Dial-up Internet access

Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses telephone lines.[ The user's
computer or router uses an attached modem connected to a telephone line to dial into an Internet
service provider's (ISP) node to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then used to route
Internet Protocol packets between the user's equipment and hosts on the Internet.

The term was coined during the early days of computer telecommunications when modems were
needed to connect dumb terminals or computers running terminal emulator software to
mainframes, minicomputers, online services and bulletin board systems via a telephone line.

Availability

Dial-up connections to the Internet require no infrastructure other than the telephone network. As
telephone access is widely available, dial-up remains useful to travelers. Dial-up is usually the
only choice available for rural or remote areas where broadband installations are not prevalent
due to low population and demand. Dial-up access may also be an alternative for users on limited
budgets as it is offered for free by some ISPs, though broadband is increasingly available at
lower prices in many countries due to market competition.

Dial-up requires time to establish a usable telephone connection (several seconds, depending on
the location) and perform handshaking for protocol synchronization before data transfers can
take place. In locales with telephone connection charges, each connection incurs an incremental
cost. If calls are time-metered, the duration of the connection incurs costs.

Dial-up access is a transient connection, because either the user or the ISP terminates the
connection. Internet service providers will often set a limit on connection durations to prevent
hogging of access, and will disconnect the user — requiring reconnection and the costs and
delays associated with it. Technically-inclined users often find a way to disable the auto-
disconnect program such that they can remain connected for days. This is particularly useful for
downloading large files such as videos.

A 2008 Pew Internet and American Life Project study states that only 10 percent of American
adults still use dial-up Internet access. Reasons for retaining dial-up access span from lack of
infrastructure to high broadband prices. [2]

Performance

Modern dial-up modems typically have a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 56 kbit/s (using
the V.90 or V.92 protocol), although in most cases 40-50 kbit/s is the norm. Factors such as
phone line noise as well as the quality of the modem itself play a large part in determining
connection speeds. Some connections may be as low as 20 kbit/s in extremely "noisy"
environments, such as in a hotel room where the phone line is shared with many extensions.
Other things such as long loops, loading coils, pair gain, and digital loop carriers can also cripple
connections to 20 kbit/s or lower.
Dial-up connections usually have latency as high as 400 ms or even more, which can make
online gaming or video conferencing difficult, if not impossible. First person shooter style games
are the most sensitive to latency, making playing them impractical on dial-up. However, some
games such as Star Wars: Galaxies, The Sims Online, Warcraft 3, Guild Wars, Unreal
Tournament, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Audition are capable of running on 56k dial-up.

An increasing amount of Internet content such as streaming media will not work at dialup
speeds.

Analog telephone lines are digitally switched and transported inside a Digital Signal 0 once
reaching the telephone company's equipment. Digital Signal 0 is 64 kbit/s, therefore a 56 kbit/s
connection is the highest that will ever be possible with analog phone lines.

Leased Lines:

Definition: A leased line connects two locations for private voice and/or data telecommunication
service. Not a dedicated cable, a leased line is actually a reserved circuit between two points. Leased
lines can span short or long distances. They maintain a single open circuit at all times, as opposed to
traditional telephone services that reuse the same lines for many different conversations through a
process called "switching."

Leased lines most commonly are rented by businesses to connect branch offices, because these lines
guarantee bandwidth for network traffic. So-called T1 leased lines are common and offer the same
data rate as symmetric DSL (1.544 Mbps). Individuals can theoretically also rent leased lines for high-
speed Internet access, but their high cost (often more than $1000 USD per month) deters most.
Fractional T1 lines, starting at 128 Kbps, reduce this cost somewhat and can be found in some
apartment buildings and hotels.

Leased line
A leased line is a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two locations. It is sometimes
known as a 'Private Circuit' or 'Data Line' in the UK. Unlike traditional PSTN lines it does not
have a telephone number, each side of the line being permanently connected to the other. Leased
lines can be used for telephone, data or Internet services. Some are ringdown services, and some
connect two PBXes.

A permanent telephone connection between two points set up by a telecommunications common

carrier. Typically, leased lines are used by businesses to connect geographically distant offices.
Unlike dial-up connections, a leased line is always active. The fee for the connection is a fixed
monthly rate. The primary factors affecting the monthly fee are distance between end points and
the speed of the circuit. Because the connection doesn't carry anybody else's communications,
the carrier can assure a given level of quality.

For example, a T-1 channel can be leased, and provides a maximum transmission speed of 1.544
Mbps. The user can divide the connection into different lines for multiplexing data and voice
communication, or use the channel for one high speed data circuit. Increasingly, leased lines are
being used by companies, and even individuals, for Internet access because they afford faster
data transfer rates and are cost-effective for heavy users of the Internet.

Digital subscriber line

DSL Line

DSL or xDSL is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires
of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop, but as of 2009
the term digital subscriber line has been widely adopted as a more marketing-friendly term for
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the most popular version of consumer-ready DSL.
DSL can be used at the same time and on the same telephone line with regular telephone, as it
uses high frequency bands, while regular telephone uses low frequency.

The download speed of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 384 kilobits per second
(kbps) to 20 megabits per second (Mbps), depending on DSL technology, line conditions and
service-level implementation. Typically, upload speed is lower than download speed for ADSL
and equal to download speed for the rarer Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL).

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for bringing high- bandwidth information to
homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. xDSL refers to different
variations of DSL, such as ADSL, HDSL, and RADSL. Assuming your home or small business
is close enough to a telephone company central office that offers DSL service, you may be able
to receive data at rates up to 6.1 megabits (millions of bits) per second (of a theoretical 8.448
megabits per second), enabling continuous transmission of motion video, audio, and even 3-D
effects. More typically, individual connections will provide from 1.544 Mbps to 512 Kbps
downstream and about 128 Kbps upstream. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals and
the data part of the line is continuously connected. DSL installations began in 1998 and will
continue at a greatly increased pace through the next decade in a number of communities in the
U.S. and elsewhere. Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft working with telephone companies have
developed a standard and easier-to-install form of ADSL called G.Lite that is accelerating
deployment. DSL is expected to replace ISDN in many areas and to compete with the cable
modem in bringing multimedia and 3-D to homes and small businesses.

How It Works
Traditional phone service (sometimes called POTS for "plain old telephone service")
connects your home or small business to a telephone company office over copper
wires that are wound around each other and called twisted pair . Traditional phone
service was created to let you exchange voice information with other phone users
and the type of signal used for this kind of transmission is called an analog signal.
An input device such as a phone set takes an acoustic signal (which is a natural
analog signal) and converts it into an electrical equivalent in terms of volume
(signal amplitude) and pitch (frequency of wave change). Since the telephone
company's signalling is already set up for this analog wave transmission, it's easier
for it to use that as the way to get information back and forth between your
telephone and the telephone company. That's why your computer has to have a
modem - so that it can demodulate the analog signal and turn its values into the
string of 0 and 1 values that is called digital information.

Because analog transmission only uses a small portion of the available amount of information
that could be transmitted over copper wires, the maximum amount of data that you can receive
using ordinary modems is about 56 Kbps (thousands of bits per second). (With ISDN , which one
might think of as a limited precursor to DSL, you can receive up to 128 Kbps.) The ability of
your computer to receive information is constrained by the fact that the telephone company
filters information that arrives as digital data, puts it into analog form for your telephone line,
and requires your modem to change it back into digital. In other words, the analog transmission
between your home or business and the phone company is a bandwidth bottleneck.

Digital Subscriber Line is a technology that assumes digital data does not require change into
analog form and back. Digital data is transmitted to your computer directly as digital data and
this allows the phone company to use a much wider bandwidth for transmitting it to you.
Meanwhile, if you choose, the signal can be separated so that some of the bandwidth is used to
transmit an analog signal so that you can use your telephone and computer on the same line and
at the same time.

Satellite
In general, a satellite is anything that orbits something else, as, for example, the moon orbits the
earth. In a communications context, a satellite is a specialized wireless receiver/transmitter that is
launched by a rocket and placed in orbit around the earth. There are hundreds of satellites
currently in operation. They are used for such diverse purposes as weather forecasting, television
broadcast, amateur radio communications, Internet communications, and the Global Positioning
System, (GPS).

