Monitoring Social Networks:July 11, 2011

No matter what business enterprise I may be involved in, as an employer, I would not view my potential employee’s social network updates. A person’s general character attributes, skills, hobbies and interests can really be truly viewed by personal interview, performance and their work ethics. This should be done through a 90 day evaluation of a person, not a social network. If I base my opinion on what this person does on a weekend or what they post on Twitter, I could potentially lose a great asset to my company simply because I don’t agree with their political, religious or social views on life. Why should I pay a company to monitor this when I am really the only one to form that opinion?

Also, how can these newly designed companies provide employers the true monitoring capabilities that they claim? As an internet savvy potential employee, what would stop me from having both a “professional” twitter and a “personal” twitter or facebook? I could also have an account for business use, knowing these monitoring companies are out there and falsify the content. All the electronic monitoring cannot truly give an adequate picture of a person if they are not true to what they claim to say or post.

Now, from a marketing standpoint, Lets say I am the owner of a large cosmetic or designer shoe company, I would definitely employ a company such as Alterian, that can survey and monitor my client base. Targeting my consumers would enable me to offer enticing product discounts, advertise high end products, and infiltrate the audience with desired items just based on their interests from data collected by Alterian. I could have ads filtered through their pages daily. Think of the thousands of “Kim Kardashian” wannabees out there!! (I know, because I am the proud owner of a 20 year old one)!

Also, the cost of advertising on a social network is also a factor for the owners of these networks. Imagine the thousands of ads flying across the pages of all the mini “Kim Kardashians”! Advertising, monitoring and social network data collecting for marketing purposes is definitely an up and coming lucrative business not only for companies, but for our economy.

Value Chain: July 11, 2011

The value chain consists of a series of activities, that include inbound logistics, warehouse and storage, production, finished product storage, outbound logistics marketing and sales and customer service. By investigating the activity in the chain, you determine how to increase the value perceived by a customer. By adding value to the products, companies ensure success.

My business, called Internotes is a used CD sales establishment that sells to students on campus at a reduced rate.

The value chain for this business is simple. The CDs are the raw materials. The inbound tracking system is the database inventory, the warehouse and storage is inventory tracker, Production_ the copies of cd’s need and/or made can be tracked and added to the database.

Customer services are orders that can be taken and tracked. Marketing and sales are all interrelated and can be targeted to the student body through emails, social networking and external posters, flyers and discount cards. Payment and fund collection monitored through the customer service piece as well. And finally the outbound logistics or shipping of products are the final delivery on campus.

Week 1 Task 2

Choose any specific IS products sold on the market or developed in-house. Then describe its value for the company and describe what parts/processes constitute main systems components as they are shown on fig. 1.3 (p.8).

I am a “seasoned” nurse. Nurses of my generation overall are not computer savvy. We tend to take the paper route with pen in hand because that is how we were taught. New graduate nurses of today are very different. They are computer literate and would prefer a mouse over a pen!
One thing we all have in common is the value of our days off! How many vacation days, how much sick time, and requesting time before anyone else is a priority!
In my facility, we utilize software called API LaborWorkx Suite. API Healthcare is the largest healthcare‐specific vendor of workforce management solutions to the healthcare industry. The company’s staffing and scheduling, patient classification, human resources, recruiting, payroll, time and attendance, business analytics and staffing agency solutions are used by more than 1,000 hospitals and staffing agencies.
API contains a full range of applications designed to address the unique challenges created by a diverse, 24/7 work force. Each application module is fully integrated to provide comprehensive labor resource management system. It directly allows for input by capturing the number of hours each employee works then produce output reports, documents and resulting paychecks from processing the calculated hours of employment It will also provide feedback for checking errors in hours worked, or dollars paid. Each application or module that makes up the suite provides a unique purpose. The Staffing and Scheduling application automatically creates schedules and also checks for employees' approved time off requests and schedules around them. The Self Scheduling application allows employees to create their own schedules. The Time and Attendance application tracks the time an employee works as well as the department and work assignment. The system then calculates the pay, including overtime, shift differential, and holiday pay. Employees can "clock" into the system using their employee badges. Supervisors can monitor employee time cards online and make any adjustments. The Education Tracking application tracks the education requirements for employees and the Active Roster application allows supervisors to monitor when employees actually clock into the system. It compares employee schedules with the actual clocking information, and flags employees who are scheduled but have not clocked in, or have clocked in early or late.
API is a management information and decision support system. It is of benefit to both the institution with its unique monitoring capabilities and to the user for the ability track their time.