ERP Companies

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No two people see the world the same way. We invent accordingly.

HOYA Vision Care of the Americas makes and supplies ophthalmic lenses to Eye Care Professionals located within the United States, Canada, and South American countries. HOYA supplies a complete range of high quality lens designs, coatings and materials.

HOYA is tirelessly pushing ahead with the development of new lens technologies, always offering products with superior functionality and higher quality that further meet customer needs.

HOYA's complete offering of lens products includes the high index materials EYAS™ 1.60, EYNOA™ 1.67 or EYRY™ 1.70. HOYA's Phoenix™ lens material offers the broadest range of consumer benefits - it's safe, tough, light and clear.

HOYA offers superior AR lens performance through SUPER HiVision - the most scratch resistant anti-reflective coating on the market today. SUPER HiVision also automatically includes HOYA's ViewProtect, providing "easy to clean" lenses.

In the area of lens designs, HOYA offers unbeatable products such as HOYALUX iD - the world’s first integrated double-surface progressive lens design.

No matter what the needs of your patient are, HOYA has an unbeatable solution.

Mission Statement

Our Mission is to provide North America's highest quality eyewear and the industry's best customer service, to meet our customer's requirements and exceed their patient’s expectations.

Our Values

Team members who:
-Treat one another with fairness and respect
-Take accountability and ownership for failures as well as successes

A Company that:
-Believes and demonstrates that the customer is of the most importance
-Supports open and honest communications without fear of reprisal
-Celebrates its successes

A Workplace that:
-Provides the tools and resources to provide Great Quality
-Is safe from injuries and pleasant to work in
-Encourages and supports continuous improvement
-Provides training and opportunities for career advancement

HOYA Corporation Worldwide

Creating opportunities and exploiting them.

From our inception back in 1941, the HOYA Corporation has experienced remarkable growth. We intend to continue to expand our horizons in the future to be able to create and exploit new opportunities together with you, our customers.

A flexible global player.

The year 1974 heralded a period of globalization for the HOYA Corporation. Since then factories and distribution centres have been opened worldwide including our acquisition of the Buchmann group, which strengthened our position within Europe, and the integration of the North American market. All of our branches are founded on local and regional circumstances and cultural qualities, by spreading its production capacity in this way HOYA is able to operate flexibly.

It is not just a unique position from which we can provide you with new technologies and products; it is much more than that. It is also the far-reaching support that forms a central part of our working culture. In the meantime, with 46 branches in 24 countries HOYA has carved out a strong position for itself and in the process has become a flexible, global player.

This is the article that was release which is a sub company of HOYA Visions.

PRESS RELEASE - July 2009

Important step in the strategic plan of INDO a sub company of HOYA

Indo has reached a strategic agreement with the Japanese multinational Hoya.
Indo has signed an agreement with its bankers’ pool to refinance up to 85% of its bankers debt.
The Institut Català de Finances has granted a credit of 8 million euros.

Barcelona, 31 July- Commitments completed. This is what the strategic and financial alliances could be considered to be. One year ago, when Juan Casaponsa became the new Indo Executive President, Indo announced that the company initiated a major project of transformation. This project has been materializing in its two main areas: the refocusing on its three business units: lenses, eyewear and equipment, and consolidating and ensuring their financial soundness. Regarding financial soundness, just a year ago Indo made a successful capital increase. Now we can announce the agreement reached with the Banco Santander, BBVA, Bancaja, Banco de Sabadell and Banco Popular Español to refinance, in the long term, around 85% of its debt, which is equivalent to some 35 million euros. Besides, Indo has obtained a loan of 8 million euros from the Institut Català de Finances. These financing agreements underscore the trust placed in Indo’s financial future by financial entities and the Public Administration. The new approach in its three business units began with the Indo-Buchmann agreement of intent to merge their respective businesses of Equipment in order to create the new world leader in machinery. In the eyewear area, last Shareholders’ general Meeting we announced the agreement with McLaren for the design, production and worldwide marketing of its brand eyewear, which collections are avant-garde designed, innovative in materials and high added valued. In lens area, Indo reminded at a Shareholders’ General Meeting, that efforts were being made to strike-up a strategic alliance. The project has materialised with the signing of the agreement between the ophthalmic lenses divisions of Indo Lens Group and Hoya Vision Care. Hoya Corporation is the leading Japanese optical manufacturer and one of the worldwide ophthalmic lenses leaders regarding its business turnover. It also has other business areas such as Information Technology, Medical and Image Systems. Hoya Vision Care is one of its most important divisions, with its head office in Holland, and it is especially known for being a reference in high-index lenses, hardening and non-reflecting treatments for lenses and its products are among the most technologically advanced. This alliance will allow the interchange and supply of technology and of products, as well as collaboration in matters of research and development between the two companies. The agreement, which will be valid until the end of 2015 and which is extendable, states that Hoya will contribute 15 million euros to purchase technology and that Indo Lens Group will buy approximately 25% - 30% of its supply needs each year from Hoya Vision Care, especially in semi-finished products currently purchased from various sources of supply around the world. A key aspect of the agreement is that the two companies will continue to compete independently in all the markets, maintaining differentiated commercial strategies and complete independence in the management of each company. Juan Casaponsa, Indo's Executive President, considers that this strategic alliance will allow Indo “to substantially improve its structure of costs, making the most of synergies in R&D and offering the customer a wider and more innovative portfolio of products. Thanks to the association with Hoya, Indo will also benefit in scale, meaning that it will open the door to increasing its international presence with the entry into new markets". “The initiated transformational approach and the new new strategic business plan, will now be developed in detail once they have secured the foundations”