The first artificial satellite, launched by Russia (then known as the Soviet Union) in the late
1950s, was about the size of a basketball. It did nothing but transmit a simple Morse code signal
over and over. In contrast, modern satellites can receive and re-transmit thousands of signals
simultaneously, from simple digital data to the most complex television programming.

There are three types of communications satellite systems. They are categorized according to the
type of orbit they follow.

A geostationary satellite orbits the earth directly over the equator, approximately 22,000 miles
up. At this altitude, one complete trip around the earth (relative to the sun) takes 24 hours. Thus,
the satellite remains over the same spot on the earth's surface at all times, and stays fixed in the
sky from any point on the surface from which it can be "seen." So-called weather satellites are
usually of this type. You can view images from some of these satellites on the Internet via the
Purdue Weather Processor. A single geostationary satellite can "see" approximately 40 percent of
the earth's surface. Three such satellites, spaced at equal intervals (120 angular degrees apart),
can provide coverage of the entire civilized world. A geostationary satellite can be accessed
using a dish antenna aimed at the spot in the sky where the satellite hovers.

A low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite system employs a large fleet of "birds," each in a circular orbit
at a constant altitude of a few hundred miles. The orbits take the satellites over, or nearly over,
the geographic poles. Each revolution takes approximately 90 minutes to a few hours. The fleet
is arranged in such a way that, from any point on the surface at any time, at least one satellite is
on a line of sight. The entire system operates in a manner similar to the way a cellular telephone
functions. The main difference is that the transponders, or wireless receiver/transmitters, are
moving rather than fixed, and are in space rather than on the earth. A well-designed LEO system
makes it possible for anyone to access the Internet via wireless from any point on the planet,
using an antenna no more sophisticated than old-fashioned television "rabbit ears."

Some satellites revolve around the earth in elliptical orbits. These satellites move rapidly when
they are near perigee, or their lowest altitude; they move slowly when they are near apogee, or
their highest altitude. Such "birds" are used by amateur radio operators, and by some commercial
and government services. They require directional antennas whose orientation must be constantly
adjusted to follow the satellite's path across the sky.

Data transmission or digital communications is the physical transfer of data (a digital bit stream) over
a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium. Examples of such media are copper
wires, optical fibers, wireless communication media, andstorage media. The data is often represented as
an electro-magnetic signal, such as an electrical voltage signal

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by

sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that
is modulated to carry information. First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optic communication systemshave
revolutionized the telecommunications industry and have played a major role in the advent of
the Information Age. Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers have largely
replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world.

The process of communicating using fiber-optics involves the following basic steps: Creating the optical
signal involving the use of a transmitter, relaying the signal along the fiber, ensuring that the signal does
not become too distorted or weak, receiving the optical signal, and converting it into an electrical signal.
Local area network (LAN)
A local area network is a network that spans a relatively small space and provides services to a small
number of people.

A peer-to-peer or client-server method of networking may be used. A peer-to-peer network is where each
client shares their resources with other workstations in the network. Examples of peer-to-peer networks
are: Small office networks where resource use is minimal and a home network. A client-server network is
where every client is connected to the server and each other. Client-server networks use servers in
different capacities. These can be classified into two types:

1. Single-service servers
2. Print server

The server performs one task such as file server, while other servers can not only perform in the capacity
of file servers and print servers, but also can conduct calculations and use them to provide information to
clients (Web/Intranet Server). Computers may be connected in many different ways, including Ethernet
cables, Wireless networks, or other types of wires such as power lines or phone lines.
Wide area network (WAN)
A wide area network is a network where a wide variety of resources are deployed across a large domestic
area or internationally. An example of this is a multinational business that uses a WAN to interconnect
their offices in different countries. The largest and best example of a WAN is the Internet, which is a
network composed of many smaller networks. The Internet is considered the largest network in the world.
The PSTN(Public Switched Telephone Network) also is an extremely large network that is converging to
use Internet technologies, although not necessarily through the public Internet.
A Wide Area Network involves communication through the use of a wide range of different technologies.
These technologies include Point-to-Point WANs such as Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and High-Level
Data Link Control (HDLC), Frame Relay, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and Sonet (Synchronous
Optical Network). The difference between the WAN technologies is based on the switching capabilities
they perform and the speed at which sending and receiving bits of information (data) occur.

Metropolitan area network (MAN)

A metropolitan network is a network that is too large for even the largest of LAN's but is not on the scale
of a WAN. It also integrates two or more LAN networks over a specific geographical area ( usually a city )
so as to increase the network and the flow of communications. The LAN's in question would usually be
connected via " backbone " lines.
What is CRM?
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a company-wide business strategy designed to
reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty. True CRM brings
together information from all data sources within an organization (and where appropriate, from
outside the organization) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time. This allows
customer facing employees in such areas as sales, customer support, and marketing to make
quick yet informed decisions on everything from cross-selling and upselling opportunities to
target marketing strategies to competitive positioning tactics.

Once thought of as a type of software, CRM has evolved into a customer-centric philosophy that
must permeate an entire organization. There are three key elements to a successful CRM
initiative: people, process, and technology. The people throughout a company-from the CEO to
each and every customer service rep-need to buy in to and support CRM. A company's business
processes must be reengineered to bolster its CRM initiative, often from the view of, How can
this process better serve the customer? Firms must select the right technology to drive these
improved processes, provide the best data to the employees, and be easy enough to operate that
users won't balk. If one of these three foundations is not sound, the entire CRM structure will
crumble.

It's a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop
stronger relationships with them. After all, good customer relationships are at the heart of
business success. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in
primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a
process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales,
marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

If customer relationships are the heart of business success, then CRM is the valve the pumps a
company's life blood. As such, CRM is best suited to help businesses use people, processes, and
technology gain insight into the behavior and value of customers. This insight allows for
improved customer service, increased call center efficiency, added cross-sell and upsell
opportunities, improved close rates, streamlined sales and marketing processes, improved
customer profiling and targeting, reduced costs, and increased share of customer and overall
profitability.

This sounds like a panacea, but CRM is not without its challenges. For CRM to be truly
effective, an organization must convince its staff that change is good and that CRM will benefit
them. Then it must analyze its business processes to decide which need to be reengineered and
how best to go about it. Next is to decide what kind of customer information is relevant and how
it will be used. Finally, a team of carefully selected executives must choose the right technology
to automate what it is that needs to be automated. This process, depending upon the size of the
company and the breadth of data, can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. And
although some firms are using Web-based CRM technologies for only hundreds of dollars per
month per user, large companies may spends millions to purchase, install, and customize the
technology required to support its CRM initiative.
CRM includes many aspects which relate directly to one another:

• Front office operations — Direct interaction with customers, e.g. face to face meetings,
phone calls, e-mail, online services etc.
• Back office operations — Operations that ultimately affect the activities of the front
office (e.g., billing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance,
manufacturing, etc.)
• Business relationships — Interaction with other companies and partners, such as
suppliers/vendors and retail outlets/distributors, industry networks (lobbying groups,
trade associations). This external network supports front and back office activities.
• Analysis — Key CRM data can be analyzed in order to plan target-marketing campaigns,
conceive business strategies, and judge the success of CRM activities (e.g., market share,
number and types of customers, revenue, profitability).

Proponents of CRM software claim that it doesn't only allow more effective ways of managing
customer relationships, but also more customer-centric ways of doing business. Executives often
cite the need for the proper tools as a barrier to delivering the experience their customers expect.
A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed only 39% believe that their employees
have tools and authority to solve customer problems.

Types/variations of CRM
There are several different approaches to CRM, with different software packages focusing on
different aspects. In general, Customer Service, Campaign Management and Sales Force
Automation (SFA) form the core of the system.

Operational CRM

Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, e.g. to sales, marketing
and service staff. Interactions with customers are generally stored in customers' contact histories,
and staff can retrieve customer information as necessary.

