpose.” [3] In other words, Falconer is addressing the fact that even online communication can be as boring and useless as if you were talking with the individual in person, thus allowing more time to be wasted either listening or reading any form of message online. With such limited space and time consumed in generating these conversations, there is the process of more work to be accomplished and transacted.

               A strong benefit for companies to communicate with their consumers, or even business to business communication, is the opportunity to provide more additional information to help support their purpose of emails and other forms of messaging. For example, emails can also provide website links that can take the receivers of such emails directly to a helpful source relating to the topic of the email itself. And even the transfer of information and data stored on files is easily manageable for a business to receive and use. But again the wide system and vast openness to online access can have its risks and problems, with the opportunity of viruses and spam to exist in any of these exchanges of communication and eventually causing it to be hacked. And as mentioned in an article by Mark Ramirez, who discusses the importance of good online communication for businesses, adds that, “But when businesses shift from face-to-face customers to anonymous online customers, there is a loss of personal connection and trust. All the online spamming and scamming hasn't helped the matter at all. That has eroded the trust in E-commerce and the credibility of many companies.” [4] The importance of keeping these forms of online communication stay and look professional is just as hard as doing it on paper or even in person, especially on how we speak to our companies and consumers.

               In conclusion, companies over the past decade have economically done very well and have increased their business by transferring everything to online media and communication. The collaboration of their work and success has help companies expand themselves in the world of online marketing. Daily communication, work ethic, and reputation have become a big part to a company’s standards when dealing with these new forms of online communication and collaboration.

[1]          http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2005/internet_communications.asp

[2]          http://smallbusiness.chron.com/internet-business-communication-analysis-750.html

[3]          http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/good-communication-the-backbone-of-an-online-business/

[4]          http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/communication.htm

Web 2.0 and Business to Consumer Relationships

            Since the creation and updated software of Web 2.0, it has caused major changes in the business market and has changed the value of the world’s success in our economy today. After the earlier and first versions of the World Wide Web were created, very few businesses have adapted to the world of online business, or e-marketing, due to the fact that the use of the Web was uncommon and not as educational as it is today to any user. But with the expansion of our World Wide Web today, almost every company is incorporated in some way, major or minor, in using Web 2.0 to run a company’s business.

Companies today using this major computer software have revolutionized their business with consumers, making the economy run much smoother with available and easy access to the business world. As Pete Swabey puts it in an article he had written on this topic, “Web 2.0 replaces the view of a website as analogous to a publication, wherein a trusted source provides information to be consumed by the user, with one that sees websites as tools for structured interaction between people.” [1] It is important that these thriving businesses take part of the social networking era, and enforce this growing power of communication between users to increase their business, as well as improving the company itself. Because of the sudden boom in online marketing, and creation of new technological devices to enhance this business anywhere or on the go, companies are today creating specific departments for this field of business in which these companies set aside funding to better benefit the company. “But other companies, facing an expected cut in IT budgets, are excited by the prospects of equipping end-users with the power to write their own applications with freely-downloadable tools and components.” [2]

With the increase of online users sharing information with Web 2.0, there unfortunately come risks and problems pertaining to the control of this creation of online technology. In an article by Patrick Cunningham relating to issues and risks of Web 2.0 and the involvement of cloud computing, he states and lists several factors of why these functions for any user are not as sufficient and secure when applying any information online. His article contains the following reasons:

1.      Information is more difficult to monitor and secure.

2.      Service interruptions are outside the organization’s control.

3.      E-discovery is more difficult without physical access to storage media.

4.      Data available for forensic examination is lost when data is moved from local storage.

5.      They do not allow systematic control over creating, storing, or deleting information.

6.      Lack or loss of connectivity prevents work for those depending on them.

7.      Their casual nature may blur the line between business and personal use. [3]

As Internet connectivity becomes more advanced with more creation of wireless networks, either public, or private, the security of sharing online information is at times uncontrollable. When it comes to the Internet and its connections, the processes and input coding to form any of these IP connections can possibly be taken advantage of by unknown users, considering that the data is the same language in creating any Web 2.0 connection to users. When it comes to the creation of anything these days, there are always risks and consequences to be involved. As for businesses, the risk that they take is having their industry viewed by anyone, including their competitors, which makes e-marketing and advertising on the Web more of a competition for any two businesses alike.

