The Possibility of Extra-Terrestrial Life Research Paper

The Possibility of Extra-Terrestrial Life - Research Paper Example Cox and Rees begin to contemplate the possibility, the arguments in favor of life beyond the blue planet tend to gain more credibility. However, the question is not about which side of the argument has greater credibility or even about getting the majority to agree with or refute the theory. When the issue in question has to be proved or disproved, only conclusive evidence should be included. Speculations, whether educated or misinformed, are still speculations only. In the absence of verifiable, conclusive proof, the status quo remains unchanged. Extra-terrestrial life cannot be assumed to exist till such irrefutable evidence is presented. This paper seeks to substantiate this claim by first discussing expert opinions on the issue, and how despite their scholarly backing the opinions remain speculative; then, by exploring how alleged encounters with aliens are possibly nothing more than psychological condition; and finally by looking at the implications of this kind of unrestrained speculation. Apart from the opinions of the scientists mentioned in the introduction, experiences of other experts who have dedicated their careers to researching this possibility are well-documented. Jacques F. Vallee in his paper â€Å"Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects†, advances alternatives to the two conclusions that either Ufo does not exist or if they do, they must necessarily be from outer space. In the summarization of his arguments, Vallee declares: (1) unexplained close encounters are far more numerous than required for any physical survey of the earth; (2) the humanoid body structure of the alleged "aliens" is not likely to have originated on another planet and is not biologically adapted to space travel; (3) the reported behaviour in thousands of abduction reports contradicts the hypothesis of genetic or scientific experimentation on humans by an advanced race; (4) the extension of the phenomenon.

Rolling Over the Native Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Rolling Over the Native Culture - Essay Example From this paper it is clear  being able to hunt and make war are only two aspects that any culture faces in their day to day life. Art was an area that had a proud European tradition and it was also celebrated by the Indian tribes of North America. However, there were vast differences in the intent of the art and its use. European art was, for the most part, reserved for the elite. Music was seldom heard outside of aristocratic circles or in formal settings. It had little if any relevance to the average European and performances were routinely commissioned by the wealthy. However, Native American music was offered at tribal ceremonies and was a part of their traditional activities. This was due in part because of the difference in the instrumentation involved. While Europeans used complex and highly engineered instruments and compositions, Natives would use simpler forms.  This discussion highlights that the visual arts also had stark differences. Once again, the Europeans looked on art as the property of the elite. Works were commissioned and the practice and appreciation for art was left to those considered worthy. The subject matter generally had no real relationship to the average man. Often the works would become the property of a church or monarch. Here they were kept from view for many that resided in the countryside, or were that barred due to status.  The Natives, in contrast, had a rich tradition in art with a more meaningful use.  ... This gave the Indians the ability not only to hunt, but also to garner respect from their neighboring tribes. In fact, the Montana Historical Society Museum has over 1000 firearms from this period, one of which is Sitting Bull's 1866 Henry repeating rifle ("Museum Collections"). This is evidence of the high desire for European weapon technology and its great importance to both sides. Another important item that was provided by the Europeans was the horse. The Spanish introduced the horse to North America in the 16th century. The horse was a superior tool for the Native Americans as it provided them with much greater mobility, allowing the Indians to travel greater distances and expand their territory. It provided them with a more effective way to pursue their prey on a hunt and greatly increased their opportunity for survival. Horses were also desirable in waging war. The horses brought from Europe would serve the mounted cavalries of the U.S. Army as they pushed the Indians westward. The repeating rifle and the horse, though often misused, were indeed icons of European superiority. The Arts Being able to hunt and make war are only two aspects that any culture faces in their day to day life. Art was an area that had a proud European tradition and it was also celebrated by the Indian tribes of North America. However, there were vast differences in the intent of the art and its use. European art was, for the most part, reserved for the elite. Music was seldom heard outside of aristocratic circles or in formal settings. It had little if any relevance to the average European and performances were routinely commissioned by the wealthy. However, Native American music was offered at tribal ceremonies and was a part of their traditional

Implementation At Indo Rama Synthetics Information Technology Essay

Implementation At Indo Rama Synthetics Information Technology Essay Before the year 2000, at INDO RAMA SYNTHETICS LTD., individual department worked independently to achieve its predefined corporate objectives. Every department used different tools and software. For example, the production department used MIMS software, accounts department used FoxPro and KICKS for its functionalities, while marketing department used tools which were not robust enough to support overall marketing functions. Lots of paper work in Human resource management was mind boggling and time consuming. This lacked inter-departmental coordination and hampered information sharing. For example, a department found it difficult to know about the stock kept by another department even in times of urgency due to lack of information. Inventory management always plays an important role in manufacturing industry, Indo Rama wanted to handle it more effectively. All these were the matters of concern for a company aspiring to be the best in its business globally. There was a need of cross-fu nctional and business process integration. So that company could react to changes in the market and economy in the most effective way. To overcome such problems, Indo Rama decided to go for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The company decided to implement ERP from SAP (System Application Product). Indo Rama has been on SAP ERP platform since 2000, one of the earlier companies in India to migrate to the SAP platform. Also, recognizing core competence principles, the company outsourced its IT functions to ACCENTURE TECHNOLOGIES LTD., a global outsourcing firm, in July 2001. Accenture provides IT infrastructure management for all company locations, all legacy systems and ERP. All locations are connected on Wide Area Network (WAN) to the central server located at Butibori, Nagpur. INDO RAMA SYNTHETICS LTD. has implemented four major modules in SAP ERP: Sales Distribution (SD) Finance Costing (FICO) Material Management (MM) Plant Maintenance (PM) All major sites have been fire-walled; all locations have anti-spam and anti-virus software installed. The ERP and the internet have clearly defined password, tables of authorities and levels of access. Indo Rama Synthetics has also launched an intranet facility, Antarnaad, where internal policies, notices and other relevant organizational information are stored. Other application software that are in operation at Indo Rama include the Leave Management System, EMIS (where management reports for various levels are generated) and an auction site for vendor management. For its communications backbone, Indo Rama uses a Virtual Private Network (VPN), through which all locations are linked. The company has adopted Outlook