About Hoya Corporation

Since its creation in 1941 in Japan, Hoya Corporation has been the leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. The Japanese giant company, which is listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has diversified its business areas to also include information technology, medical systems and imaging. With more than 32,000 employees and 100 subsidiaries, Hoya Corporation registered total sales of 454.1 billion Japanese yen in the fiscal year 2009 (04/08 - 03/09). Hoya Vision Care Europe is responsible for the regional management of the Vision Care division, logistics centre, sales and marketing activities, dealing with European subsidiary companies and export activities in Europe, the Middle East and North and South Africa. The Spanish subsidiary company had a turnover of 26 million euros in 2008. About Indo International Indo is a Spanish multinational company dedicated to manufacturing and commercializing lenses, eyewear, sunglasses and equipment for opticians and ophthalmologists. Indo has more than 70 years' experience in the optical sector and is one of the leaders in the Spanish market. The group has subsidiary companies in the United States, France, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, India and Chile and has production centres in Spain, China and Thailand. Indo exports its products to more than 80 countries.

So to define Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. It is a software architecture whose purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. Built on a centralized database and normally utilizing a common computing platform, ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment.
An ERP system can either reside on a centralized server or be distributed across modular hardware and software units that provide "services" and communicate on a local area network. The distributed design allows a business to assemble modules from different vendors without the need for the placement of multiple copies of complex, expensive computer systems in areas which will not use their full capacity.

While SDLC Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a logical process used by a systems analyst to develop an information system, including requirements, validation, training, and user (stakeholder) ownership. Any SDLC should result in a high quality system that meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within time and cost estimates, works effectively and efficiently in the current and planned Information Technology infrastructure, and is inexpensive to maintain and cost-effective to enhance.
Computer systems are complex and often (especially with the recent rise of Service-Oriented Architecture) link multiple traditional systems potentially supplied by different software vendors. To manage this level of complexity, a number of systems development life cycle (SDLC) models have been created: "waterfall"; "fountain"; "spiral"; "build and fix"; "rapid prototyping"; "incremental"; and "synchronize and stabilize".
SDLC models can be described along a spectrum of agile to iterative to sequential. Agile methodologies, such as XP and Scrum, focus on light-weight processes which allow for rapid changes along the development cycle. Iterative methodologies, such as Rational Unified Process and Dynamic Systems Development Method, focus on limited project scopes and expanding or improving products by multiple iterations. Sequential or big-design-upfront (BDUF) models, such as Waterfall, focus on complete and correct planning to guide large projects and risks to successful and predictable results.
Some agile and iterative proponents confuse the term SDLC with sequential or "more traditional" processes; however, SDLC is an umbrella term for all methodologies for the design, implementation, and release of software.
In project management a project can be defined both with a project life cycle (PLC) and an SDLC, during which slightly different activities occur. According to Taylor (2004) "the project life cycle encompasses all the activities of the project, while the systems development life cycle focuses on realizing the product requirements”.

