Fadhilat Solat Terawih

Malam 1 : keluar dosa-dosa orang mukmin pada malam pertama sepertimana ia baru dilahirkan, mendapat keampunan dari Allah.

Malam 2 : diampunkan dosa-dosa orang mukmin yang sembahyang terawih serta kedua ibubapanya (sekiranya mereka orang beriman).

Malam 3 : berseru Malaikat di bawah ‘Arasy supaya kami meneruskan sembahyang terawih terus menerus semoga Allah mengampunkan dosa engkau.

Malam 4 : memperolehi pahala ia sebagaimana pahala orang-orang yang membaca kitab-kitab Taurat, Zabur, Injil dan Al-Quran.

Malam 5 : Allah kurniakan baginya pahala seumpama orang sembahyang di Masjidilharam, Masjid Madinah dan Masjidil Aqsa.

Malam 6 : Allah kurniakan pahala kepadanya pahala Malaikat-malaikat yang tawaf di Baitul Ma’mur (70 ribu Malaikat sekali tawaf), serta setiap batu-batu dan tanah-tanah mendoakan supaya Allah mengampunkan dosa-dosa orang yang mengerjakan sembahyang terawih poda malam ini.

Malam 7 : Seolah-olah ia dapat bertemu dengan Nabi Musa serta menolong Nabi ‘Alaihissalam nenentang musuh ketatnya Fir’aun dan Hamman.

Malam 8 : Allah mengurniakan pahala orang sembahyang terawih sepertimana yang telah dikurniakan kepada Nabi Allah Ibrahim ‘Alaihissalam.

Malam 9 : Allah kurniakan pahala dan dinaikkan mutu ibadat hambanya seperti Nabi Muhammad S.A.W.

Malam 10 : Allah Subhanahuwata’ala mengurniakan kepadanya kebaikan di dunia dan di akhirat.

Malam 11 : Keluar ia daripada dunia (mati) bersih daripada dosa seperti ia baharu dilahirkan.

Malam 12 : Datang ia pada hari Qiamat dengan muka yang bercahaya (cahaya ibadatnya).

Malam 13 : Datang ia pada hari Qiamat dalam aman sentosa daripada tiap-tiap kejahatan dan keburukan.

Malam 14 : datang Malaikat menyaksikan ia bersembahyang terawih, serta Allah tiada menyesatkannya pada hari Qiamat.

Malam 15 : Semua Malaikat yang menanggung ‘Arasy, Kursi, berselawat dan mendoakannya supaya Allah mengampunkannya.

Malam 16 : Allah subhanahuwata’ala tuliskan baginya terlepas daripada neraka dan dimasukkan ke dalam Syurga.

Malam 17 : Allah kurniakan orang yang berterawih pahalanya pada malam ini sebanyak pahala Nabi-Nabi.

Malam 18 : Seru Malaikat : Hai hamba Allah sesungguhnya Allah telah redha kepada engkau dan ibubapa engkau (yang masih hidup atau mati)

Malam 19 : Allah Subhanahuwata’ala tinggikan darjatnya di dalam Syurga Firdaus.

Malam 20 : Allah kurniakan kepadanya pahala sekelian orang yang mati syahid dan orang-orang solihin.

Malam 21 : Allah binakan sebuah istana dalam Syurga daripada nur.

Malam 22 : Datang ia pada hari Qiamat aman daripada tiap-tiap dukacita dan kerisauan (tidaklah dalam keadaan huru-hara di Padang Masyar).

Malam 23 : Allah Subhanahuwataala binakan kepadanya sebuah bandar di dalam Syurga daripada nur.

Malam 24 : Allah buka peluang 24 doa yang mustajab bagi orang berterawih malam ini, (elok sekali berdoa ketika dalam sujud)

Malam 25 : Allah Taala angkatkan daripada siksa kubur.

Malam 26 : Allah kurniakan kepada orang berterawih pahala pada malam ini seumpama 40 tahun ibadat.

Malam 27 : Allah kurniakan orang berterawih pada malam ini ketangkasan melintas atas titian Sirotolmustaqim seperti kilat menyambar.

Malam 28 : Allah Subhanahuwataala kurniakan kepadanya pahala 1000 darjat di akhirat.

Malam 29 : Allah Subhanahuwataala kurniakan kepadanya pahala 1000 kali haji yang mabrur.