Express for mail communications with a Linux-based back-end. During 2007-08, the IT team at Indo Rama undertook several projects. The key ones are detailed below. IRSL IRPL merger project Indo Rama Synthetics Ltd. has merged Indo Rama Petrochemicals Ltd into itself. The necessary changes needed to integrate the two entities in the ERP platform have been completed. Data Center The company built a new state of the art data centre at Butibori, Nagpur. All servers, the WAN and other network equipment are housed in this data center. The data center has been protected against unauthorized access and potential mishaps. Biometric security systems ensure that only authorized person can enter and access the data servers. Sophisticated systems have been installed for fire detection and suppression, water leakage, rodent damage and variations in ambient temperature and environment. Data backup of the SAP system is taken on tapes attached to SAP servers. One copy of the tapes is stored in a fireproof safe at data center and another at a location away from the factory. Every month, a set of tapes are also sent to the New Delhi office for safe storage. Packing System The legacy packing and recording system, which records the carton / box information and prints the labels, was on a FoxBASE database management system. This application has been converted onto an Oracle platform with enhanced features and functionality. Attendance Tracking System An attendance tracking system is installed at each department, which read the finger print responses of the employees every time they enter or leave the premises. It reduces the paper work and man power required to track the attendance. Significance of the study A Study was carried out keeping the functional working of IT department in view and its integration with other departments. Working and spending time with major departments helped us in drafting this report in the context of over all company objectives and strategies that necessitate a holistic approach cutting across various functional areas Marketing, Human Resource, Operations, Finance and Business environment. By implementing SAP ERP modules, manufacturing companies can attain Cross-Functional and Business Process integration required for information and data sharing across the organization. These functionalities save resource, cost and valuable time enabling the company to react fast enough to changes in market, competition and economy. Introduction Company Profile The journey of Indo Rama group began with the establishment of Ashok Textiles Limited, Nepal in year 1969. Indo Rama Synthetics ( I ) Ltd. as a cherished dream of Mr. O. P. Lohia (Chief Managing Director, IRSL) came into inception at Pithampura, Indore in year 1989. Indo Rama group have its subsidiaries in Indonesia, Srilanka, Malaysia, Nepal and India. ISO9001, 9002 certified Indo Rama, is among the leading producers of polyester with its products namely Poly Staple Fiber, Partially Oriented Yarn, Draw Textured Yarn, Fully Drawn Yarn and Polyester Chips are exported to Germany, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Italy. Company believes in product technological advancements and is under technical collaboration with USA based DuPont and Japan based Toyobo. It uses most sophisticated machines from a German manufacturer Barmag and USA based Chemetex Intl. Indo Rama is highly committed to environmental regulations and best practices. Its priorities include minimizing waste, recycling, reusing effluents, controlling emissions, and plantation. The company invests significantly to reduce workplace accidents and ensure safety. Housing colonies, schools and health centers are built by the company as a part of corporate social responsibility. Objectives of the study To understand IT infrastructure management and study SAP ERP modules Material Management, Sales and Distribution, Order Processing, Financial Management, Plant Maintenance at Indo Rama Synthetics Ltd. Study shall help Indo Rama by providing the preliminary work, steps and evaluation required to go ahead in integrating the existing and proposed initiatives, through IT infrastructure management and SAP ERP modules. Study shall help in understanding the importance of Cross-Functional and Business Process integration by adopting IT tools and functionalities, so that manufacturing companies can react fast enough to changes in the market and economy. Brief description of the concepts ERP: An overview In the manufacturing industry, MRP (Material Requirement Planning) became the fundamental concept of production management and control in the mid 1970s. At this stage BOM (Bill of Materials), which is purchase order management that utilizes parts list management and parts development, was in the mainstream. And this concept (MRP) unfolded from order inventory management of materials to plant and personnel planning and distribution planning, which in turn became MRP-II (Manufacturing Resource Planning). This incorporated production management, financial accounting, human resource management, sales and distribution management functions and management accounting functions. It came to globally cover all areas of enterprise mainstay business and eventually came to be called ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning covers the techniques and concept employed for the integrated management of business as a whole, from the viewpoint of the effective use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. ERP packages are integrated software packages that support sales management, production management, accounting and financial affairs. ERP System Manufacturing Inventory Management Sales and Distribution Finance Human Resource Logistics Management Operations Quality Management ERP Implementation: Its relevance The basic idea of ERP is to assimilate companys data at some central location or repository where it can be checked, matched, and shared across the organization. This data is then used for resource planning within the organization in conjunction with the decision systems. Here, INDO RAMA SYNTHETICS aimed at eliminating wasteful duplication of data with the help of ERP. There are various techniques to improve production and efficiency across an organization such as Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma Quality, Employee Involvement, Factory Automation, etc. These are excellent tools with enormous capabilities to support the business. But one can not achieve the full potential of business with these tools and technique unless they are backed by proper IT strategy, which helps in effective forecasting, planning, and scheduling process. ERP implementation is derived from factors such as the cost benefit analysis, decision making through pros and cons, defining performance goals, data integrity issues and solutions, defining operational environment and software selection. Business planning, strategy development Budgeting and forecasting Production plan and programme Material requirement Work load calculation and resource planning Monitoring operations and overall execution Performance measurement, learning and feedback Figure 1: ERP-related process in manufacturing industries. Mapping IT strategic initiative to ERP A few essential steps should be taken while deploying ERP in business process: Visualization: Visualization of need for ERP and impact on production and organization. Strategy formulation: Formulation of a strategy for ERP implementation and the need for the organization to respond to the changes. Planning of resources: Planning the resources and the overall business. Structuring and prioritization: The structuring of the organization and objectives along with prioritization of business initiatives needs to be outlined in detail before embarking on ERP. Transition: The organization ought to be readied for its transition to ERP paradigm. Deployment: Deployment of the system and new technologies. It also includes deployment of new tools. A proper ERP system selection and implementation helps the management to a large extent. There are various phases in the lifecycle of ERP; the major parts of which are planning, implementation and operation phases. IT enables communication