References:
http://www.hoyavision.com/home.aspx
http://linux.sys-con.com/node/160739
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Development_Life_Cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Resource_Planning
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UkGw6w1qSZAJ:www.hoya.be/dn.php%3Fid%3D97394%26m%3D0%26dm%3D1+HOYA+Vision+Project+Plans&hl=tl&gl=ph&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShu0URvoO1EEGlSrwvYAxIIlNYFGVd1tF5ITvyURciqhzMgHZC47WsP0NcklSVqIafVNOZAmnI5JscNw3t1FtsV1TQVweVABfcLVo-3S6qn7Amd48hP0Mw8Wl64mNgusN-hsGd-&sig=AHIEtbTQmSzG2fe01uKDyR-4o-801re00A

Deployment Environment

You were tasked by the IC-dean to evaluate the enrollment system of the university, list and briefly describe the characteristics that an analyst (you) examines when choosing or defining deployment environment.

So basically, my idea is that use open source servers because the primary benefit of open source is that it is free. Also considering the university which lacks in budget allocation should really be advisable to use open source servers. But I’m not against package servers my point only is that we consider the budget allocation of the university. But for me, as to evaluate I think I would use Microsoft package servers because it’s the most commonly used servers. So I basically choose the SharePoint 2007. For organizations preparing to deploy SharePoint™ 2007 or to move from a pilot to full deployment, creating a properly designed environment is critical to the successful deployment of an enterprise business productivity infrastructure. The purpose of the SharePoint Environment Design and Deployment is to create a design and project plan that will meet the organizations requirements and leverages Microsoft and DataLan standards and best practices around the following areas: Physical Architecture, Logical Layout, Security Configuration, Connectivity Planning, Usability Planning, Disaster Prevention and Recovery Planning.

• Physical Architecture – This includes the physical layout of the servers and network elements needed for the SharePoint environment. Physical architecture considerations will include:

o SharePoint Server Farm Topology Configuration
o Third Party and Custom Service Configuration
o Server specifications and allocations
o Network integration points with other systems
o Network entry/boundary points

• Logical Layout – This includes the logical layout of the SharePoint web application and service elements needed for the environment. The logical layout review addresses:

o Web application, site collection and site structure and configuration
o Shared Services and My Site placement and configuration

• Security Configuration – This outlines the security mechanisms that will be employed to control access to the environment and environment resources including:

o Environment access method and AD integration
o Content access, control, and governance
o Security delegation
o Auditing and Policy management requirements

• Connectivity Planning – Details the environment access points and user connectivity methodology and controls. Connectivity planning includes:

o Local connectivity approach planning
o Remote user connectivity approach planning

• Usability Planning – Details the usage for the environment and reviews application needs and plans. Usability planning includes:

o User experience and usage of the environment will be reviewed
o Application planning will be performed in order to identify those applications to be created within or migrated into the environment

• Disaster Prevention and Recovery Planning – Including the protection of the environment from potential service interruptions or loss of data in the event of a disaster. This planning includes:

o Environment disaster methodology creation based on SLA requirements
o Environment backup requirement levels
o Environment Monitoring requirements and solution architecture

The deliverables include:

• SharePoint environment architecture document detailing all aspects of the environmental architecture
• Deployment of the SharePoint environment based on the Enterprise Architecture Plan
o Installation of a SharePoint small or medium farm environment
o Documentation of the installation and configuration of the SharePoint environment

But I’m not closing my doors to any suggestions or alternatives, maybe in my own opinion this is the deployment environment that I would suggest to them to be defined and used.

References:
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx
http://www.datalan.com/Solutions/Pages/Design%20and%20Deployment.aspx

Evaluating DFD Quality

With reference to assignments 8 and 9, what characteristics does an analyst (you) examine when evaluating DFD quality? (1500 words)

Before going to the point I will just discuss about what Data Flow Diagram is:

As information moves through software, it is modified by a series of transformations. A data flow diagram is a graphical representation that depicts information flow and the transforms that are applied as data move from input to output. The basic form of a data flow diagram, also known as a data flow graph or a bubble chart, is illustrated in Figure 1. The data flow diagram may be used to represent a system or software at any level of abstraction. In fact, DFDs may be partitioned into levels that represent increasing information flow and functional detail. Therefore, the DFD provides a mechanism for functional modeling as well as information flow modeling. In so doing, it satisfies the second operational analysis principle (i.e., creating a functional model). A level 0 DFD, also called a fundamental system model or a context model, represents the entire software element as a single bubble with input and output data indicated by incoming and outgoing arrows, respectively. Additional processes (bubbles) and information flow paths are represented as the level 0 DFD is partitioned to reveal more detail. For example, a level 1 DFD might contain five or six bubbles with interconnecting arrows. Each of the processes represented at level 1 is a sub function of the overall system depicted in the context model. As has been noted earlier, each of the bubbles may be refined or layered to depict more detail.