The contact history provides staff members with immediate access to important information on
the customer (products owned, prior support calls etc.), eliminating the need to individually
obtain this information directly from the customer. Reaching to the customer at right time at right
place is preferable.

Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:

• Managing campaigns
• Enterprise Marketing Automation
• Sales Force Automation
• Sales Management System
Analytical CRM

Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:

• Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns

• Designing and executing campaigns, e.g. customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling,
addon-selling
• Analyzing customer behavior in order to make decisions relating to products and services
(e.g. pricing, product development)
• Management information system (e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability
analysis)

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining and other techniques to produce
useful results for decision-making. It is at the analytical stage that the importance of fully
integrated CRM software becomes most apparent. Logically speaking, the more information that
the analytical software has available for analysis, the better its predictions and recommendations
will be.

Sales Intelligence CRM

Sales Intelligence CRM is similar to Analytical CRM, but is intended as a more direct sales tool.
Features include alerts sent to sales staff regarding:

• Cross-selling/Up-selling/Switch-selling opportunities
• Customer drift
• Sales performance
• Customer trends
• Customer margins
• Customer alignment

Campaign Management

Campaign management combines elements of Operational and Analytical CRM. Campaign

management functions include:

• Target groups formed from the client base according to selected criteria
• Sending campaign-related material (e.g. on special offers) to selected recipients using
various channels (e.g. e-mail, telephone, SMS, post)
• Tracking, storing, and analyzing campaign statistics, including tracking responses and
analyzing trends

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM covers aspects of a company's dealings with customers that are handled by
various departments within a company, such as sales, technical support and marketing. Staff
members from different departments can share information collected when interacting with
customers. For example, feedback received by customer support agents can provide other staff
members with information on the services and features requested by customers. Collaborative
CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected by all departments to improve the quality of
services provided by the company. CRM also plays a role of data distributor within customers,
producers and partners. Producers can use CRM information to develop products or find new
market. CRM facilitates communication between customers, suppliers and partner by using new
information system such email, link and data bank. 123

Consumer Relationship CRM

Consumer Relationship System (CRS) covers aspects of a company's dealing with customers
handled by the Consumer Affairs and Customer Relations contact centers within a company.
Representatives handle in-bound contact from anonymous consumers and customers. Early
warnings can be issued regarding product issues (e.g. item recalls) and current consumer
sentiment can be tracked (voice of the customer).

Simple CRM

A relatively new spinoff of the traditional CRM model first appearing in 2006. At their core,
CRM tools are designed to manage customer relationships. As described above there are
countless supplemental features and capabilities. Simple CRM systems breakdown the traditional
CRM system to focus on the core values—managing contacts and activities with customers and
prospects. These systems are designed to create the most value for the immediate end user rather
than the organization as a whole. Many times they focus on satisfying the needs of a particular
marketplace niche, organizational unit, or type of user rather than an entire organization.

Social CRM

Beginning in 2007, the rapid growth in social media and social networking forced CRM product
companies to integrate "social" features into their traditional CRM systems. Some of the first
features added are social network monitoring feeds (ie Twitter timeline), typically built into the
system dashboard. Other emerging capabilities include messaging, sentiment analysis, and other
analytics. Many industry experts contend that Social CRM is the way of the future, but there are
still many skeptics. Top CRM minds agree that online social communities and conversations
carry heavy consequences for companies. They must be monitored for real-time marketplace
feedback and trends.

Strategy
Several CRM software packages are available, and they vary in their approach to CRM.
However, as mentioned above, CRM is not just a technology but rather a comprehensive,
customer-centric approach to an organization's philosophy of dealing with its customers. This
includes policies and processes, front-of-house customer service, employee training, marketing,
systems and information management. Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation
considerations stretch beyond technology toward the broader organizational requirements.
The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its
customers' needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives can support the
development of marketing strategy by developing the organization's knowledge in areas such as
identifying customer segments, improving customer retention, improving product offerings (by
better understanding customer needs), and by identifying the organization's most profitable
customers.

CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity, and scope. Some companies consider a CRM
strategy only to focus on the management of a team of salespeople. However, other CRM
strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization. Many commercial CRM
software packages provide features that serve the sales, marketing, event management, project
management, and finance industries.

From this perspective, CRM has for some time been seen to play an important role in many sales
process engineering efforts.

Implementation
Implementation Issues

Many CRM project "failures" are also related to data quality and availability. Data cleaning is a
major issue. If a company's CRM strategy is to track life-cycle revenues, costs, margins, and
interactions between individual customers, this must be reflected in all business processes. Data
must be extracted from multiple sources (e.g., departmental/divisional databases such as sales,
manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, finance, service etc.), which requires an integrated,
comprehensive system in place with well-defined structures and high data quality. Data from
other systems can be transferred to CRM systems using appropriate interfaces.

Because of the company-wide size and scope of many CRM implementations, significant pre-
planning is essential for smooth roll-out. This pre-planning involves a technical evaluation of the
data available and the technology employed in existing systems. This evaluation is critical to
determine the level of effort needed to integrate this data.

Equally critical is the human aspect of the implementation. A successful implementation requires
an understanding of the expectations and needs of the stakeholders involved. An executive
sponsor should also be obtained to provide high-level management representation of the CRM
project.

An effective tool for identifying technical and human factors before beginning a CRM project is
a pre-implementation checklist. A checklist can help ensure any potential problems are identified
early in the process.
Privacy and data security system
One of the primary functions of CRM software is to collect information about customers. When
gathering data as part of a CRM solution, a company must consider the desire for customer
privacy and data security, as well as the legislative and cultural norms. Some customers prefer
assurances that their data will not be shared with third parties without their prior consent and that
safeguards are in place to prevent illegal access by third parties.

Market structures
The following table lists the top CRM software vendors in 2006-2008 (figures in millions of US
dollars) published in Gartner studies.

2008 2008 Share 2007 2007 Share 2006 2006 Share

Vendor
Revenue (%) Revenue (%) Revenue (%)
Oracle 1,475 16.1 1,319.8 16.3 1,016.8 15.5
SAP 2,055 22.5 2,050.8 25.3 1,681.7 26.6
Salesforce.com 965 10.6 676.5 8.3 451.7 6.9
Amdocs 451 4.9 421.0 5.2 365.9 5.6
Microsoft 581 6.4 332.1 4.1 176.1 2.7
Others 3,620 39.6 3,289.1 40.6 2,881.6 43.7
Total 9,147 100 8,089.3 100 6,573.8 100

The following table lists of the top software vendors for CRM projects completed in 2006 using
external consultants and system integrators, according to a 2007 Gartner study.[13]

Vendor Percentage of implementations

Siebel (Oracle) 41%
SAP 8%
Epiphany (Infor) 3%
Oracle 3%
PeopleSoft (Oracle) 2%
salesforce.com 2%
Amdocs 1%
Chordiant 1%
Microsoft 1%
Metus Technology 1%
SAS 1%
Others 15%
None 22%

A 2007 Datamonitor report lists Oracle (including Siebel) and SAP as the top CRM vendors,
with Chordiant, Infor, and SalesForce.com as significant, smaller vendors.
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they
move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply
chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among
companies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is
to reduce inventory (with the assumption that products are available when needed). As a solution
for successful supply chain management, sophisticated software systems with Web interfaces are
competing with Web-based application service providers (ASP) who promise to provide part or
all of the SCM service for companies who rent their service.

Supply chain management flows can be divided into three main flows:

• The product flow

• The information flow
• The finances flow

The product flow includes the movement of goods from a supplier to a customer, as well as any
customer returns or service needs. The information flow involves transmitting ordersand
updating the status of delivery. The financial flow consists of credit terms, payment schedules,
and consignment and title ownership arrangements.

There are two main types of SCM software: planning applications and execution applications.
Planning applications use advanced algorithms to determine the best way to fill an order.
Execution applications track the physical status of goods, the management of materials, and
financial information involving all parties.

Some SCM applications are based on open data models that support the sharing of data both
inside and outside the enterprise (this is called the extended enterprise, and includes key
suppliers, manufacturers, and end customers of a specific company). This shared data may reside
in diverse database systems, or data warehouses, at several different sites and companies.