between various parts of ERP and establishes an integrated ERP system. Understand the product requirement Solution planning Design phase SLA presentation and acceptance Implementation, testing Delivery Operation Plan Implement Operate Figure 2: ERP project life cycle implementation Supply Chain Management Supply chain management (SCM) refers to the coordination of activities involved in making and moving a product. SCM encompasses planning and management of all the activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with the extended organizations and channel partners, who can be suppliers, intermediaries, third party service providers, and customers. SCM integrates and act as a balancing agent between supply and demand within and across companies. SCM brings value to business in terms of innovation, service, cost, and quality. Innovation: It brings value on table through unique technology or new conceptual products. Innovation gives an organization a competitive edge over other competitors. SCM helps in this process by allowing/producing optimal volume (raw material or products) and also by increasing efficiency, thereby ultimately reducing the time to market. Cost: An efficient operation with better resource management reduces the overall cost. Service: Better service can always attract customers. It is definitely a competitive advantage and SCM fundamentally contributes to it by its very nature. Quality: The quality strategy dictates production of the best-in-the-class products. SCM can also contribute to it through quality control and excellence in production. SCM, ERP and IT Infrastructure are inter-related. ERP begins with the Material Requirement Planning as depicted in following figure. Using intranets and extranets, all members of the supply chain can instantly communicate with each other, using up-to-date information to adjust purchasing, logistics, manufacturing, packaging, and schedules. A standard set of tools that are used by companies all over the world to coordinate global supply chains that include participants from many countries. Following figure explains intranet and extranet for SCM. Figure 3: Intranets and Extranets for Supply Chain Management Intranets integrate information from isolated business processes within the firm to help manage its internal supply chain. Access to these private intranets can also be extended to authorized suppliers, distributors, logistics services, and, sometimes, to retail customers to improve coordination of external supply chain processes. Inventory and Purchasing Management system MRP (Material Requirement Planning) ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) ERP and SCM within the organization ERP and SCM across organizations Figure 4: Evolution of ERP and SCM The ERP functions from the perspective of supply chain optimization are shown in following flowchart. Overall process optimization Expense optimization Revenue and Profit optimization Logistics optimization Knowledge optimization Figure 5: ERP optimization at various stages of supply chain The business value of supply chain management systems includes: Streamlined supply chain and accurate information. Reduced supply chain costs. Increased sales through accurate product availability. IT plays a very important role in developing various functionalities and building an integrated system. Following figure highlights IT components in ERP, IT infrastructure and resources in SCM. The SCM planning is the input for ERP. Operating system Data warehouse Retail Link Data, account, analysis Forecast Inventory plan ERP SCM Manufacturing planning Feedback S E R V E R S Intelligent Systems Internet Figure 6: ERP, IT Infrastructure and resources in SCM Customer Relationship Management Customers can be seen as an enterprises most valuable asset, and customer relationship management enable large firms like Indo Rama Synthetics to understand and work with their customers. CRM can also be called a business strategy to select and manage the most valuable customer relationships. It supports effective marketing, sales and service processes. CRM is the process that manages the interaction between company and its customers. With the advent of sophisticated relation databases and data-mining techniques, CRM has enabled Indo Rama to specifically target customers to determine what products, services and values they want. CRM necessitates the alignment of initiatives such as e-business, sales force effectiveness, customer service, customer relationship planning, enterprise resource planning, and supply chain management with customer-accepted value propositions. But to enable CRM to meet the business objectives, it should be backed by IT strategies. The most telling benefit of IT-powered CRM is Return on Investment (ROI). The ROI from CRM typically comes in two forms. The first is cost reductions from increasing the efficiency. For example, when customer data helps an inside sales team maintain productivity levels with fewer resources, cost reductions do result. When the sales agents in the field spend less time manually entering data into slow legacy systems, companies do save time and money. CRM systems capture and integrate customer data from all over the organization, consolidating the data, analyzing the data, and then distributing the results to various systems and customer touch points across the enterprise. A touch point (also known as a contact point) is a method of interaction with the customer, such as telephone, e-mail, customer service desk, conventional mail, Web site, or retail store. CRM systems provide a single enterprise view of the customer and provide customers with a single view of the company regardless of the touch point the customer uses. Figure 7: Customer Relationship Management CRM systems examine customers from a multifaceted perspective. These systems use a set of integrated applications to address all aspects of the customer relationship, including customer service, sales, and marketing. Good CRM systems provide data and analytical tools for determining the financial lifetime value of a customer and customer loyalty and for identifying profitable customers and their needs. Commercial customer relationship management (CRM) software packages range from niche tools that perform limited functions, such as personalizing Web sites for specific customers, to large-scale enterprise applications. The more comprehensive CRM packages contain modules for: Partner relationship management (PRM): PRM software uses many of the same data, tools, and systems as customer relationship management to enhance collaboration between a company and its selling partners. It provides a company and its selling partners with the ability to trade information and distribute leads and data about customers, integrating lead generation, pricing, promotions, order configurations and availability. Employee relationship management (ERM). ERM software deals with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training. CRM typically provide software or tools for: Sales force automation (SFA): SFA modules help sales staff increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most profitable customers. They provide sales prospect and contact information, product information, product configuration capabilities, and sales quote generation capabilities. Customer service: Customer service modules provide information and tools to make call centers, help desks, and customer support staff more efficient. They have capabilities for assigning and managing customer service requests and may include Web-based self-service capabilities. Marketing: Marketing modules support direct-marketing campaigns with capabilities for capturing prospect and customer data, qualifying leads, and scheduling and tracking campaign mailings. They include tools for analyzing marketing and customer data-identifying profitable and unprofitable customers, designing products and services to satisfy specific customer needs and interests, and identifying opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling, and bundling. Cross-selling is the marketing of complementary products to customers. Up-selling is the marketing of higher-value products