The Term Knowledge Worker in The Context of Todays Business World - Essay Example

What does the term Knowledge Worker mean in the context of today’s business world? A Knowledge Worker is a person who contributes to the work environment through his or knowledge as multi subject matter specialist. More than physical labor, a Knowledge Worker is expected to contribute through his knowledge and innovative thought process. Peter Drucker is probably the first person who coined the term Knowledge Worker Knowledge Worker Manual, 2009). Peter Drucker has explained that the main characteristic of Knowledge Workers is that they aspirations and their self reflections are professional or intellectual. They strongly demand that their intellectual property of knowledge becomes the basis of their accomplishments (Knowledge Worker Manual, 2009). Modern business world with its competitive nature demands innovations in all realms of operations. Let that of management, technology, marketing or any other business operation, innovation and knowledge on the latest market developments is a vital factor for success. In this context, the role of Knowledge Worker becomes of much relevance. With relevance to diversity in the global market, Knowledge Workers can prove competent in different roles contributing effectively for the company. What is the difference between information technology and information system? Information technology is the technological realm which deals the use of computers and computer based programs for the conversion, protection, processing, transmission and retrieval of information. In short it can be defined as the use of computers and software to manage data. (About.com,2009). On the other hand information system includes person, group of people or systems with in an organization which manages information. Information system may or may not include computer and computer based technologies. When Information technology mandatory include computers, Information system may or may not include that. Explain the differences between Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom. Why do you think the differences are important to the study, development and use of information systems? Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom are factors included in the hierarchy of wisdom. Data is the most fundamental form of all these and are factual information used as the basis for reasoning, discussion or calculation. The sources of data are enormous and the sensible filtering of these leads to the higher branches of the hierarchy. Information is the knowledge retrieved from the abundance of data after investigation, study or instruction. Knowledge is the scale or measure of one’s information. To an extent it defines how much a person is informative. The accumulation of philosophic and scientific knowledge becomes wisdom. This stage has data, information and knowledge at optimal levels. Define outsourcing and how is it used in organizations today? The process of sourcing services which are part of the business process of an organization from outside the organizational environment is called outsourcing. In the modern scenario of business, organizations are utilizing the scope of outsourcing to minimize cost and to maximize the quality of work. Outsourcing enables organizations to make use of low cost labor and services from different parts of the world. It also helps a company to deal with an activity which cannot be managed with in their infrastructural capacity. Manpower and resources from across the globe can be utilized by organizations through the process of outsourcing. It also helps organizations to ensure their global presence in the context of developments pertaining to globalization. This scope has made the outsourcing process to grow as an industry termed Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). What is Business intelligence? How do organizations use it for competitive advantage? Business Intelligence includes all the resources, practices and issues used to help business entities to understand the market behavior and other commercial aspects in relation with the business. The resources and technology involved in Business Intelligence helps in the process of collection, interpretation, integration, analysis and presentation of business information. In simple language, Business Intelligence resources help in the automation of the data flow. Various customized software are available in the market which facilitates Business Intelligence. In the modern day business these are vital for the companies to have readymade information as per the industry’s requirements. Globalization has made possible the chances for global presence of business entities. Moreover these developments have resulted in ever increasing competition in the market. This requires instant access to information and free inward and outward data flow. Customized systems pertaining to Business Intelligence help this process subsequently resulting in the excellence of the company. Imagine you are in charge of designing a new videoconferencing system for a large multinational. What are some features you would include as essential? Which features would be nice to have but not essential? The key features that would be included while designing a videoconferencing system would be online meeting, power point sharing and secure video conferencing. Online meetings would enable the company to have meetings with its counterparts around the globe. With this facility, the company can have easy, fast and cheap access to its clients and other important resource persons. Power point sharing would help the delegates in the meeting to make