By sharing this data "upstream" (with a company's suppliers) and "downstream" (with a
company's clients), SCM applications have the potential to improve the time-to-market of
products, reduce costs, and allow all parties in the supply chain to better manage current
resources and plan for future needs.

Increasing numbers of companies are turning to Web sites and Web-based applications as part of
the SCM solution. A number of major Web sites offer e-procurement marketplaces where
manufacturers can trade and even make auction bids with suppliers.

What is supply chain management?

Supply chain management (SCM) is the combination of art and science that goes into improving
the way your company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and
deliver it to customers. The following are five basic components of SCM.

1. Plan—This is the strategic portion of SCM. Companies need a strategy for managing all the
resources that go toward meeting customer demand for their product or service. A big piece of
SCM planning is developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient,
costs less and delivers high quality and value to customers.

2. Source—Next, companies must choose suppliers to deliver the goods and services they need
to create their product. Therefore, supply chain managers must develop a set of pricing, delivery
and payment processes with suppliers and create metrics for monitoring and improving the
relationships. And then, SCM managers can put together processes for managing their goods and
services inventory, including receiving and verifying shipments, transferring them to the
manufacturing facilities and authorizing supplier payments.

3. Make—This is the manufacturing step. Supply chain managers schedule the activities
necessary for production, testing, packaging and preparation for delivery. This is the most
metric-intensive portion of the supply chain—one where companies are able to measure quality
levels, production output and worker productivity.

4. Deliver—This is the part that many SCM insiders refer to as logistics, where companies
coordinate the receipt of orders from customers, develop a network of warehouses, pick carriers
to get products to customers and set up an invoicing system to receive payments.

5. Return—This can be a problematic part of the supply chain for many companies. Supply
chain planners have to create a responsive and flexible network for receiving defective and
excess products back from their customers and supporting customers who have problems with
delivered products..

Supply chain management software is possibly the most fractured group of software applications
on the planet. Each of the five major supply chain steps previously outlined is comprised of
dozens of specific tasks, many of which have their own specific software. Some vendors have
assembled many of these different chunks of software together under a single roof, but no one
has a complete package that is right for every company. For example, most companies need to
track demand, supply, manufacturing status, logistics (i.e. where things are in the supply chain),
and distribution. They also need to share data with supply chain partners at an ever increasing
rate. While products from large ERP vendors like SAP's Advanced Planner and Optimizer
(APO) can perform many or all of these tasks, because each industry's supply chain has a unique
set of challenges, many companies decide to go with targeted best of breed products instead,
even if some integration is an inevitable consequence.

It's worth mentioning that the old adage about systems only being as good as the information that
they contain applies doubly to SCM. If the information entered into a demand forecasting
application is not accurate, then you will get an inaccurate forecast. Similarly, if employees
bypass the supply chain systems and try to manage things manually (using the fax machine or
spreadsheets), then even the most expensive systems will provide an incomplete picture of what
is happening in a company's supply chain.

What is BLOG?
Definition

A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

Information

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the
Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there
are people.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with
the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com.
Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing
process.

Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, "blog" seems less likely to cause
confusion, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files.

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an
individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as
graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can
also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more
personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web
pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an
interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although
some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3
blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short
posts.

Types
There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the
way that content is delivered or written.

Personal blogs
 The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional,
most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their
blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just
communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a
sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some
personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of personal blog is referred
to as "microblogging," which is extremely detailed blogging as it seeks to capture a
moment in time. Sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings
instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing.

Corporate and organizational blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either
used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally
for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Similar
blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names;
typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member
activities.

By genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs (also known
as travelogs), house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs,
classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or
dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog
featuring discussions especially about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom
blog. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is
known as a Splog.

By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site
containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is
called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called
tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or
typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging).
A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.

By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written
by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early blog
was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life
combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and
EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video
together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as
evidence in legal matters.

Community and cataloging

The Blogosphere
The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since all blogs are on
the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked,
through blogrolls, comments, linkbacks (refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and
backlinks. Discussions "in the blogosphere" are occasionally used by the media as a
gauge of public opinion on various issues. Because new, untapped communities of
bloggers can emerge in the space of a few years, Internet marketers pay close attention to
"trends in the blogosphere".
Blog search engines
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents, such as Bloglines,
BlogScope, and Technorati. Technorati, which is among the most popular blog search
engines, provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to
categorize blog postings. The research community is working on going beyond simple
keyword search, by inventing new ways to navigate through huge amounts of information
present in the blogosphere, as demonstrated by projects like BlogScope

Blogging communities and directories

Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other
bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Interest-specific blogging platforms
are also available. For instance, Blogster has a sizable community of political bloggers
among its members.

Blogging and advertising

It is common for blogs to feature advertisements either to financially benefit the blogger
or to promote the blogger's favorite causes. The popularity of blogs has also given rise to
"fake blogs" in which a company will create a fictional blog as a marketing tool to
promote a product.

Popularity
Researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two
measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e.
blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time
for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly,
and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that
people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific
cases.[16]

The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and
gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this
information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information
spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can therefore be
considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar
function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming links and Alexa
Internet based on the Web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati found that the
most linked-to blog on the internet was that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei . Chinese media Xinhua
reported that this blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most
popular blog in the world. Technorati rated Boing Boing to be the most-read group-written blog.

Blurring with the mass media

Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves
from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different
channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing
messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor
the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other
contributors to user-generated content are behind Time magazine naming their 2006 person of
the year as "you".

Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to
CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a blog on a news site was in August
1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane
Bonnie.

Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have
appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios),
Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen
(Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counterpoint, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a
mass-media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media"
by being an influential blogger. Equally many established authors, for example Mitzi Szereto
have started using Blogs to not only update fans on their current works but also to expand into
new areas of writing.

Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and
learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages. Minority language publishing
(which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.

There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g.,
Salam Pax, Ellen Simonetti, Jessica Cutler, ScrappleFace. Blog-based books have been given the
name blook. A prize for the best blog-based book was initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize.
[21]
However, success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as
their blogs. Only blogger Tucker Max made the New York Times Bestseller List.[22] The book
based on Julie Powell's blog "The Julie/Julia Project" was made into the film Julie & Julia,
apparently the first to do so.

What is DNS ?
Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain
names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember.
The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name,
therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For
example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4.

The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a
particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

(2) Short for digital nervous system, a term coined by Bill Gates to describe a network of
personal computers that make it easier to obtain and understand information. .

If you spend any time on the Internet sending e-mail or browsing the Web, then you use domain
name servers without even realizing it. Domain name servers, or DNS, are an incredibly
important but completely hidden part of the Internet, and they are fascinating. The DNS system
forms one of the largest and most active distributed databases on the planet. Without DNS, the
Internet would shut down very quickly.

When you use the Web or send an e-mail message, you use a domain name to do it. For
example, the URL "http://www.howstuffworks.com" contains the domain name
howstuffworks.com. So does the e-mail address "[email protected]."

Human-readable names like "howstuffworks.com" are easy for people to remember, but they
don't do machines any good. All of the machines use names called IP addresses to refer to one
another. For example, the machine that humans refer to as "www.howstuffworks.com" has the IP
address 70.42.251.42. Every time you use a domain name, you use the Internet's domain name
servers (DNS) to translate the human-readable domain name into the machine-readable IP
address. During a day of browsing and e-mailing, you might access the domain name servers
hundreds of times!

In this article, we'll take a look at the DNS system so you can understand how it works and
appreciate its amazing capabilities.

DNS Servers and IP Addresses

Domain name servers translate domain names to IP addresses. That sounds like a simple task,
and it would be -- except for five things:

• There are billions of IP addresses currently in use, and most machines have a human-
readable name as well.
 • There are many billions of DNS requests made every day. A single person can easily
make a hundred or more DNS requests a day, and there are hundreds of millions of
people and machines using the Internet daily.
• Domain names and IP addresses change daily.
• New domain names get created daily.
• Millions of people do the work to change and add domain names and IP addresses every
day.