or services to new or existing customers. Bundling is cross-selling in which a combination of products is sold as a bundle at a price lower than the total cost of the individual products. Figure 8: How CRM supports Marketing Customer relationship management software provides a single point for users to manage and evaluate marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including e-mail, direct mail, telephone, the Web, and wireless messages. The major CRM products support business processes in sales, service, and marketing, integrating customer information from many different sources. Following figure includes supports for both the operational and analytical aspects of CRM. Figure 9: CRM Capabilities CRM software can also be used to increase customer loyalty through customer service by identifying valued customers and providing them with special services or offers. Following process map shows how a best practice for promoting customer loyalty through customer service would be modeled by customer relationship management. The CRM software helps firms identify high-value customers for preferential treatment. Figure 10: Customer Loyalty Management process map Thus, the business value of CRM systems which benefits companies includes: Increased customer satisfaction Reduced direct-marketing costs More effective marketing Lower costs for customer acquisition and retention Increased sales revenues through identifying profitable customers Reduced churn rate: The churn rate measures the number of customers who stop using or purchasing products or services from a company and is an important indicator of the growth or decline of a firms customer base. Order Processing As soon as the clerk enters the order into the system, system checks the inventory records and finds out whether the items are available or not. If the item are available, procedures are triggered automatically that will inform the people in the sales and distribution department and the finance department. The information will contain the details of the items to be shipped, the most economic route to the customer and so on. Also, the system will trigger procedures in the financial module so that the invoices are sent to the customer. The information is transferred Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) and the payments are received electronically through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). If the items are not available, then the production-planning module makes a production schedule, which is made available to the production, materials management and plant maintenance modules so that everybody is prepared to start production as per the production schedule. The material requirement planning is done and any item that is not in stock is ordered. If the supplier is connected to the company, the ordering and the associated processes happen electronically. The plant maintenance gets the list of machines required and ensures that all of them are available. Thus, the production of the item goes on without any hitches. An order entered into the ERP system by the order entry clerk triggers a whole lot of procedures and automatically performs a host of functions. All these processes take only a few minutes to complete. ERP in Order Processing After the order is received, within a very short period of time the goods are on their way to the customer. If the goods are not readily available, the customer is informed about it and is given the delivery schedule. Other than the order entry clerk and the people in the distribution, production and maintenance departments, all the other tasks are done by the system and that too automatically. In a non-ERP environment, these tasks could take days or even weeks to complete. Since the ERP system stores all the data in a central database and since the database is updated by all the modules on a real-time basis, the information available in the database is up-to-the minute. This integration of the different business functions and the automation of the business processes and the availability of information is what make the ERP systems capable of producing dramatic improvements in productivity and profitability. Following flowchart explains the order process: In stock? Finished Goods Inventory No Order Production Planning Material Management Production Plant Maintenance Sales Distribution Finance Invoice/Bill Yes Figure 11: Order Processing in an ERP System Finance and Costing The financial application components of the ERP solutions work hand-in-hand to improve the bottom line and the financial goals of organizations. Financial functionalities are integrated across all business areas and all geographic areas. This integration includes all other modules, from material management to human resources to logistics. Because the ERP system automatically links related areas, it eliminates the need to repeat procedures. Data is entered only once. Within the ERP system, all areas work in concert, creating a new level of efficiency in handling financial data. The financial modules of most ERP systems provide financial functionalities and analysis support to thousands of business in many countries across the globe. These ERP systems include not only financial application components, but also Human Resources, Logistics, Business Workflow and links to the internet. Financial modules of most ERP systems will have the following subsystems: Financial Accounting: General ledger, Accounts Receivable/Payable, Special Ledgers, Fixed Asset Accounting, Legal Consolidation. Investment Management: Investment Planning/ Budgeting/ Controlling, Depreciation Forecast/ Simulation/ Calculation. Controlling: Overhead Cost Controlling, Activity-Based Costing, Product Cost Accounting, Profitability Analysis. Treasury: Cash Management, Market Risk Management, Funds Management. Enterprise Controlling: Executive Information System, Business Planning and Budgeting, Profit Center Accounting. Purchasing (Quantity, Value) Sales (Order, Bill) Vendor (Payable) Customer (Receivable) Fixed Assets Employees (Salary, Wages) GENERAL LEDGER Figure 12: General Ledger in ERP Financial Module. Material Management The Material Management module of ERP optimizes all purchasing processes with workflow-driven processing functions, enables automated supplier evaluation, lowers procurement and warehousing costs with accurate inventory and warehouse management and integrates invoice verification. The main modules of Material Management module are: Pre-purchasing Activities: This system supports the complete cycle of bid invitation, award of contract and acceptance of services. The pre-purchasing activities include maintaining a service master database, in which the descriptions of all services that are to be procured can be stored. Requirement Calculation Requisition for Quotations Quotation Evaluation Vendor Selection Vendor Ratings Contracts Figure 13: The Pre-purchasing activities module Purchasing: Purchasing system performs tasks like procurement of materials and services, determination of possible sources of supply for a requirement identified by materials planning and control system or arising directly within a user department, monitoring of deliveries and payments to vendors and so on. Vendor Evaluation: Vendor evaluation component has been completely integrated into the Material Management module. Information such as delivery dates, prices and quantities can be taken from purchase orders. Vendor evaluation also uses data from Quality Management, such as the results of incoming inspections or quality audits. It also access basic data in Material Management, such as goods receipt data from Inventory Management. The Vendor Evaluation system supports the optimization of the procurement processes in the case of both materials and services. It provides accurate information on prices, terms of payment and delivery. By evaluating vendors, company can improve competitiveness. Inventory Management: Inventory Management system allows company to manage its stocks on a quantity and value basis, plan enter and check any goods movements and carry out physical stocks reflect all transactions resulting in a change in stock and thus, in updated inventory