               As businesses today take on the new challenges and options for Web 2.0, they are also in the process of not just learning it for themselves, but they are also educating their consumers on how they function with this new technology and how they can adapt to it the same way. It is the goal to retain their consumers by expanding the education of their business and how they can be helpful to better anyone’s needs. Some companies have seen the sharing and feedback of consumers to be cost effective, instead of previous methods of reaching out to their customers. In an article from The Wall Street Journal, they say interview several marketing managers from smaller companies, with one example stating that, “as a way to obtain consumer feedback and ideas for product development, the online community is much faster and cheaper than the traditional focus groups and surveys used in the past. The conversations consumers have with each other, he adds, result in "some of the most interesting insights," including gift ideas for specific occasions, such as a college graduation, and the prices consumers are willing to pay for different gifts.” [4]

Such examples of consumer conversation and sharing information online include web devices sites such as blogs, wikis, and forums. The articles includes, “Similarly, a large technology company uses several Web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration with both its business partners and consumers. Among other things, company employees have created wikis -- Web sites that allow users to add, delete and edit content -- to list answers to frequently asked questions about each product, and consumers have added significant contributions. For instance, within days of the release of a new piece of software by the company, consumers spotted a problem with it and posted a way for users to deal with it. They later proposed a way to fix the problem, which the company adopted. Having those solutions available so quickly showed customers that the company was on top of problems with its products.” [4]

In conclusion, Web 2.0 has been a beneficial factor to the successes of many companies, and it has increased their markets to the World Wide Web. Perhaps Web 2.0 to them is a new way of communicating, or telemarketing, with the advantage of letting consumers use their own personal time, unlike wasted and unexpected time on the phone or in person, and learn more with this easy access technology. And now with the future updates and creation of Web 3.0 as stated by some of the articles I have researched, the jump from one to the other would need to have a major differential benefit in order for any user, or businesses in this case, to keep up with any changes that may seem logical and better than Web 2.0.

[1]          http://www.information-age.com/channels/information-management/features/650221/web-20-in-business.thtml

[2]          http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Web-20-What-does-it-constitute

[3]          http://content.arma.org/imm/JanFeb09/Walk_In_The_Cloud/web_2.0_issues_risks.aspx

[4]          http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122884677205091919.html#

Database Research

              As I have mentioned in my introduction profile assignment for this course, one of my hobbies and interests in my life is collecting music. My favorite genre and study of music is film scores. Like some other genres of music, it has a vast history and extremely large library of music, but is considered one of the biggest libraries for music in general. I have spent about ten years collecting and organizing my collection of film music, with downloading and purchasing music from various websites. Two of the biggest issues and tasks of my database are updating new music and finding track information.
              The database I use is iTunes, which is probably the biggest and most used database for any music library. Although some of the music is from iTunes itself and easier to organize, for iTunes provides all details of their tracks, many of my tracks are incomplete with details due to the fact that they come from other sources. Over the course of my collecting, I have tried to retrieve information through various film music websites and even movie database websites, particularly IMDB.com. But I have even come across problems where some of these database websites do not have everything I am looking for. With any type of database, the challenge comes in continuing to update the newer materials, while at the same time researching the very rare and old material. But as I continue to organize my library using iTunes, the database system it provides has helped me very much in researching information, as well as providing tools in the program to help identify the details of incomplete music tracks.