The DNS system is a database, and no other database on the planet gets this many requests. No
other database on the planet has millions of people changing it every day, either. That is what
makes the DNS system so unique.

IP Addresses

To keep all of the machines on the Internet straight, each machine is assigned a unique address
called an IP address. IP stands for Internet protocol, and these addresses are 32-bit numbers
normally expressed as four "octets" in a "dotted decimal number." A typical IP address looks like
this:

70.42.251.42

The four numbers in an IP address are called octets because they can have values between 0 and
255 (28 possibilities per octet).

Every machine on the Internet has its own IP address. A server has a static IP address that does
not change very often. A home machine that is dialing up through a modem often has an IP
address that is assigned by the ISP when you dial in. That IP address is unique for your session
and may be different the next time you dial in. In this way, an ISP only needs one IP address for
each modem it supports, rather than for every customer.

If you are working on a Windows machine, you can view your current IP address with the
command WINIPCFG.EXE (IPCONFIG.EXE for Windows 2000/XP). On a UNIX machine,
type nslookup along with a machine name (such as "nslookup www.howstuffworks.com") to
display the IP address of the machine (use the command hostname to learn the name of your
machine).

As far as the Internet's machines are concerned, an IP address is all that you need to talk to a
server. For example, you can type in your browser the URL http://70.42.251.42 and you will
arrive at the machine that contains the Web server for HowStuffWorks. Domain names are
strictly a human convenience

What is E-mail ?
Electronic mail, often abbreviated as email, e.mail or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital
messages, designed primarily for human use. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward
model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on
behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server,
with a network-enabled device (e.g., a personal computer) for the duration of message
submission or retrieval. Originally, e-mail was always transmitted directly from one user's device
to another's; nowadays this is rarely the case.

An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message
body, which is the email's content. The message header contains control information, including,
minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional
information is added, such as a subject header field.

Originally a text-only communications medium, email was extended to carry multi-media

content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively
called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).

The foundation for today's global Internet e-mail service was created in the early ARPANET and
standards for encoding of messages were proposed as early as, for example, in 1973 (RFC 561).
An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today.
Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the
current service.

Network-based email was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), but is today carried by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first
published as Internet standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting email
messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope
separately from the message (headers and body) itself.

Operation overview

The diagram to the right shows a typical sequence of events that takes place when Alice
composes a message using her mail user agent (MUA). She enters the e-mail address of her
 correspondent, and hits the "send" button.

1. Her MUA formats the message in e-mail format and uses the Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send the message to the local mail transfer agent
(MTA), in this case smtp.a.org, run by Alice's Internet Service Provider (ISP).
2. The MTA looks at the destination address provided in the SMTP protocol (not
from the message header), in this case [email protected]. An Internet e-mail address
is a string of the form localpart@exampledomain. The part before the @ sign is
the local part of the address, often the username of the recipient, and the
part after the @ sign is a domain name or a fully qualified domain name. The
MTA resolves a domain name to determine the fully qualified domain name of
the mail exchange server in the Domain Name System.
3. The DNS server for the b.org domain, ns.b.org, responds with any MX
records listing the mail exchange servers for that domain, in this case
mx.b.org, a server run by Bob's ISP.
4. smtp.a.org sends the message to mx.b.org using SMTP, which delivers it to
the mailbox of the user bob.
5. Bob presses the "get mail" button in his MUA, which picks up the message
using the Post Office Protocol (POP3).

That sequence of events applies to the majority of e-mail users. However, there are many
alternative possibilities and complications to the e-mail system:

• Alice or Bob may use a client connected to a corporate e-mail system, such
as IBM Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange. These systems often have their
own internal e-mail format and their clients typically communicate with the e-
mail server using a vendor-specific, proprietary protocol. The server sends or
receives e-mail via the Internet through the product's Internet mail gateway
which also does any necessary reformatting. If Alice and Bob work for the
same company, the entire transaction may happen completely within a single
corporate e-mail system.
 • Alice may not have a MUA on her computer but instead may connect to a
webmail service.
• Alice's computer may run its own MTA, so avoiding the transfer at step 1.
• Bob may pick up his e-mail in many ways, for example using the Internet
Message Access Protocol, by logging into mx.b.org and reading it directly, or
by using a webmail service.
• Domains usually have several mail exchange servers so that they can
continue to accept mail when the main mail exchange server is not available.
• E-mail messages are not secure if e-mail encryption is not used correctly.

Many MTAs used to accept messages for any recipient on the Internet and do their best to
deliver them. Such MTAs are called open mail relays. This was very important in the early days
of the Internet when network connections were unreliable. If an MTA couldn't reach the
destination, it could at least deliver it to a relay closer to the destination. The relay stood a better
chance of delivering the message at a later time. However, this mechanism proved to be
exploitable by people sending unsolicited bulk e-mail and as a consequence very few modern
MTAs are open mail relays, and many MTAs don't accept messages from open mail relays
because such messages are very likely to be spam.

Email and Postal Mail

To get a grasp of what email is it's best — the terminology indicates it — to think in equivalents
of "traditional" postal mail.

• The email message - Instead of using a pen to write a letter on paper, you're using your
keyboard to type an email message in an email program on your computer.
• Sending the email - When the email is finished and has been addressed to the recipient's
email address, you don't put a stamp on it and post it but press the Send button in the
email program. This makes the email message go on its journey.
• Email transport - Like postal services transport letters and parcel, email servers transmit
email messages from sender to recipient. Usually, emails are not delivered to the
recipient directly, though, but waiting at the "nearest" mail server to be picked up by
them.
• Fetching new mail - If you've got new mail in your mailbox, you go and fetch it.
Similarly, your email program can check for new email messages at your mail server and
download them for you to read.

What is ERP?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning . ERP is a way to integrate the data and processes
of an organization into one single system. Usually ERP systems will have many components
including hardware and software, in order to achieve integration, most ERP systems use a unified
database to store data for various functions found throughout the organization.

The term ERP originally referred to how a large

organization planned to use organizational wide
resources. In the past, ERP systems were used in larger more industrial types of companies.
However, the use of ERP has changed and is extremely comprehensive, today the term can refer
to any type of company, no matter what industry it falls in. In fact, ERP systems are used in
almost any type of organization - large or small.

In order for a software system to be considered ERP, it must provide an organization with
functionality for two or more systems. While some ERP packages exist that only cover two
functions for an organization (QuickBooks: Payroll & Accounting), most ERP systems cover
several functions.

Today's ERP systems can cover a wide range of functions and integrate them into one unified
database. For instance, functions such as Human Resources, Supply Chain Management,
Customer Relations Management, Financials, Manufacturing functions and Warehouse
Management functions were all once stand alone software applications, usually housed with their
own database and network, today, they can all fit under one umbrella - the ERP system .

Integration is Key to ERP

Integration is an extremely important part to ERP's. ERP's main goal is to integrate data and
processes from all areas of an organization and unify it for easy access and work flow. ERP's
usually accomplish integration by creating one single database that employs multiple software
modules providing different areas of an organization with various business functions.

Although the ideal configuration would be one ERP system for an entire organization, many
larger organizations usually create and ERP system and then build upon the system and external
interface for other stand alone systems which might be more powerful and perform better in
fulfilling an organizations needs. Usually this type of configuration can be time consuming and
does require lots of labor hours.

The Ideal ERP System

An ideal ERP system is when a single database is utilized and contains all data for various
software modules. These software modules can include:

Manufacturing: Some of the functions include; engineering, capacity, workflow management,

quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc.

Financials: Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger and cash
management, etc.

Human Resources: Benefits, training, payroll, time and attendance, etc

Supply Chain Management: Inventory, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, claim
processing, order entry, purchasing, etc.

Projects: Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense, etc.

Customer Relationship Management: sales and marketing, service, commissions, customer
contact, calls center support, etc.

Data Warehouse: Usually this is a module that can be accessed by an organizations customers,
suppliers and employees.