levels. The user can easily obtain an overview of the current stocks of any given material. For each material, not only are the stocks in warehouse shown, but also the stocks ordered but not yet delivered, reserved for production or for a customer, and the stocks in quality inspection can be monitored. The stocks are managed not only on a quantity basis but also by value ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­-a prerequisite for cost accounting. With every goods movement, the following values are updated: Stock value for inventory management Account assignment for cost accounting Invoice Verification and Material Inspection: The invoice verification component provides the link between Material Management module and the Financial Accounting, controlling and Asset Accounting components. Invoice verification in Materials Management serves the following purposes: It completes the materials procurement process-which starts with the purchase requisition, continues with the purchasing and goods receipt and ends with the invoice receipt. It allows invoices that do not originate in materials procurement (for example, services, expenses, course costs, etc) to be processed. It allows credit memos to be processed, either as invoice cancellations or discounts. Sales and Distribution A Sales and Distribution module will contain the following subsystems: Master Data Management: Every company will have products, customers, and will require raw materials and will have suppliers. The task of the Master Data management module is to keep information about all these entities, so that these can be made available to the decision-makers and also for the automatic generation of reports, contracts, invoices and so on. Order Management: This module includes Sales Order Management and Purchase Order Management and supports the entire sales and purchase processes. Warehouse Management: Components of a good Warehouse Management application include following: Inventory Planning: It comprises all planned inventory movements, which enable the accurate forecasting of trends and the consequent adjustment of reordering points, safety stock, lead-times for orders and service levels. Inventory planning also allows the commitment of inventory to a specific customer order-so that customer receives the right order in the right quantity at the right time. Inventory Handling: Allows for monitoring of all warehouse order scenarios such as receipt, issue and transfer of inventory. To ensure fast communication with suppliers and customers, advanced shipping notifications can be received or sent by means of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI),

Christianity vs. Islam Essay -- Christianity Islam Compare Contrast E

Christianity vs. Islam Christianity and Islam are two of the world’s largest religions. The two are different in beliefs but are similar in origin. Like many religions both Islam and Christianity claim to be the one and only true way to God. Although Islam and Christianity differ in major ways, they also share some similarities. Islam teaches that in order to achieve true peace of mind and surety of heart, one must submit to God or â€Å"Allah† and live according to His revealed Law. Being a Muslim requires willful submission and active obedience to God and living in accordance with His message. Conversely, Christianity does not teach absolute submission to God, but teaches that man is sinful and can never inherit eternal life in the presence of God as a result of the sins of our first parents, Adam and Eve, as well as our own personal sin. Therefore it became necessary for God to become man in the person of Jesus Christ, who as the Son of God was sinless and unblemished. His purpose was to suffer and die in atonement for the sins of all whom accept his sacrifice for sin. Muslims believe all of God’s prophets, who include Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad brought the same message of Pure Monotheism. For this reason, the Prophet Muhammad was not the founder of a new religion, as many mistakenly think, but he was the Final Prophet of Islam. The Qur’an, the Muslim Bible, is believed to be the last book of God sent to mankind. This is believed to have been given t...

How do bacteria affect human lives? Essay

Bacteria interact and are a constant in our day to day lives, perhaps more than suspected. Bacteria are often thought of as bad, however this is untrue, there is also many types of ‘good’ bacteria. ‘Good’ bacteria can benefit us by simply helping our digestive system work and helping us in the process of fermentation. Bacteria are extremely helpful in the production of many things such as fuel and medicine. But bacteria directly affect our production of food which, therefore, directly affects us. Without bacteria we wouldn’t have things like; cheese, sour cream and yoghurt. Bacteria are extremely helpful in the dairy industry as it works within food as a decomposer. Bacteria is needed in cheese as a starter culture, the culture grows in the milk, converting the sugar, lactose, into lactic acid giving the cheese the correct amount of moisture and the correct acidity. Cultures are also used in yoghurt, where it does a similar job as the one done in cheese. The culture is responsible for its taste, texture and once more, its acidity. The viscosity of the yoghurt is determined by its quantity of polysaccharide chains. Food products other than dairy which use bacteria in their production are; wine, dried meats and health food industries, where yeast, lactic bacteria and starter cultures are used. Bacteria doesn’t stop helping us with food there, some bacteria defend against harmful bacteria and aid digestion. These are all examples of bacteria benefiting human life. Bacteria even help destroy toxins and help the immune system mature (1)! However they’re bad bacteria often found in foods, products like milk can contain less beneficial bacteria which can be harmful. Most bacteria in milk comes from the skin of the cow and in production, however healthy cows equal less bacteria. This means in third world countries such as Uganda, where they often use unhealthy cows and goats as their main source of milk, more bacteria is likely to be within the milk making some ill and passing on disease. In places such as Britain, the milk goes through many processes making sure all or most harmful bact eria have been removed. An example of when bacteria are really not that beneficial to our lives is  disease causing bacteria. Bacterial pathogens can cause things like salmonella (food poisoning). Bacteria can also cause diseases like Cholera. Cholera is a huge killer, killing 120,000 a year and making many others extremely sick. Its bacterium is Vibrio Cholerae which is often killed by acidic conditions in the stomach, where the hydrochloric acid and digestive juice stay. Vibrio Cholerae is often taken in to the body through the ingestion of water contaminated with faecal matter containing the pathogen and rarely the ingestion of food, also containing faecal matter with the pathogen. Carriers then carry the pathogen; therefore it is able to spread making it very deadly. Unfortunately, cholera has few or no symptoms, so it is hard to tell if someone has Cholera meaning it sometimes spreads unnoticed. A symptom which can be linked with cholera is diarrhoea, meaning many carriers are often left being severely dehydrated. The amount of deaths that Cholera causes really reflects on how much this disease affects our lives. In 2010 and 2011, certain areas went through the major cholera epidemics, these were; Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central Africa and the Pacific region with Papua New Guinea. The major cholera epidemic started in Haiti in October 2010, and it also affected its close neighbouring country, the Dominican Republic. At the end of 2011 (when the outbreak was still ongoing) there were 522,335 cases of cholera and 7001 deaths had been reported by the 25th of December in Haiti (2). Another example of bacteria benefiting us is bacterial vaccines. Bacterial vaccines are full of killed or attenuated bacteria. It seems crazy to inject bacteria which cause very harmful diseases into