presentations with no reference to their geographic position. This facility increases the quality of information deliverance. Secure Video Conferencing, while ensuring the access of the company meetings across the globe also assures the data security and prevents possibilities of data insecurity. Some additional features which can be added in the conferencing system is desktop sharing and application sharing. These features would enable the remote access of the computer at the company for its officers across the globe. This would allow sharing of data from the source computer with other computers. Particular programs running on the server can also be used from remote corners of the world. However, these facilitates are not mandatory in nature. Compare and contrast click-and-mortar e-commerce strategies and click only strategies? List two examples of each. Click-and-mortar e-commerce strategy makes use of the benefits of internet based commerce while on the other hand sticking on their conventional methodology of business. This is the integration of existing market channels and their online presence. In this case the business entity would exist both physically and virtually. (Steinfield C,2002) The potential benefits of this model of ecommerce include lower costs, increased differentiation through value-added services, improved trust and geographic and product market extension. (Steinfield C, 2002) . Reduced risk is another advantage of this model of business. However, this model is less aggressive in market with comparison to click only ecommerce model. Ideal examples of companies doing Click-and-mortar e-commerce are ‘Barnes and Noble’ and ‘Digital Shoppy’. The click only e-commerce strategy has its complete dependency on ecommerce. This strategy also has the scope of limiting the cost, increased customer base and increased global visibility. Information sharing and round the clock services are added benefits of click only ecommerce. However, in comparison with the Click-and-mortar e-commerce model, the extension of reliability of the firm to the customers is tougher task in this model. Amazon.com and ebay are very successful companies based on this model. Explain what a revenue model is? How it relates to a business model? A revenue model explains the streams of revenue flow as far as the business model is concerned and would describe how each of the steam would bring in money. This model would be a benchmark to the feasibility of the business model. This will be ready scale for the feasibility of the business model. For example the revenue model statement would cite the mode of cash flow for sales and purchases and it would also mention the revenue involved in maintenance of inventory, details on sales commission etc. It will also include information on the general climate of the industry. Thus the revenue model would serve as a proof for the financial statement and cash flow involved in the business model. What types of regulations can be considered potential threats to ecommerce? The government regulations to prevent spam and spyware would evolve as potential threat to the scope of ecommerce. The governments are in the plan to establish various regulations to ecommerce activities as spam and spyware are causing serious issues pertaining to tax payment. State level and federal level laws are in formation which may regulate ecommerce in many ways. Explain the difference between forward auction and reverse auction in the context of e-auctions ? Forward auction in the context of e-auctions refer to the process by which a seller puts up item for sale for which multiple buyers compete with reference to price. The buyer quoting highest price manages to buy the product. In reverse auction the role of buyer and seller is reversed. The main motto of this process is to bring the price downward. This process happens when inter business procurement happens and it is basically a business strategy to bring the procurement price down. List and describe primary threats to information systems security? The most important threats to information security is as listed below. (Lin, P P, 2006) Viruses A computer virus is a program that can multiply itself. It can spread with the information network and disturb the smooth processing of information. These can create alter or damage data, steal information, or take control of the system functions. Some of these threats include Trojan horses, logic bombs, worms, spam, spyware, and adware. Insider abuse of Internet access It can also happen that the work force within the business environment may inappropriately utilize the scope of internet access. This would hugely affect the productivity of the organization. It can also result in mishandling of data and extension of data to non reliable sources. Terminal theft The robbery of the terminals of information system especially the mobile ones like laptops and PDA can cause serious security threat to the whole system. Denial of Service Automated service requests flooded to the server can result in the server to have problem in responding to the original requests. This can cause disruption in the data flow and even financial loss for the business. Other major threats which can affect the information system security are sabotage, website defacement, misuse of public web applications, financial fraud, theft of proprietary information, telecom fraud, system penetration, abuse of wireless networks and unauthorized access to information. (Lin, P P, 2006) Explain why is it necessary to conduct a risk analysis as a first step in creating an information systems security plan? The process of risk analysis primarily includes identification