ERP Improves Productivity

Before ERP systems, each department in an organization would most likely have their own
computer system, data and database. Unfortunately, many of these systems would not be able to
communicate with one another or need to store or rewrite data to make it possible for cross
computer system communication. For instance, the financials of a company were on a separate
computer system than the HR system, making it more intensive and complicated to process
certain functions.

Once an ERP system is in place, usually all aspects of an organization can work in harmony
instead of every single system needing to be compatible with each other. For large organizations,
increased productivity and less types of software are a result.

Implementation of an ERP System

Implementing an ERP system is not an easy task to achieve, in fact it takes lots of planning,
consulting and in most cases 3 months to 1 year +. ERP systems are extraordinary wide in scope
and for many larger organizations can be extremely complex. Implementing an ERP system will
ultimately require significant changes on staff and work practices. While it may seem reasonable
for an in house IT staff to head the project, it is widely advised that ERP implementation
consultants be used, due to the fact that consultants are usually more cost effective and are
specifically trained in implementing these types of systems.

One of the most important traits that an organization should have when implementing an ERP
system is ownership of the project. Because so many changes take place and its broad effect on
almost every individual in the organization, it is important to make sure that everyone is on
board and will help make the project and using the new ERP system a success.

Usually organizations use ERP vendors or consulting companies to implement their customized
ERP system. There are three types of professional services that are provided when implementing
an ERP system, they are Consulting, Customization and Support.

Consulting Services - usually consulting services are responsible for the initial stages of ERP
implementation, they help an organization go live with their new system, with product training,
workflow, improve ERP's use in the specific organization, etc.

Customization Services - Customization services work by extending the use of the new ERP
system or changing its use by creating customized interfaces and/or underlying application code.
While ERP systems are made for many core routines, there are still some needs that need to be
built or customized for an organization.
Support Services- Support services include both support and maintenance of ERP systems. For
instance, trouble shooting and assistance with ERP issues.

Advantages of ERP Systems

There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system; here are a few of them:

• A totally integrated system

• The ability to streamline different processes and workflows
• The ability to easily share data across various departments in an organization
• Improved efficiency and productivity levels
• Better tracking and forecasting
• Lower costs
• Improved customer service

Disadvantages of ERP Systems

While advantages usually outweigh disadvantages for most organizations implementing an ERP
system, here are some of the most common obstacles experienced:

Usually many obstacles can be prevented if adequate investment is made and adequate training is
involved, however, success does depend on skills and the experience of the workforce to quickly
adapt to the new system.

• Customization in many situations is limited

• The need to reengineer business processes
• ERP systems can be cost prohibitive to install and run
• Technical support can be shoddy
• ERP's may be too rigid for specific organizations that are either new or want
to move in a new direction in the near future.

What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is simply the transmission of voice traffic over IP-based
networks.

The Internet Protocol (IP) was originally designed for data networking. The success of IP in
becoming a world standard for data networking has led to its adaptation to voice networking.

Some background history:

Although VoIP has been creating quite a stir in the press recently, it’s actually not a new idea at
all. VoIP has been around in one form or another since 1973 when it began as an experiment by
the US Department of Defense.

Why VoIP is better ?

The number one reason to switch to VoIP technology for telephone service is cost reduction.
VoIP has become popular largely because of the cost advantages to consumers over traditional
telepone networks. VoIP slashes your monthly phone bill by a whopping fifty percent. Let's put
some light over these claims.

It offers cheaper international long distance rates which are generally one-tenth of what is
charged by traditional phone companies. Its portability makes it a very good option and one
could avoid expensive hotel phone charges and cell phone roaming charges. What one requires is
just a high speed connection where one could plug the adapter into and people could reach you at
your local number irrespective of your location.

Most Internet connections are charged using a flat monthly fee structure. Using the Internet
connection for both data traffic and voice calls can allow consumers to get rid of one monthly
payment. In addition, VoIP plans do not charge a per-minute fee for long distance.

By making VoIP calls using internet enabled cell phones one could avoid wireless roaming fees
and long distance rates which generally touch north. Most of the times in-network calls to other
VoIP service subscribers are free even if the calling parties are located in different parts of the
world.

How does it work?

Just to confuse people, there are many kinds of VoIP. Using voice chat in MSN , G Talk or
Yahoo messenger could be regarded as VoIP, so could the highly publicised Skype; but these are
all proprietary systems. To talk to someone using MSN, the person at the other end also needs
MSN. The same applies to Yahoo and, to a great extent, to Skype. They use their own special
system that isn't open and won't connect to other systems easily.

True VoIP should really be based on the SIP system which is the recognized standard. Any SIP
compatible device can talk to any other; you don't even use a PC. Any SIP telephone can call
another right over the internet, you don't need any additional equipment or even a phone
provider. Just plug your SIP phone into the internet connection, configure it and then dial the
other person right over the internet.

In all VoIP systems, your voice is converted into packets of data, like little files, and then
transmitted to the recipient over the internet and decoded back into your voice at the other end.
To make it quicker, these packets are compressed before transmission, a bit like zipping a file.

Actual Cost of VoIP:

The promise of free international calls whenever you want them probably sounds a little too
good to be true – there must be a catch, right? Well, yes and no. Provided you only wish to use
VoIP to communicate with other VoIP users, everything is very straightforward. If however you
want to be able to use VoIP to make and receive calls to and from people who don’t have VoIP,
you’ll need to subscribe to a gateway service that provides a bridge between VoIP and the
conventional phone networks.

Getting Started with VoIP :

Getting started with VoIP could hardly be simpler. Assuming you already have the two most
important ingredients (a Windows or Mac computer and a broadband Internet connection), all
you need to get started is the following:

Some free phone or messaging software.

A microphone.

Headphones or speakers (headphones are best because they won’t cause as much feedback).

An alternative to a microphone and headphones is an integrated headset, as this will leave your
hands free.

When it comes to choosing which software to use, it’s worth considering whom you plan to call,
since most VoIP software is proprietary. Check with any friends or relatives who already use
VoIP and see what they’re using. If you plan to use VoIP to call people who use different
software, you may need to install more than one program!
Examples of VoIP software you might choose to use are MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger,
SkyPe and ICQ, all of which are available as free downloads. All of these are designed to be
beginner-friendly, so follow the installation instructions and you’ll be ready to go in a matter of
minutes.

So what's the catch?

Obviously nothing is ever as simple as it sounds. New technologies aren't perfect and pricing
often reflects this, if it wasn't cheaper nobody would switch.

The main problem with VoIP applications is bandwidth contention. This complicated term isn't
as difficult as it sounds. You might have anything from a 512Kb broadband connection to 8Mb
and beyond, dial-up isn't suitable for VoIP. It doesn't matter how big this connection is, it can
still get busy.

VoIP phone call requires at least 100Kb or dedicated bandwidth and without this, you may find
your phone calls less than satisfactory. To resolve this problem, there are now ranges of internet
routers to use with your existing cable or DSL connection. These are VoIP aware and will
dedicate the bandwidth to your phone call when you need it but free up all the bandwidth for
other use when you're not on the phone. Some VoIP service providers will supply a compatible
router with your connection package, it's essential.
What is Data warehouse?
A data warehouse is the main repository of an organization's historical data, its corporate
memory. It contains the raw material for management's decision support system. The critical
factor leading to the use of a data warehouse is that a data analyst can perform complex queries
and analysis, such as data mining, on the information without slowing down the operational
systems...

Bill Inmon, an early and influential practitioner, has formally defined a data warehouse in the
following terms;

Subject-oriented

The data in the database is organized so that all the data elements relating to
the same real-world event or object are linked together;

Time-variant

The changes to the data in the database are tracked and recorded so that
reports can be produced showing changes over time;

Non-volatile

Data in the database is never over-written or deleted - once committed, the

data is static, read-only, but retained for future reporting; and

Integrated

The database contains data from most or all of an organization's operational

applications, and that this data is made consistent.

A data warehouse might be used to find the day of the week on which a company sold the most
widgets in May 1992, or how employee sick leave the week before the winter break differed
between California and New York from 2001–2005.