the body; however since they are dead they are not able to harm the body. But they do activate the immune system as it recognises it as foreign so it has to attack the bacteria. The immune system starts to produce antibodies for that particular bacteria and these build up and build up until there is enough to destroy the bacteria, this bacteria and antibody is then are remembered by memory cells meaning that next time they are infected with that bacteria the immune system instantly recognises the bacteria therefore killing it straight away, preventing the disease and preventing the same bacterial infection later. One example of a bacterial vaccine is the Tuberculosis vaccine (3). The BCG vaccine is the most common vaccine. It gets to over 80% of all new born  children in the countries which are part of the national childhood immunisation programme. In 2011, in the countries who were hoping to vaccinate each and every child, the levels of use of the vaccine ranged from 53% in Equatorial Guinea and 54% in Ethiopia, to more than a much larger 99.5% in India and China, two largely expanding countries (4). The increase of vaccinations in poorer areas of the world has lead to a much higher life expectancy, greatly affecting our lives. Bacteria are majorly affecting every single one of us in our lives, from common colds or to making cheese. The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria help and harm us. Overall, bacteria affects our lives more than any other and are highly beneficial and dangerous. References (1) – http://www.effca.org/content/bacteria-food-production (2) – http://www.who.int/gho/epidemic_diseases/cholera/epidemics/en/ (3) – http://www.drugs.com/drug-class/bacterial-vaccines.html (4) – http://www.tbfacts.org/bcg-tb-vaccine.html (5)

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Essay

The two poems I am comparing; â€Å"Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat† by Thomas Gray and â€Å"To a Mouse† by Robert Burns were both written in the eighteenth century, which makes it interesting to make a comparison of their content, style and techniques, to see how poems of the eighteenth century differ from each other.  Both of the poems feature an animal as the main subject of the poem. In Gray’s poem he has a house cat as the main focus of the poem whilst Burns dedicates his poem to a field mouse. Both these animals come to an unfortunate end. The cat due to curiosity â€Å"tumbled headlong† into â€Å"a tub of gold fishes† This supports the well known phrase â€Å"curiosity killed the cat† In the poem it refers to the cat as actually loosing 9 lives: â€Å"Eight times emerging from the flood  She mew’d to ev’ry watry God†.  No one arrives to save her:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr’d :  Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heared†.  The dolphin is included in the list of possible rescuers because it is a reference to the classical legend of the harpist, Arion, being saved by a dolphin which had been entranced by his music, much in the same way the cat wanted to be saved by someone who heard its meowing.  Ã‚  In Burns’s poem the mouse unlike the cat does not actually die, but it is made clear that the prospects for the mouse are bleak due to its home being destroyed by the plough and the fact winter is coming and the mouse has no time to build another home for itself: â€Å"Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,  But house or hald,  To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,  An’craneuch cauld!†Ã‚  The poems are both basically about a particular ill-fated animal but each has a deeper meaning and message through anthropomorphism.  The cat in Gray’s poem is given feminine characteristics: a â€Å"fair round face† illustrates the ideal image of an eighteenth century woman’s face. Gray also uses metaphors to describe the cat which also apply to a lady’s jewels and adornments: â€Å"The velvet of her paws,  Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,   Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes.†Ã‚  In verse four the comparison of the cat to a woman is made even clearer:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"She stretch’d in vain to reach the prize.  What female heart can gold despise?  What cat’s averse to fish?†Ã‚  It is clear here that Gray is illustrating how women are seduced by the desire for gold as cats are seduced by the desire for fish. The anthropomorphism continues in verses 5 and 7:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Presumptious maid† and  Ã¢â‚¬Å"From hence you Beauties, undeceiv’d  Know one false step is ne’er retrieved†.  The last lines of the poem contain a moral:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Not all that tempts your wand’ring eyes  And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;  Nor all that glisters gold†. Through the cat Gray created a cautionary tale specifically aimed at women. It’s a warning not to be tempted by what is not rightly theirs, and not to be seduced by glittering appearances because it may not be as good as it looks on the outside.  Gray is very direct with his message of warning to women but he writes in a light-hearted way throughout. However, Burn’s poem is much more serious and sombre. He uses anthropomorphism like Gray to get his message across through an animal, in this case the mouse is used to highlight the social and moral problems that he felt existed in both the public and in his own family – His father died after eighteen years of hard work as a farmer. After his father’s death they had little money, leaving them no choice but to sublease a farm in order to keep their home. These experiences were brought through in to his poem when the mouse had its home destroyed by the plough:

Essay On Leadership and Strategy Evaluation Essays

Essay On Leadership and Strategy Evaluation Essays Essay On Leadership and Strategy Evaluation Essay Essay On Leadership and Strategy Evaluation Essay Definition Of a Leadership It is widely accepted that leaders play a critical role in organizations and communities. However, the definition of a leader has been controversial. According to Locke (2009), leadership is defined as a process that involves inducing others so that they can take action whose end is the achievement of a common goal. To Locke and Sadler (2003), leadership incorporates three elements: a relational concept, a process, and an action. Leadership does not exist except when one is talking about the relation with followers. The absence of followers implies the absence of leadership. When defined in relational concept, effective leaders have been described as those who are good in inspiring and relating to their followers. Leadership has also been defined regarding a process in that for one to be described as a leader, he/she must do something. To proponents of this theory, leadership involves more than just holding a title or any other position of authority. However, although a formalized po sition of authority can exist to facilitate a leadership process, Locke argued that simply occupying such a position is not enough to make one a leader. A leader is also required to induce others to take some form of action, and a leader can employ various approaches to induce their followers to take some action toward a common goal. Some of the approaches leaders can employ to induce his followers to take action include modeling by setting an example, organizational restructuring, communicating a vision, legitimate authority, team building, goal setting, and rewarding and punishing (Locke, 1999). It has been argued that the way leaders implement plans, provide direction to their followers, and motivate their people to varying from one leader to another thereby resulting in various leadership styles. Some of the leadership styles include autocratic, Laissez-Faire, participative, transactional, and transformational (Johnson, 2017; Northouse, 2012). Johnson (2017) described participative leader as one who employs a democratic style of leadership. Such leaders value input from peers and team members. However, the responsibility of making the final decisions rely on the leader. On the other hand, transactional