of potential risks in the information system. It also evaluates the impacts of these potential threats. Further the risk analysis process recommends the measures for reducing the risk as well. The risk analysis process serves as a benchmark for formulating the security plan for the information system. The primary output of this measure helps the identification of optimal control measures for eliminating or reduction of risk. (Stoneburner G, Goguen A, and Feringa A, 2002). A clear cut strategy for the risk mitigation process is evolved as a result of risk analysis. The process of risk analysis cover the steps including System Characterization ,Threat Identification ,Vulnerability Identification , Control Analysis ,Likelihood Determination ,Impact Analysis ,Risk Determination ,Control Recommendations and Results Documentation . (Stoneburner G, Goguen A, and Feringa A, 2002) Contrast technological safeguards and human safeguards in information systems security? With reference to the information systems the technology, policy and procedures that are used to protect the information system and the access to it can be termed as technological safeguards. These include technological and automated measures associated with the information system which is meant to ensure the security of the system. The surveillance, remote monitoring, development of security updates, technical oversight, evaluation of safeguard equipments and other technical security resources will be provided by technological safeguards. In comparison with human safeguards, the accuracy level, continued surveillance, low maintenance cost all are positive features of technological safeguards. Antivirus systems, password securities, online security, data verification all are example for technological safeguard measures. Human safeguard refer to the policies and procedures within an organization for operating the Information system. These would include clear cut regulations on the access and other concerned operations. The administrator would be in charge of human safeguard in the context of Information system security. Access regulations, administrator rights, user protocols are examples of regulations administrated for sake of human safeguard. Describe the difference between ‘online processing’ and ‘batch processing’? In online processing the input process is done directly to the central server. This would that the first user directly enters the data. This data is validated and updated to the master file. No batch file is created in this case. In comparison with batch processing, online processing is a much faster process. The online processing application has the capacity to handle individual transactions in a small quantum of time. (Integrated Publishing, 2009). It provides extremely fast access to limited data on random basis. The transaction being done at an ATM is an ideal example for this. Batch processing is a convenient utility when large amount of data is involved and can afford to have ample response time. In this case the data is collected over a period of time, manually verified and then machine processes. The input data is stored as batch files which are run through a validation process. This is to ensure the accuracy of data in comparison with the manual verification. (Integrated Publishing, 2009). A good example for batch processing is the processing of payroll for a large firm with huge number of staff. Batch processing is efficient and economical when larger amount of data is involved. It is the blend of both the applications which make concurrent systems fast and efficient. Explain what are the models used in Decision Support Systems architectures? Decision Support System is an information system that is resourceful in supporting business and organizational decision making process. This system helps the decision makers to evolve with resourceful information utilizing the raw data. The three fundamental models used in Decision Support System architecture are the database management system (DBMS), the model-base management system (MBMS), and the dialog generation and management system (DGMS) . How can data mining and visualization be used to gain business intelligence and improve decision making? Data mining can be defined as the process of data analysis all possible perspectives and converting the source data into specific useful information. Generally the process involves the conversion of raw data into reports that can used for profitability analysis, cost deduction and all other reports pertaining to different aspects covered by the data. Data mining software is an efficient tool for the analysis of data. Technically speaking, data mining process evaluates the correlation or patters existing among different fields in larges databases. This would allow the visualization of data efficiently helping the industry and organizational performance analysis process. The report generation becomes quick and accessible at desired levels. This would pin point points for improvement and lacunas in the current operation. Resultantly the decision making process becomes easy for every stream of workers at their own level within the organization. What is a knowledge management system and what types of technologies would make up a comprehensive knowledge management system? Knowledge Management System is the system which manages and maintains technical knowledge with in an organizational setup so as to facilitate the creation, storage, acquirement and dissemination of information. Such a system is vital in the success of an organization especially ones which deal with wide range of activities and industries. This helps in the sharing of vital