While operational systems are optimized for simplicity and speed of modification (see OLTP)
through heavy use of database normalization and an entity-relationship model, the data
warehouse is optimized for reporting and analysis (online analytical processing, or OLAP).
Frequently data in data warehouses are heavily denormalised, summarised or stored in a
dimension-based model. However, this is not always required to achieve acceptable query
response times.

Data Warehouses are a distinct type of computer database that were first developed during the
late 1980s and early 1990s. They were developed to meet a growing demand for management
information and analysis that could not be met by operational systems. Operational systems were
unable to meet this need for a range of reasons:
 • The processing load of reporting reduced the response time of the
operational systems,
• The database designs of operational systems were not optimized for
information analysis and reporting,
• Most organizations had more than one operational system, so company-wide
reporting could not be supported from a single system
• Development of reports in operational systems often required writing specific
computer programs which was slow and expensive

As a result, separate computer databases began to be built that were specifically designed to
support management information and analysis purposes. These data warehouses were able to
bring in data from a range of different data sources, such as mainframe computers,
minicomputers, as well as personal computers and office automation software such as
spreadsheet, and integrate this information in a single place. This capability, coupled with user-
friendly reporting tools and freedom from operational impacts, has led to a growth of this type of
computer system.

As technology improved (lower cost for more performance) and user requirements increased
(faster data load cycle times and more features), data warehouses have evolved through several
fundamental stages:

Off line Operational Databases

Data warehouses in this initial stage are developed by simply copying the
database of an operational system to an off-line server where the processing
load of reporting does not impact on the operational system's performance.

Off line Data Warehouse

Data warehouses in this stage of evolution are updated on a regular time

cycle (usually daily, weekly or monthly) from the operational systems and the
data is stored in an integrated reporting-oriented data structure.

Real Time Data Warehouse

Data warehouses at this stage are updated on a transaction or event basis,

every time an operational system performs a transaction (e.g. an order or a
delivery or a booking etc.)

Integrated Data Warehouse

Data warehouses at this stage are used to generate activity or transactions

that are passed back into the operational systems for use in the daily activity
of the organization.

The Data Warehouse Architecture

The data warehouse architecture consists of various interconnected elements which are: 1)
Operational and external database layer: the source data for the data warehouse. 2) Informational
access layer: the tools, the end user access to extract and analyze the data. 3) Data Access Layer:
the interface between the operational and informational access layer. 4) Metadata Layer: The
data directory or repository of metadata information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The concept of "data warehousing" dates back at least to the mid-1980s, and possibly earlier. In
essence, it was intended to provide an architectural model for the flow of data from operational
systems to decision support environments. It attempted to address the various problems
associated with this flow, and the high costs associated with it. In the absence of such an
architecture, there usually existed an enormous amount of redundancy in the delivery of
management information. In larger corporations it was typical for multiple decision support
projects to operate independently, each serving different users but often requiring much of the
same data. The process of gathering, cleaning and integrating data from various sources, often
legacy systems, was typically replicated for each project. Moreover, legacy systems were
frequently being revisited as new requirements emerged, each requiring a subtly different view
of the legacy data.

Based on analogies with real-life warehouses, data warehouses were intended as large-scale
collection/storage/staging areas for corporate data. From here data could be distributed to "retail
stores" or "data marts" which were tailored for access by decision support users (or
"consumers"). While the data warehouse was designed to manage the bulk supply of data from
its suppliers (e.g. operational systems), and to handle the organization and storage of this data,
the "retail stores" or "data marts" could be focused on packaging and presenting selections of the
data to end-users, to meet specific management information needs.

Somewhere along the way this analogy and architectural vision was lost, as some vendors and
industry speakers redefined the data warehouse as simply a management reporting database. This
is a subtle but important deviation from the original vision of the data warehouse as the hub of a
management information architecture, where the decision support systems were actually the data
marts or "retail stores".

Storage

In OLTP — online transaction processing systems relational database design use the discipline
of data modeling and generally follow the Codd rules of data normalization in order to ensure
absolute data integrity. Less complex information is broken down into its most simple structures
(a table) where all of the individual atomic level elements relate to each other and satisfy the
normalization rules. Codd defines 5 increasingly stringent rules of normalization and typically
OLTP systems achieve a 3rd level normalization. Fully normalized OLTP database designs often
result in having information from a business transaction stored in dozens to hundreds of tables.
Relational database managers are efficient at managing the relationships between tables and
result in very fast insert/update performance because only a little bit of data is affected in each
relational transaction.
OLTP databases are efficient because they are typically only dealing with the information around
a single transaction. In reporting and analysis, thousands to billions of transactions may need to
be reassembled imposing a huge workload on the relational database. Given enough time the
software can usually return the requested results, but because of the negative performance impact
on the machine and all of its hosted applications, data warehousing professionals recommend
that reporting databases be physically separated from the OLTP database.

In addition, data warehousing suggests that data be restructured and reformatted to facilitate
query and analysis by novice users. OLTP databases are designed to provide good performance
by rigidly defined applications built by programmers fluent in the constraints and conventions of
the technology. Add in frequent enhancements, and too many a database is just a collection of
cryptic names, seemingly unrelated and obscure structures that store data using incomprehensible
coding schemes; all factors that while improving performance, complicate use by untrained
people. Lastly, the data warehouse needs to support high volumes of data gathered over extended
periods of time and are subject to complex queries and need to accommodate formats and
definitions inherited from independently designed package and legacy systems.

Designing the data warehouse data Architecture synergy is the realm of Data Warehouse
Architects. The goal of a data warehouse is to bring data together from a variety of existing
databases to support management and reporting needs. The generally accepted principle is that
data should be stored at its most elemental level because this provides for the most useful and
flexible basis for use in reporting and information analysis. However, because of different focus
on specific requirements, there can be alternative methods for design and implementing data
warehouses. There are two leading approaches to organizing the data in a data warehouse: the
dimensional approach advocated by Ralph Kimball and the normalized approach advocated by
Bill Inmon. Whilst the dimension approach is very useful in data mart design, it can result in a
rats nest of long term data integration and abstraction complications when used in a data
warehouse .

In the "dimensional" approach, transaction data is partitioned into either a measured "facts"
which are generally numeric data that captures specific values or "dimensions" which contain the
reference information that gives each transaction its context. As an example, a sales transaction
would be broken up into facts such as the number of products ordered, and the price paid, and
dimensions such as date, customer, product, geographical location and salesperson. The main
advantages of a dimensional approach is that the data warehouse is easy for business staff with
limited information technology experience to understand and use. Also, because the data is pre-
joined into the dimensional form, the data warehouse tends to operate very quickly. The main
disadvantage of the dimensional approach is that it is quite difficult to add or change later
if the company changes the way in which it does business.

The "normalized" approach uses database normalization. In this method, the data in the data
warehouse is stored in third normal form. Tables are then grouped together by subject areas that
reflect the general definition of the data (customer, product, finance, etc.) The main advantage of
this approach is that it is quite straightforward to add new information into the database — the
primary disadvantage of this approach is that because of the number of tables involved, it can be
rather slow to produce information and reports. Furthermore, since the segregation of facts and
dimensions is not explicit in this type of data model, it is difficult for users to join the required
data elements into meaningful information without a precise understanding of the data structure.

Subject areas are just a method of organizing information and can be defined along any lines.
The traditional approach has subjects defined as the subjects or nouns within a problem space.
For example, in a financial services business, you might have customers, products and contracts.
An alternative approach is to organize around the business transactions, such as customer
enrollment, sales and trades.

Advantages

There are many advantages to using a data warehouse, some of them are:

• Data warehouses enhance end-user access to a wide variety of data.

• Decision support system users can obtain specified trend reports, e.g. the
item with the most sales in a particular area within the last two years.
• Data warehouses can be a significant enabler of commercial business
applications, particularly customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Concerns

• Extracting, transforming and loading data consumes a lot of time and

computational resources.
• Data warehousing project scope must be actively managed to deliver a
release of defined content and value.
• Compatibility problems with systems already in place.
• Security could develop into a serious issue, especially if the data warehouse
is web accessible.
• Data Storage design controversy warrants careful consideration and perhaps
prototyping of the data warehouse solution for each project's environments.