As information moves through software, it is modified by a series of transformations. A data flow diagram is a graphical representation that depicts information flow and the transforms that are applied as data move from input to output. The basic form of a data flow diagram, also known as a data flow graph or a bubble chart. The data flow diagram may be used to represent a system or software at any level of abstraction. In fact, DFDs may be partitioned into levels that represent increasing information flow and functional detail. Therefore, the DFD provides a mechanism for functional modeling as well as information flow modeling. In so doing, it satisfies the second operational analysis principle (i.e., creating a functional model). A level 0 DFD, also called a fundamental system model or a context model, represents the entire software element as a single bubble with input and output data indicated by incoming and outgoing arrows, respectively. Additional processes (bubbles) and information flow paths are represented as the level 0 DFD is partitioned to reveal more detail. For example, a level 1 DFD might contain five or six bubbles with interconnecting arrows. Each of the processes represented at level 1 is a sub function of the overall system depicted in the context model. As has been noted earlier, each of the bubbles may be refined or layered to depict more detail.

Data flow diagrams defined

Data flow diagram is a geographical tool that shows, process, flows, stores and external entities in a system. Dataflow diagram shows the transformation of data into a system. DFD has got the following symbols

Process flow diagrams

Process symbol has got the following entities, process number (tells the number of the process), locality (where activity is happening) and a process name

Data flow datagram process symbol rules

• It symbolizes the transformation of data
• There must be data flowing into/out of the process
• Process can have several inputs to it or output to it
• Process with no out becomes a null process

Data store Symbol

Consist of the following entities, data store number and name of data store. The function of data store is to designate the storage of data in a DFD diagram

Rules of Data store

• DFD data store do not by level but they may reappear incase needed
• The symbol and the numbering remain the same

Data flow symbol

Data flow symbol may appear in different shape and they signify the movement of data. They do not signify the movement of people, goods etc

• Doubles arrows signifies that activities occur at the same time which is wrong
• Data flow in is never equal to data flow out

Extended entity symbol

Extended entity is sources and destination of data. This means that source is the origin and destination is the sink of data

Dos and Don’ts of external entity
• External entity never communicate with each other, this signify that there is no need for the process
• External entity should not communicate directly with data store because external entities can be identifier with the record of files and databases

How to develop Logical data flow diagram

Below are the guidelines in developing data flow diagrams
1. Develop a physical DFD
2. Explore the process for more details
3. Maintain consistency between the process
4. Following meaningful leveling convention
5. Ensure that DFD diagrams clarifies what is happening in the system
6. Remember DFD audience
7. Add control on the lower level DFD only
8. Assign meaningful level
9. Evaluate DFD for correctness

Step in drawing DFD diagrams
1. Make a list of all business activities and use it to determine the various external entities, data flows, process and data store
2. Create a context diagram which shows external entity and data flows to and from the system
3. Do not show any detailed process or data store
4. Draw diagram zero or the next level to show process but keep them general. Show data stores and the level
5. Create a child diagram for each of the process in diagram zero
6. Check for errors and make sure the levels you assign to each process and data flow are meaningful
7. Develop a physical DFD diagram from the logical DFD and distinguish between the manual and automated protocol, describe actual files and report by name and controls to indicate when the process are complete or errors occurs
8. Portion the physical DFD by separating or grouping parts of the diagram in order to facilitate programming and implementation

Advantages of data flow diagrams
• It gives further understanding of the interestedness of the system and sub-systems
• It is useful from communicating current system knowledge to the user
• Used as part of the system documentation files
• Dataflow diagram helps to substantiate the logic underlining the dataflow of the organization
• It gives the summary of the system
• DFD is very easy to follow errors and it is also useful for quick reference to the development team for locating and controlling errors

Disadvantages of data flow diagram
• DFD is likely to take many alteration before agreement with the user
• Physical consideration are usually left out
• It is difficult to understand because it ambiguous to the user who have little or no knowledge

So basically, these are the characteristics that a system analyst must have in order to evaluate the Data Flow Diagram with quality. The system analyst must have a good background of what are the systems that existed and he should also be able to identify what are those processes that a system must have with regarding to the goals of the organization. And also, an analyst must gather important information in order to have sufficient information in making the DFD. And he also must have enough background on what is their business processes. Good communication skills as well as good critical thinking. And lastly, being able to adapt to change, as we all know we are in the fast changing world or era. Well, that’s it. These are the characteristics that a good system analyst must have in order to evaluate the DFD with quality.