1. In an online article written by Carol Francois discussing the advantages of DBMS, she states that, “There are five major advantages of DBMS or database management systems: data structure, authorization control, processing speed, modular development, and independent back-up functionality.” [Francois 1] In my certain situation, the one major advantage that is compatible to my organizational system is data structure. iTunes has an extremely organized structure, and it even gives you choices on how you want the structure of your music information accumulated to make your music search in the database easier to your own use. One challenge the program has is tagging and adding detail information for each track. This portion of the iTunes database system is called metadata. “Metadata is essentially a portion of information that is attached to a file (beyond the file name) that determines how that file is treated by its file system. In our case, the metadata of our music files will dictate the way they’re organized into folders in Finder (more on that shortly) as well as how they’re displayed for us within iTunes.” [Danielson 1] Even with the process of using metadata for iTunes, further research is needed to fill in the required data from outside sources, and the more detail there is for each track the more organized the database will be.

2. The iTunes database, provided by Apple which is probably the leader in any technology field in the world, definitely since the creation of their database has been the competitive leader in the music market. Microsoft has over the years attempted to imitate the same system as Apple, but have failed. They are still in the works of producing a similar database that provides more options and features that Apple’s iTunes does not offer. The competitive advantage is that it is one of its kinds to all music listeners, and no other databases are available. Using the concept of non-price competition, the name of the database itself makes it a world-wide leader in the music database market. It also is the type of database that is simple and easy to use for all music listeners of any age. As Francois states, “It is very common to have different access levels built into a database system, and a DBMS makes this very easy to manage. Access can be defined at the data table level. If the user does not have access to a specific table, they cannot run any query that uses data from that table. Control at this level is easy to maintain, and preferable to setting the access at the individual reporting level.” [Francois 1]

3. The biggest improvement that iTunes can achieve is the detailing of providing information to each individual track. Although there are programs out there outside of iTunes that can attempt to provide track details with tagging and coding, it would be a lot simpler if it was done within the database itself. iTunes has a few features and tools that attempt this process, but most of the time it either takes too long or fails to provide the information. The program needs to update itself to have tools to research older music, as well as music that are rare to the iTunes store and library. This improvement can also benefit in transferring music from other hardware devices such as CDs, external drives, and DVDs. In an article discussing issues with iTunes and how it can improve, Martin McBrown states several points and questions; “If the music is old though, then iTunes starts looking for the IP address (not the name) of the server on which the volume used to reside. Now I can, kind of, understand why it does this, but why does iTunes wait around for a minute expecting this machine to answer? Ignoring this annoying aspect, if iTunes retains this specific information about where the file is located, how is it able to find the file when I mount a volume with the same name? If iTunes wants to be so specific about where the file is located, why does it ignore that information when it first looks for the file? Of course, there’s no way of block updating the information so that it always looks at the new location. Nor does iTunes intelligently update its database when it plays the file and discovers it on a different server (but same apparent volume) than that registered in the database.” [McBrown 1]


Works Cited

Danielson, Scott. "How To Clean Up Your ITunes Library." Mactuts RSS.com.  Envato, 19       July 2012. Web. 06 Jan. 2013.  <http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/media/itunescleanup/>.

Francois, Carol. "What Are the Advantages of DBMS?" WiseGeek.com.  Conjecture, 2003-2013. Web. 06 Jan. 2013.  <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-advantages-of- dbms.htm>.

McBrown, Martin. "ITunes Database Issues." GigaOM.com. GigaOM, 13 Dec.  2005. Web. 06 Jan. 2013. <http://gigaom.com/apple/itunes- database-issues/>.

Social Networks Expanding Consuming

              With all of the social media networks available online to every computer user, it has certainly grown in the past few years with its success and popularity. As it was first used to be an ideal use of conversation between others, today it is much more than that and now has numerous functions for the social networking user. As we started off sharing information on each other as individuals, these networking sites are now the source of gaining information on businesses. As a business proposal, I think that these businesses with more to come should provide their services in these social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. The idea is to make these companies offer the service to these networkers of browsing and purchasing their products, directly through the networking websites. It may sound complicated at first, but the main focus of this proposed idea is to offer direct business to online users while connected in these social networking websites, more specifically Facebook.