What Is E-Commerce?
Simply put, e-commerce is the online transaction of business, featuring linked computer systems
of the vendor, host, and buyer. Electronic transactions involve the transfer of ownership or rights
to use a good or service. Most people are familiar with business-to-consumer electronic business
(B2C). Common illustrations include Amazon.com, llbean.com, CompUSA.com,
travelocity.com, and hotels.com.

E-commerce can be divided into:

• E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered
into a "virtual mall"
• The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
 • Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
e-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers
(for example, with newsletters)
• Business-to-business buying and selling (B2B)

Uses of E-Commerce
E-Commerce can be used for many things including the following:

• E-Commerce can also help improve your business processes and information flows by
enabling you to communicate with other businesses faster and more efficiently.
• If you already sell goods or services in off-line situations (e.g. retail shops) you now have
the option of selling your goods and services online to a much wider audience and at
times not defined by normal trading hours.
• E-Commerce allows you to build better relationships with your customers and find new
customers as you are now global instead of local.

Where can E–Commerce be used?

E-Commerce is not to do with the technology itself – but is about the businesses that use the
technology to be more efficient and gain a wider customer base, increase consumer awareness
and gain an edge on your competitors. E-Commerce can be used in any situation where any
activities can be done better, electronically. It is the application of new technologies (namely the
Internet and the WWW) to existing business processes and practices, resulting in companies
conducting business better.
Steps to Creating an e-Commerce Site

When you begin planning your electronic commerce website there are a few steps that you
should follow before you ‘go live’.

They are:

1. Register a Domain Name

Internet addresses refer to the domain name typed into a web browser when you are looking for a
website. You need to have a domain name for your website which is your unique address on the
Internet. When you decide on your domain name (usually the best option is to have your
business name if it is still available) you will have to search to see whether it is still available. (If
you cannot have the domain name that you want, think of something that will easily identify
your business or something that is not too complicated and long.

It’s hard nowadays to get a good generic domain name (such as www.holiday.com)). Top level
domain names are administered by www.networksolutions.com and you can do a search there to
see whether the name you want is still available. If you want a country specific domain name,
then you will need to contact the companies that administer the domain names for that country.
For example, if I want a NZ domain name I could go to http://www.dnc.org.nz and look at all the
companies that register NZ domain names. From there, I can go to any of the company websites
and search for my domain name. If it is available, I then can register it for myself.

If you cannot have the domain name you want, think of something that will easily identify your
business or something that is not too complicated and long. It’s hard nowadays to get a good
generic domain name (such as www.holiday.com). Once you have registered your domain name
that will be your address on the World Wide Web. This registration will last for a certain amount
of time (usually 2 years) and when your time is nearly up, you will be reminded that your
registration is due to expire and would you like to continue with your registration.

2. Find an ISP

An account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is necessary if you wish to connect your
business to the Internet (or even if you wish to connect for personal use). There are many
companies that offer ISP services in all countries – both big and small.
(The best thing to do is decide what your business needs are for the internet and then shop
around the various ISP’s and see which services they offer. Then match your business needs with
services offered to obtain the best ISP for your business. Finding the right ISP is important for
businesses that are going to be online as not only will the standard of ISP service affect business
performance, but the costs involved in having an Internet connection can be expensive so you
need to make sure that you are receiving the services you require at a fair price.

2. Decide on Content & Graphics for your Site

If you are having a website created for you then your web developer will take care of the
navigation of the site as well as content and graphics placement according to what is standard in
the online Industry at that time. If you are creating your website yourself, then the following are
guidelines that you should follow in terms of content and graphics:

What is included in your website content will be dictated by whatever business you are running.
Choice of content is very important. There is nothing worse than visiting a website and having to
scroll through pages of text. Keep information simple and to the point.

Information about:

• Your business (including physical address, how long you have been in business etc)
• Services provided
• Prices
• Site map
• Contact information (including email addresses, contact online forms)
• Information for meta tags (HTML tags that have information that search engine bots
read)
• Privacy policy (your clients need to know that any information that they give you will not
be sold to anyone else or used inappropriately).

should be provided to your web developer or included yourself when designing your website.

If you are creating your own website remember - one of the most important points in web design
is navigation. Make it as simple as possible. The fastest way to have people leaving your site is
to have confusing navigation. Have alternate ways to go back to the home page, have
standardised tool bars and navigational buttons and offer a site map.

In terms of graphics – do not clutter your website with graphics. Not only will it affect download
times but it can be visually unattractive. Have images that are a maximum of 50 kilobytes in size
as this will ensure fast download speeds.

Colour schemes are also important. Try to stick to font colours that are easy to read e.g. do not
put a white font on a yellow background. Black font on a white background or a white font on a
navy or black background work best. Again, keep things simple. Don’t use a lot of colours as this
can make your website look cheap and amateurish. Have a look at some of the larger corporation
websites on the Internet and follow their guidelines.
Don’t use more than 2 types of fonts on a web page and keep your colours and fonts consistent
throughout the website. Remember that the website is an extension of your business – so use the
same colours and branding that you use in your offline advertisements and marketing.

4. Set Up a Merchant Account

A merchant account is an account with your bank that allows you to accept credit card payments
online. Assuming that you have an existing relationship with a bank or financial provider, you
will need to contact them to find out what is required in setting up a merchant account facility so
that you can accept credit card payments online. This could take a while to set up so make sure
that you start the process well prior to going live with your new electronic commerce website.

You should also consider offering an alternate payment method such as accepting credit card
numbers over the telephone or bank deposits. Many people are still unsure about giving credit
card numbers to a website (especially with the current level of credit card fraud around). A
secure website must also offer SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protection.

5. Comply with Fulfillment procedures

Regardless of whether you are a small company with a limited catalogue of products or a large
multi national with thousands of categories, there are standard items that any type of electronic
commerce solution must offer.

They are:

• Shopping cart capabilities

• Catalogue display
• Tools to manage the catalogue and storefront display choices
• Transaction processing

These capabilities can be provided by good e-commerce software solutions as well as setting up
a merchant account with your bank. You also need to consider having processes in place for the
actual distribution of the goods to the customer. This includes the packing and sending of items
to the customer and having systems set in place in case the customer sends the goods back to
you. There is also the post-sale customer support aspect that could be needed by your customers
and should be provided.

6. Create a Website

Finally you can create the website. If you are having a website created for you then you will be
involved in the creative process – giving your approval to the various prototypes that your web
developer should be making for you. If you are doing it yourself there are a few different
options. ISP’s sometimes offer the software or website development services that can help you
create your own electronic commerce websites.
Or you can create your own website yourself by using software such as Microsoft FrontPage or
(if you have HTML knowledge) Macromedia Dreamweaver. Additional software that manages
the product category, shopping trolley and payment facilities of the website can also be
purchased or provided by third parties (such as your ISP). E-commerce software will also have to
fit in with the requirements of your merchant bank. Your ISP support will help you with making
your website available on the Internet.

7. Market your Website

So now that the site has been created and up there on the World Wide Web, you need to employ
some marketing and advertising tactics to drive people to your website and let them know that
you are out there.

Some methods that you can use are:

• Include your email address and web site address on all offline marketing materials,
business cards, magazine advertising etc.
• Submit your website to search engine machines such as www.google.com and
www.aol.com. This will ensure that your website is indexed.
• Offer newsletters or email updates of the latest news concerning your business or your
products.
• Advertise or sponsor on other websites to drive traffic to your website.

Read the section Internet Marketing for comprehensive information.

8. Maintain your Website

Having your website go live is only the beginning. Your website is a living thing that needs to be
updated frequently and maintained. Content should be added so that interest in your website is
kept up and people re-visit your website. Any emails that you receive from the website should be
answered efficiently (i.e. Within a couple of days at the most!) as this shows how good (or bad)
your customer service is.

Information on your website should be current – especially if you are advertising products in
terms of product availability. Maintaining your website is ongoing and will cost. But a website is
important – for some customers it could be their first point of contact with you. By having
current information, new content, fast response to queries and good customer service you will
ensure that the investment that you have made in having a website is a fruitful one.