References:
http://hubpages.com/hub/What-is-a-data-flow-diagram

Common Frustrations

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

So before I answer the question I will just share some ideas about what are those common frustrations of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan.

Use of technology often has unpleasant side effects, which may include strong, negative emotional states that arise during interaction with computers. Frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety and similar emotional states can affect not only the interaction itself, but also productivity, learning, social relationships, and overall well-being. This paper suggests a new solution to this problem: designing human–computer interaction systems to actively support users in their ability to manage and recover from negative emotional states. An interactive affect–support agent was designed and built to test the proposed solution in a situation where users were feeling frustration.

The agent, which used only text and buttons in a graphical user interface for its interaction, demonstrated components of active listening, empathy, and sympathy in an effort to support users in their ability to recover from frustration. The agent's effectiveness was evaluated against two control conditions, which were also text-based interactions:

1. Users’ emotions were ignored,
2. Users were able to report problems and ‘vent’ their feelings and concerns to the computer

Behavioral results showed that users chose to continue to interact with the system that had caused their frustration significantly longer after interacting with the affect–support agent, in comparison with the two controls.

These results support the prediction that the computer can undo some of the negative feelings it causes by helping a user manage his or her emotional state. Some problems stem from the users’ lack of knowledge, poor training, or unwillingness to read instructions or take tutorials. Often frustration results that from flaws in the computer hardware, software, networking, troubling interactions among components supplied by diverse manufacturers, or the result of malicious actions by other users.

A number of preliminary research steps are necessary to guide developers who are working on the goal of making computer usage less frustrating for users. A first step is to gain a better understanding of what frustrates users of computers. Then taxonomies of frustrating experiences can be developed and means to measure their severity and frequency can be identified. These three steps should lead to solutions with enough supporting evidence so that requests for improvements will be well received by all parties involved. Computers can be valuable tools, and networked resources via the Internet can be beneficial to many different populations and communities.

Many e-commerce and e-business firms today are turning to systems planning and systems analysis. Such analysis provides a broader view of organization catering to system development. System development activity aids in producing information systems solutions and provides a platform for resolving organizational problems using information systems. The paper puts light on objectives, management challenges faced by an organization, and road map indicating direction of systems development.

Another thing working on information systems plan takes patience and perseverance. In order to have a good outcome, IS professionals should do profound analysis and must consider a variety of factors. Without a thorough understanding of the problem and organization’s need the IS plan is intended to solve, and without knowledge of the best practices for organizing the required data, the implemented IS plan becomes an unwieldy beast that requires constant attention. Developing an IS plan is never an easy task. That is why there are methods that IS professionals try to follow and standards they try to thrash out. IS plan should serve the company and the users the way it is expected. Learning from my experience from the previous semester, IS professionals’ task does not end with a scrutiny of the information systems. Indeed, they must evaluate the entire message in terms of coherence, the quality of hanging together in the IS plan. To achieve its purpose, statements must be organized appropriately. They must be ordered in a logical manner and should support the business plan of the organization so that the transition between each one contributes to the overall objective of the plan. After answering the first question, my next purpose is to respond to the next question, “What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?”

According to Freud, it is not simply the nature of the frustrating incident that determines how people will react to it. Rather, there is interplay between the situation and the psychological characteristics of individuals. The level of maturity of the individual also plays a part in the reactions to frustration (Barker, Dembo, & Lewin, 1965). With maturity, there is an increase in the variety of responses to a situation employed by individuals, in the control of the environment, and in their ability to employ problem-solving behavior and plan steps to obtain the goal. It would appear that learning, which is culturally determined, is a major factor in developing socially acceptable responses to frustration.