               Facebook, with already providing advertisements and company group[ pages for people to “like”, can go even further by having these companies provide the opportunity for these users to purchase right on the spot. Why waste time going from link to link and making things more difficult? In this case, you can simply view the products on Facebook, and eventually purchase them right then and there. But why offer this directly on a networking site? Think about it. First off, millions and millions of online users are everyday networking on this website commenting, chatting, and sharing ideas and feedback to each other. You can simply apply this concept when someone you know or don’t know makes a purchase. Perhaps the sharing of this purchase all over Facebook will not only interest others, but will boost the advertising part of a company just by having their name, product, and service provided exploited all over the website.

               The advantage of creating this idea is to not only save time for consumers, but to share with other consumers. Every day, there is a great chance of seeing someone on your news feed when you first log into Facebook posting a status about an experience of purchasing a product or service. Their story that is shared in a public environment can be viewed and discussed as positive or negative. But people reading these posts wonder what the product or service they bought was or what the experience was like. Someone might think to themselves, “Well, what about me?” With this new proposal, the entire shopping experience can be seen in full detail, from start to finish, and can shared by all of what was involved and what the outcome was. Businesses would be exploited more, and would certainly make more profits with the help of growing in popularity. This could also be an advantage for businesses with very weak online websites where consuming, or even browsing, is very minimal. With the success and growth of this proposal, companies will be better known worldwide, and soon enough a purchase could be made with a simple “Tweet.” 

Hardware and Software: How it can relate to Mobile Business

             Businesses today are adapting more to our increase and improvement on technology. Specifically, a lot of companies are transporting their business on the go and are being transferred through the world of mobile devices. This means more work to be done out of the office, and some of that work being collaborated with the process of the office’s information systems themselves. The main piece of hardware that makes all this work is the central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is what makes our computers today function with its power, speed, and control of transferring data from one place to another. Finance and stock companies, for example, take advantage of CPUs processed in their machines to help them calculate and predict statistics and trade information, a task that is too much for the human mind.

 But with CPUs processing and transferring data, certain computers and processors have limits to their storage capacity, also known generally as a byte (B). The bytes represent all of the characters and coding that make up simple items or images, which eventually combined result in creation of computer programs. Some companies use more bytes than others, depending on how much computer usage and information they acquire to meet their business needs. Another piece of hardware device that helps businesses transfer these bytes of information are solid state storage devices (SSDs). In the past few years, businesses and everyday computer users transfer their information and files mostly through a universal serial bus (USB), which is a little memory stick varying in different memory sizes that has made such hardware memory storage devices such as CDs and DVDs closer to being completely extinct from the computer world itself. Whether in an office from one desktop to another, or even out on the road for the typical business traveler, these little memory stick makes business life a lot simpler. With the increase of online business flow, multiprocessing comes into the picture when computer technology for companies increases.

Parallel computing, when several processes are linked together and work with one another at the same time, will save time for offices to compute their work. Going through each process individually will take much longer, for some of these operations by the CPU are somewhat impossible for the human mind. Office programs, now being used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, can now calculate data and produce it to the viewer in various forms of computer data, such as images and spreadsheets, to further complete them into business presentations. But as CPU technology expands, there is more room and risk for computer viruses and software bugs to conflict with mobile businesses. Grid computing can help resolve these computer errors when multiple computer systems together operate to solve a common problem. Many software companies, with their programs used every day by these businesses, often send out updates to their programs for any problems interfering with their programs processing. With grid computing, businesses can benefit from it because of its low cost and not spend too much money on more processors to help resolve these issues. The idea of having one giant grid computer system primarily to act on these problems will create a steady flow of these computers to succeed for these mobile businesses today.