leaders provide either rewards or punishments to peers or team members according to their performance results. Transformational leaders, however, rely on a high level of communication to their team members to meet their goals. Such leaders motivate their followers or employees and enhance efficiency and productivity through a combination of high visibility and communication. A transformational style of leadership requires that the management is highly involved in the achievement of the organizational goals. Leaders who employ transformational leadership style focus on the big organizational picture and delegate smaller assignments or tasks to the team members to accomplish so that they can achieve the overall organizational goal (Johnson, 2017). Northouse (2012) added that transformational leadership involves a process where the leader engages with followers and creates a connection that boosts not only the level of morality but also the level of motivation for both the follower and the leader. He further pointed out that transformational leaders are attentive to the needs as well as motives of their followers and strive to make sure that their followers reach their fullest potential. In the case of Booker and Newark residents (Cohen, 2014; Russakoff, 2014), Booker strived to ensure that the people of Newark access the best education system in the coun try. He wanted to make Newark public school system to be a model of how best public schools should be run in the country. Bookers idea was to transform one of the worst performing public education systems to be the best it can be in the whole country. His chances of success in this endeavor were going to be influenced by many factors. Organizational Performance Improvement Leaders not only have a potential to improve organizational performance but also a failure of organizations to achieve their performance goals. A study of leadership styles suggests that leaders can influence their organizations in various ways. Choudhary, Akhtar, and Zaheer (2013) examined the influence of two comparative leadership styles on the outcomes of organizational performance. Their findings suggest that transformational leadership has more influence on organizational learning than servant leadership. The researchers further found out that a higher level of organizational learning is responsible for a higher organizational performance. The authors then suggested that leaders can choose a style of leadership that can help them to achieve what they want to achieve in their organizations. Their results are similar to those of Noruzy et al. (2013) who also found out that transformational leadership has a strong influence on the organizational learning as well as knowledge manag ement. Transformational leadership style also has a huge impact on the innovation within an organization. Overall, the researchers findings revealed that transformational leadership has an influence on the organizational performance. Leaders who wish to enhance their organizational performance can, therefore, opt to choose transformational leadership style. Although a lot has been studied on how leadership can influence organizational performance, Peterson, Smith, Martorana, Owens (2003) argued that leaders are also responsible for the failure of their organizations. According to the authors, leadership personality is one of the factors that can determine organizational success and organizational failure. They pointed out that if the top leadership personality is bad, the organization can increase the chances of organizational failure. However, if the personality of the top leaders in an organization is appropriate, the organization has an increased chance of succeeding in its miss ion. Newark schools had been performing poorly for a very long time. Booker had noted declining performance and had yearned for a time when he can intervene. His time to transform the poor education system of Newark came after his election as a mayor for Newark. The Newark education system was in a crisis. In situations of crisis, leaders emerge. Leadership involves motivating others toward a common goal. In the context of Newark education system, the common goal was to improve the declining academic standards and create a national model on how to overhaul an entire school district. As a leader, Booker believed that he was the much-needed leader to lead the Newark out of the education crisis. Booker had a vision of turning Newark education system to be the best in the country. Booker noted that to succeed in turning his vision into reality, one of the most critical resources was funding. Consequently, as a determined leader, he sought funds from philanthropists to help him achieve his vis ion. After communicating his vision for Newark, many philanthropists donated their money to help Booker realize his vision. One of the people who was attracted by Bookers vision was Mark Zuckerberg who donated his $100 million to help in the transformation of the Newark education system (Russakoff, 2014). After obtaining sufficient funds, it was time to implement his vision to bring an overhaul of the education system. Although Booker had demonstrated exemplary leadership skills and transformative ideas about the Newark education system, he failed to realize that implementation of a vision requires the cooperation of more people than financiers. At some point, Booker was reminded by Zuckerberg to choose a competent leader who can become the Superintendent. As a good leader, Booker need not be reminded about the need recruit a person to lead the change or the characteristics of a person who could help transform the failing education system of the Newark. Zuckerberg idea to Booker was that he should choose a transformational leader as an assurance that the vision of transforming the Newark education system was going to be successful. Booker had spent a lot of time looking for the funds, but he dedicated little time in investing in proper leadership structures. For example, he should develop a sound leadership structure that was going to work with him to implement the vision. A sound leadership struct ure would have helped him to plan how the funds would be obtained and how it would be spent. Furthermore, the leadership structure would have devised better ways in which the funds obtained was going to be effectively utilized. Booker had a very weak leadership structure. He only managed to appoint Superintendent in a hurry. Although Anderson, the superintendent, demonstrated that she was up to the task, still there was a lot of weakness in the overall leadership structure. Anderson manner of engagement won the hearts of many people suggesting that she had good leadership skills. However, Anderson came without an agenda but a clear vision. According to her, the most important thing was to define success, and she found it as something simple. This is a further indication of poor leadership in the transformation process. This was demonstrated in the manner in which the decisions were made. From the given information, there was poor decision making in matters pertaining the education s ystem of Newark. Booker and Anderson made key decisions without making a second thought to find out if they were going to work or they were going to face some challenges. Throughout the, there is no evidence of the presence of a sound leadership structure. Newark Education System The promise of $100 million gifts was made by Zuckerberg. However, several months later, Booker, the Senator, and Christie, the governor had neither a good transformational leader not a reform plan for the education system. This demonstrates a leadership ineptitude since both would have nominated people they were going together early so that they can prepare reform plan as a team. In fact, it was not until Zuckerberg send a mail to Booker that he began to search for competent superintend. Although Booker had sold the vision to the people, people only realized that the plan to overhaul the Newark education system was just good only on paper. According to the critics of the transformation plan, the solutions were poorly thought out, and they could make negligible positive impacts on the education system. The