Frustration occurs when there is a condition, which interferes with or stops the realization of a goal. It makes us feel useless or worthless. Any interruption to our action or task can be very frustrating. Level of frustration experienced by an individual clearly can differ depending on the circumstances surrounding the frustrating experience and on the individuals themselves. There could be so many causes that lead an IS professional to frustration. Same thing happened to me. I made a list of my goals, when and how to attain those goals. I made my own schedule to help me budget my time and succeed in attaining the goals. But then the outcome was in contrast to what I had expected. I thought if I took those actions then all things would go right. This time, I should say that I am not a good planner but I will still keep on trying. I made a realization that the failure was not because I failed to plan and not because I planned to fail but there was something missing and I have to find out what it was. I learned from that experience and I should do the right thing next time.

Going back to the question, I need to identify the causes of frustrations not the frustrations itself. Similar to my experience, IS professionals fail to have a good plan. It might be because they are only focusing on one factor and others are taken for granted. Since we are dealing with information systems, that is why IS planning requires profound analysis and should consider all factors and all the necessary things that would contribute to the improvement. IS professionals may get tired of the unending revisions of IS plan, they should never ignore themselves be dominated by the feeling instead they should keep on working and let the perseverance power over.

My second idea on frequently experienced causes of frustration in IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan is the lack of support from the management or from the personnel. Without the support, the IS professionals efforts would end up in frustration.

New technologies are emerging and old ones are outdated. Many major technologies can have a life expectancy of less than five years. These pressures have resulted in a drive for new approaches to planning and managing information technology (IT) services. That is why many of the organizations right now are having a greater investment in IT and information systems (IS). This is now the moment that organizations would try to hire IS professionals to have analysis and improvement on their information systems to help them compete in the market.

Design systems by IS professionals could also frustrate users in the workplace. Users find it hard to understand and use the implemented system. This frustration can affect workplace productivity, user mood, and users’ interactions with other co-workers. It also can affect their emotional state. These frustrating experiences also harm organizations by undermining productivity, lowering quality, and raising stress levels. Improving user interface design is one clear opportunity and it would benefit many users. To build better interfaces, more user involvement is needed in the interface design process. Designers should follow the interface guidelines that exist. User training will also help, especially if it addresses problem solving strategies that will help build self-efficacy. Even small changes in the interface can make a big impact on user satisfaction. IS professionals should also be better situated as the intermediary and be able to get better information between users and vendors when understanding frustration in the workplace.

Frustration is a natural feeling after all. Even none IS professionals experience being frustrated. It happens all the time when we fail to take the action and/or fail to attain our goals. Our response to it should be adaptive. Adaptive responses are constructive and are implemented to solve the problem that is blocking goal attainment. They may include preemptive efforts to avoid the problem, or once the problem is encountered, problem solving strategies to overcome or circumvent the problem.

And also strategic planning must be inclined with the business plan. Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. According to other source, strategic plan is a document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. It is also a process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans. And according to the project management club, strategic planning is a basic document for planning of different projects and their sub-projects. It is based on the content of the Financing Memorandum (FM) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Matrix attached to the Financing Proposal and translates the two documents into detailed operational terms. A satisfactory strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow managers and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. In align with that, strategic plan must be reliable and suitable for the need of the company.

In doing a strategic plan, it is not really known to everyone that there are frustrations that may trigger. Frustrations in a way that it may cause depression and stress to the professionals and users that are doing it. In doing an Information Strategic plan, it is really a must that the user and the professionals doing it must first determine the company’s background and other facts and information that can help and then again be a useful tool for the planning.

Computing systems this era raises high in a short period of time. Though our country is a 5 year behind than those countries abroad, still using internet is a common tool for someone like in communications. And more likely in a business, it is also a trend of using internet and intranet in their operations since it can help progress their company. Now a day, an even small scale business also acquires using internet and computers for their daily routine. That is because it can help them improve their skills and at the same time it can lessen the work load since using computers doesn’t requires much time. Relatively, why I’m discussing those computer trend marketing in such a way, since that industry now a days is a computer based industry, lot of professionals and users must be aware of using computer in such a way that it is one of the basic tools for doing the planning.

As what I have stated in the first question of this slide, during our Management Information Systems 1, we did a strategic planning in one of the pronounce company in the city today. Not only here in Davao this company well known, also to the other sites of the city. During our discussions with the group, we have decided to have each an individual task. From that then, we can focus on our topic. But that was one of the problems we have encountered.