organizational information, documentation of intellectual property and reduced efforts in employee orientation. A comprehensive Knowledge Management System should include Purpose, Context, Participants and Instruments. The system must be so designed to adhere with the core objectives of the organization. The system must be able to replicate the information as per the context of the situation. For the successful operation of a Knowledge Management System, the participants must be trained and properly networked. All the tools and software for the sharing, processing and acquirement of information must be readily available. Describe what enterprise systems are and how they are evolved? Enterprise Systems includes systems which provide integrated solutions to all the users of the business environment serving the entire range of business activities like Accounting, Budgeting, e-commerce, Human Resource Management and many others. The main point of advantage is that it serves all these departments through a single integrated database and has a single window data entry and retrieval system resultantly improvising the accuracy of the departmental activities. The essential prerequisite for the optimization of varied activities involved in modern business scenarios like e-commerce is the integration of information system. This would allow the clear cut exploration of the possible value additions within the company and would aid the design of business process that would minimize cost and maximize the profits. However this process of integration of the multitude of business activities involved a number of challenges. These challenges made the business engineers think of the possibility of a single database clustering the data from different departments within itself and providing a tailor made query system. This resulted in the development of Enterprise Resource Planning systems and it gradually evolved and expanded to serve as a single window solution for business data and process management. It served as a single interface for data entry for people involved in the company, despite the variation in department or geographic position. The data entry was to be made only once making the whole process more accurate and on the other side reducing labor and cost involved. Moreover the processes of analysis, reporting, planning and management was automated and integrated. Resultantly the policy makers were able to diverge more time and cost into innovation, crisis management and customer service rather than wasting time on inputting, processing, organizing and verifying the data (Curran A, T. Ladd A ,2006). In totality Enterprise Resource Planning Systems evolved from the need of integrating the business functions involved in the modern complex business scenarios. What is autonomic computing? Autonomic computing refers to the ability of the systems to be more self managing. This term was coined by IBM referring to the autonomic nervous system. The developments in the computing industry have resulted in complexity. However, the cost for managing this complexity is increasing day by day. Autonomic computing will free the administrators from recurring management and operational tasks. They will be able to concentrate more on the original business objectives. View the four sites suggested and write a paragraph on which technologies and issues seem to be most current and important to business managers? The main feature covered in the site http://computerworld.com/ is the encryption of the whole hard disk. This would an enhanced security feature. In this case only the actual owner or the file will be able to operate and manage the file. Business Managers can thus secure their data from unauthorized access. Cio.com explains the scope of outsourcing through the success story of the most successful outsourcing firms. Another key concept that is described in these websites is the ethical management of power. This concept would be key in the management scenario in the coming years. References Knowledge Worker Manual, “What Is A Knowledge Worker”, Borgess Navigation Centre, http://navcenter.borgess.com/KworkerManual/ePages/front_page/kw_def.html( accessed 27 January 2009) About,com, “Information Technology - Definition and History”, http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careersintechnology/p/ITDefinition.htm, ( accessed 27 January 2009) Ahsan S & Abad S, “Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom: A Doubly Linked Chain?”, Research and Development Center of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, http://ww1.ucmss.com/books/LFS/CSREA2006/IKE4628.pdf, , ( accessed 27 January 2009) Steinfield C, 2002, Understanding Click and Mortar E-Commerce Approaches: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda’, Journal of interactive advertising, 2 No.2 (Spring, 2002), http://www.jiad.org/article19 , ( accessed 27 January 2009) Lin, P P, 2006, System Security Threats and Controls, The CPA Journal, (July, 2006) http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/706/essentials/p58.htm,( accessed 27 January 2009) Stoneburner G, Goguen A, and Feringa A, 2002, Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems, Computer Security, (July 2002), http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-30/sp800-30.pdf,( accessed 27 January 2009) Integrated Publishing, “Online V/s Batch Processing”, http://www.tpub.com/content/armymedical/MD0057/MD00570089.htm ,( accessed 27 January 2009) Curran A, T. Ladd A (2006) Desktop ERP in Thomas A Curran & Andrew Ladd (Ed.) Understanding Enterprise Supply chain management (pp.17-18), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Books Read More