education programs that were going with the new education system had not been developed while transportation was not even fully tackled. Further, things that were initially promise d were never realized. Bookers idea of educational transformation in Newark failed because of lack of clear strategy. There was too much focus on securing financial assets but little time was devoted to organizing a strong team that was going to draft a working strategy. Not only did Booker and Anderson failed in the development of a sound leadership structure but also in their approach. Booker and Andersons approach suggest that their ideas were final. They believe that the ideas they had were the one people had been waiting for. The two leaders forget the importance of involving those whom the change was going to affect: stakeholders. Following the lack of the major stakeholders, there was weak support from the public. The best approach would have been to make the people of Newark also own the process of transformation by giving them a chance to contribute toward the transformation process. For example, there was a need to inform the people about the need for the change, how the change could be brought about, and who were going to be affected by the change. The strategy employed by Booker and Christie was a top-down approach where there was minimum interaction with the members of the public. And when the public was involved, it was later in the stages of the implementation. For example, a community advisory committee which was to help in the implementation of the N ewark transformation plan was created two years after the money had been released when most of the money had been spent on teacher contracts and charter schools. This implies they were created at a time their contribution to the effective management of the funds were no longer important.; The case of addressing Newark;s school;s problems give an excellent case on leadership practices, traits, team leadership, and organizational elements that were responsible for the overall outcome of the process. Through their practices, leaders can shape the outcome of the organizational goals. For example, Booker had a good vision of transforming Newark poorly performing public schools to charters. He believed that by converting a public school to run charters independently, the performance would improve. According to the Leadership Challenge (2017), five practices of exemplary leadership include modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging others to act. Booker modeled the way by coming up with an idea of transforming Newark schools. He identified the problems facing public schools and the advantages that can be gained by changing public schools to charters. He also identified the challenges of running chartered scho ols. One of the great obstacles was funding. Through his practice of shared vision, Booker sold his idea to many people especially the corporate philanthropists who were willing to make a change in Newark. Booker;s inspired others by selling his vision, and in the process, several philanthropists including Zuckerberg contributed the necessary finances that were needed to achieve the vision of education excellence in Newark. Booker knew that transforming the public schools to charters was not an easy process because not all people share the same idea. However, he went ahead to challenge the process and introduce the changes anyway. This is where he went wrong. Instead of seeking the participation of many stakeholders including the members of the public, Booker seemed to push the idea on the people through Anderson. Consequently, he receives little public support during the implementation of his strategy. He would have succeeded if he had sought public support before introducing the c hanges. The people need to understand why the changes were necessary and how the changes could benefit them. Further, they would have also felt proud by owning the process of change. One of the practices of exemplary leaders is also their willingness to enable others to act. To implement his ideas, Booker knew that he needed people to help him. As a result, he appointed Anderson and gave her all the necessary support to ensure that the plans were implemented successfully.; Newark School System Leaders possess various traits which characterize them which include emotional stability, dominance, enthusiasm, conscientiousness, social boldness, tough-mindedness, self-assurance, and compulsiveness. Other traits include high energy, intuitiveness, maturity, team orientation, empathy, and charisma.; ;In the case of Newark school systems transformation, leaders involved in the transformation process demonstrated some of these traits.; For example, Zuckerberg and other philanthropists like Bill Gates were so emphatic about the school children in Newark that they offered their monetary help to transform the situation. However, in his approach to the transformation process, Booker demonstrated poor intuitiveness. He failed to evaluate all the factors that were necessary to make the plan successful and also factors that were going to be barriers toward the realization of his vision. High energy is a trait of a good leader. Booker had high energy, and he spent a lot of time persuading, traveling, and selling his vision of the transformation of the education system in Newark until he attracted a lot of attention. Dominance is another trait that can be observed from Booker and Anderson. Both demonstrated the ability to be assertive in their thinking styles and also in their attitude in which they dealt with others. Zuckerberg, Booker, Christie, and Anderson (Cohen, 2014) demonstrated a lot of enthusiasm in the education transformation in Newark. All the four were expressive, energetic, and active in ensuring that the change process was implemented. On the trait of tough-mindedness, Booker showed that he was tough-mind when he chose to proceed with the reform process while he knew that some people were not comfortable with the process. Both Anderson and Booker also demonstrated that they were self-assured leaders. They exhibited self-confidence and resilience in their actions. For example, when the first plan failed to produce positive changes, Anderson came up with the second plan that was known as One Newark (Moss, 2014) which she believed it could work. During the transformation, the leaders exhibited a lot of teamwork. They worked for hand in hand to draft plans and supervise the implementation. They also worked together to overcome obstacles that were standing in the way of the reform process. The reform process, however, became a failure despite billions spent on the consultancy and implementation of the recommendations suggested by the consultants. Opponents of the reform process argue that the failure was caused by several assumptions (Kamenetz, 2011). The Booker;s team ought to have included the participation of many stakeholders so that they could also contribute towards the success of the plan.; It has been shown that successful leaders possess certain traits (Kirkpatrick ; Locke, 1991; Zaccaro, Kemp, ; Bader, 2004). Alternatively, leaders who are not successful do not possess traits that are common among successful leaders. According to Kreitner (2008), modern leaders ought to be emotionally intelligent. Goleman in Kreitner (2008) pointed out that emotionally intelligent leaders ought to possess traits such as self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management. Courage has also been identified as an appropriate leadership trait and includes the elements of purpose, will, rigor, candor, and risks (Kreitner, 2008). Other characteristics that have been identified to be common among successful leaders include empathy, consistency, honesty, direction, communication, flexibility, and conviction. According to Tracy (n.d.), the seven characteristics of highly effective leaders are a vision, cooperation, courage, integrity, focus, humility, and strategic planning.; Booker and his team will have been successful if they possess all these traits. They would have managed to transform the Newark education system into the nation;;s best as they had visualized initially.;