Misunderstanding between tow parties is also one of the frustrations that IS professionals encounter. That is one of the frustrations we have. We didn’t know what to do and on the other side we don’t know the topics of our other group. At the end of the compilation, the report of one is not related to the report of the other one, and in vice versa. We then realize our mistake after we have compiled the technical paper. So how can we let ourselves give the technical paper to the company we have if there and else we don’t understand what we did, how much more to them. If such case, we are then called to be the professionals who done lousy approach to the planning for the company we are required to have the plan. Then the user also, such a way that there were the people involved in that strategic plan, are then also approach us lousy for the mistake of some persons. Like what I said above, strategic plan must be reliable so that the company must excel in accordance to era.

Another frustration that may trigger in the planning of this IS plan is the time. Time problem is not only for this kind of situation. Even in our other subjects, we do have difficulty in time management. Stress may occur if we hear the word “deadline”. That can cause cramming that can cause also mistakes. Time management may not be a frustration if and when it was been managed accordingly. But also time management requires more budget than of any other. Since this planning is suitable and a provider for the company, there is also a satisfaction that it can really cost big. Like our technical paper before. By committing mistakes, another big cost is at stake.

That frustrations I have stated is only my point of view. Since I have encountered strategic planning before, I have then encountered such frustration things like that. And that frustration I have encountered might then encountered by those professionals.

These are all my opinion about the question so let’s discuss about what I have interviewed which is the Davao Light and Power Company, as what we have interviewed he told us that frustrations based on his experience is that communication, if there is no proper communication its hard to make an IS plan. If no good communication between the management and the IS professional its hard to make a good IS plan. He also told that budget is also a factor if no budget allocation it’s hard to make an IS plan. Time is also a frustration as what he told us that time is gold indeed. So basically, those were the frustrations that he identified and discussed.


References:
Wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustration

Business Plan and IS Plan

The question was what should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan? To answer the question I will need information that would answer the question and thus ill be able to decide in my own understanding what should be the relationship between the business plan and the information systems plan. So first we should gather enough information in relation to the said topic so that we could answer it correctly. To start, I will define what a business plan and what is information systems plan or also called strategic planning.

According to wikipedia.org a business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

While strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ), PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological), STEER analysis (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors), and EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic, Social, Technological, Economic and Legal).

Strategic planning is the formal consideration of an organization's future course. All strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:

1. "What do we do?"
2. "For whom do we do it?"
3. "How do we excel?"

In business strategic planning, the third question is better phrased "How can we beat or avoid competition?". (Bradford and Duncan, page 1).

In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or more typically 3 to 5 years, although some extend their vision to 20 years.

In order to determine where it is going, the organization needs to know exactly where it stands, then determine where it wants to go and how it will get there. The resulting document is called the "strategic plan."

It is also true that strategic planning may be a tool for effectively plotting the direction of a company; however, strategic planning itself cannot foretell exactly how the market will evolve and what issues will surface in the coming days in order to plan your organizational strategy. Therefore, strategic innovation and tinkering with the 'strategic plan' have to be a cornerstone strategy for an organization to survive the turbulent business climate.
So for me the relationship between business plan and strategic plan is this:

• Why plan?
– To obtain resources
• Financial
• Facilities – “Capacity planning”
• Staff
– To align IS with the business
– To identify needed applications
– To establish goals, schedules, and milestones in order to track progress
– To provide an opportunity for communication with top management and user management
• Outcomes vs. process?
• Reactive vs. proactive?
• Planning vs. forecasting?
– Forecasting is predicting the future
– Planning is being prepared for that future

Information Systems Strategic Planning
• Establish a mission statement
• Assess the environment
• Set goals and objectives
• Derive strategies and policies
• Develop long-, medium-, and short-range plans
• Implement plans and monitor results

Establish a mission statement
• These are the services that you are responsible for; it is your place in the organization
• It is not what you are supposed to achieve, it is who you are and what you do in the company

Assess the environment(s) . . .
1. The capabilities of the IT department
2. The readiness of the company to use IT
3. The status of our customers, our industry
4. The status of the economy, government regulations, environment, society, etc.
5. Technology

This is similar to a SWOT analysis – Strengths and Weakness – items no. 1 & 2; and Opportunities and Threats – items no. 3, 4, & 5

Goals and Objectives
• Set goals – what do you want to achieve?
• Set objectives – what are your specific, measurable targets?

Derive strategies and policies
• Strategies for
– Technology focus
– Personnel and career development
– Aligning with the company
– Others . . .
• Policies for
– Funding criteria; how much to spend on IT?
– Allocation criteria; priority setting
– Organizational arrangements
– Use of outside IT services, outsourcing
– Selling IT services to outside organizations
– Others . . .

Short-, medium-, and long-range plans
• Short-range – the next year, the next budget period; developing and operating current systems
• Medium-range – committing to development efforts for applications that will take more than one year to complete; meeting management’s current information needs, projected into the future for as many years as needed to complete them. This is what most organizations call “Long-Range Planning.”
• Long-range planning – preparing for management’s future information needs. These are not application specific; they are investments in infrastructure; it is creating an information architecture.

And finally, implement plans and monitor results.

Business planning and strategic planning are very closely interrelated. Business planning can be seen as an aspect of the overall strategic planning of a company, minutely following in written form all the sides of the business. Also, the strategic planning can be seen from the perspective of the business plan of a company as a delineator of main rough, undetailed aspects.

Strategic planning implies general directions of a business, main strategies, a long-term perspective, for about 2-4 years.

Business plans, on the other hand, state in detail the data of the business from the marketing point of view, from the management and personnel point of view and from the financial point of view. They also contain stipulations for contingencies. They offer a shorter term perspective, for about 1 year.

In a world of an ever increasing competition, less stable and predictable, planning has become more important for managers, conditioning business existence. Times are for thorough analysis of a business from all its perspectives, the difference between an evolving business and a failure depends on this.

Even if inclined to base their actions on immediate-gain grounds, successful business managers have learned to take their time for a prospective analysis. Even if initially starting off their business on a gut feeling, successful talented managers have learned that they have to go beyond the gut feeling, putting together a concrete plan of action, meant to enhance more stability and reduce the tendency of working at random.

Although there are voices saying that most successful businesses did not need a plan to begin with, I would not minimize the importance of a business plan, integrated within the strategic business planning, as every business, be it small or "oversized" will need a plan in a certain stage of its growing. The reason might be not necessarily its founding, but the need to communicate in the business environment — be it raising some money or hiring quality personnel.

Basically we can refer to the strategic business planning through the SWOT analysis used for marketing: analysis and identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors of the business, while opportunities and threats are external factors.

The strength analysis requires a look at the advantages of a business, its strong points and all its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage.
Weakness may be absence of certain strengths. Weaknesses' analysis must reveal where there is room for improvement, what is there to avoid.

Opportunities and threats are triggered by environmental occurrences such as unexplored marketing niche, new technologies, new loosened regulations, identifiable as opportunities or, on the contrary, threats such as consumers' change in tastes away from the firm's products, new regulations, debt or cash-flow problems, etc.

The business plan treats in detail the main directions that the strategic planning settles. If strategic planning provides general directions for the next 2 years, the business plan analysis what the business' characteristics are, how to implement the directions, what will the impact on the market and the potential customers be, the financial side of the action etc., generally all the ins and outs of the matter.
When starting a business online there are some things you certainly want to know and be able to put in place to offer yourself a much higher chance at success.

The first draft of a business plan for an online venture must include the means and targets you are going to use to drive customers to your business that are more inclined to buy.
It makes sense that just being able to send random people to your business is not going to lead to a high percentage of buyers. This is why we target and the internet gives us the easiest way to find our potential customers and put our products or services in front of them without spending a dime.

Advertising online has much more to do with knowing than it does with spending. There are certainly ways you can spend money online advertising and make a very good return. When starting a business and putting together that first draft of a business plan you want to consider these as well if you can afford them.

You key is going to be spending time looking at the searches people are making every day online as they relate to whatever it is your are trying to use as your online business.

If you are selling bird cages you would want to know what searches people are making and in what frequency in order to craft your website and content to attract those people. This is the key to making money online regardless of what type of product or services your new online business is offering.

So basically, the relationship between the business plan and IS plan is that the IS plan is inclined to what the organization or business is aiming at. They should be related to each other to meet a common goal. So basically that’s it.

References:
Wikipedia.org
http://www.businessplanning.ws/learn/business-strategic-planning.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?Starting-a-Business---First-Draft-of-a-Business-Plan&id=3868596