Malam 30 : Allah Subhanahuwataala beri penghormatan kepada orang berterawih pada malam terakhir ini yang teristimewa sekali, lalu berfirman:
“Hai hambaKu : makanlah segala jenis buah-buahan yang engkau ingini hendak makan di dalam syurga, dan mandilah engkau dariapda air syurga yang bernama Salsabila, serta munumlah air daripada telaga yang dikurniakan kepada Nabi Muhammad S.A.W. yang bernama ‘Al-Kauthar’.”

P/S: Selamat menjalankan ibadah puasa.

Ramadhan Menjelang

Ingat lagi masa zaman budak-budak, time bulan posa ni lah time yang paling best… best sebab apa, sebab mak aku bagi main sampai malam2.. lesen besar keluar umah beb!! syok giler.. main mercun, belum nak bulan posa, mercun , bunga api sumer dah siap kumpul… nak tunggu memalam nak tengok bunga api rasa tenang jiwa kanak2 ku ahakss..

Internet

INTERNET

Discussion Question

Q1.Instant messaging is being widely used today. Describe how this technology could be used in a business setting. Are there any drawbacks or limitations to using instant messaging in a business setting?

 

Answer

Instant message presents some of the same benefits to business users as to home users: it allows you to communicate with colleagues, customers and partners at a distance in real time, like the telephone, while avoiding the hefty long distance rates that apply during normal business hours. The growing popularity of Voice over IP (VoIP) services is taking some of this advantage away, as companies can now utilize the Internet to place telephone calls at a substantial savings over the traditional phone system. Nonetheless, instant message continues to be the communications method of choice for many because it provides more of a “personal” link than e-mail, while being a bit less intrusive than the telephone. Instant message is handy for dual communications. For example, you can get information from a colleague via instant message while you’re on the phone with a customer, without having to disrupt the telephone conversation. IM can also be useful for quick communications in emergencies, as the Internet may remain functional during an outage of regular telephone services.Instant message can save time and effort. With instant message, you type a quick message, hit “send” and a few seconds later, your message pops up on the recipient’s screen. Along with eliminating the lag in e-mail response time, instant message cuts out the necessary “chit chat” of a phone call and often lets you avoid the tiresome game of voicemail tag. In short, instant message is a superb way to quickly communicate with a colleague, partner or supplier. The colleges within an organization get interacted using email, can sharing the file, sending document however what the instant messaging can do more, is that it more on real time and spontaneous respond, and can do the video conferencing therefore the sharing of file and document or whatever discussion can be done at the same time at their own station. It is make the decision and discussion more mobile.

 

The drawbacks or limitations to use instant messaging in a business setting can be seen in situations as follows:

 

· Decreased productivity. When used improperly, instant message can be an ongoing distraction for employees. In fact, 58 percent of instant message users engage in personal chat at work, according to the Workplace E-Mail and Instant Messaging Survey.

· Employees may also be more prone to abuse instant message for personal use on the job than the telephone, since it’s easier to “look as if you’re working” while typing instant messages than to disguise the personal nature of a phone call if you’re in an open office.

· Staff may be got distracted by the instant messaging, there are possibilities of discussing more personal than business.

· Instant messaging is more personal and individualized, therefore spreading an information where included a bigger group email should be more appropriate.

 

 

Q8. Outline the process to create a Web Page. What computer hardware and software do you need if you wish to create a web home page containing both sound and pictures?

 

Answer:

 

The process to create a web page :-

 

1. Gather Information

2. Determine the Intended Audience

3. Create a Storyboard

4. Plan Your Navigational Tools

5. Create an Aesthetically Appealing Webpage

6. Establish Credibility

 

Part 1 – Creating a Simple Web Page in Word

Using MS Word (Word) to develop your site. Note that you can use any other Web development software for creating the web page.

1. Creating Web Page

To create a Web page, use the following procedure:

1. Create a folder to store your Web page and the related files. Name it Anything you want. This could be on a disk storage or the network.

2. Start MS Word; the blank body of an unnamed file should appear on the screen. This is a standard text processing file, which you can convert into a Web page using simple steps that follow.

3. In the upper bar menu, click File, and then click Save As. This pops up the window called “Save As”. (Note: this sequence of selecting menu options will further be noted as – click File/Save As).

4. In the field called “Save as type:” click on the arrow displayed. Click Web Page in the drop-down list that opens up.

5. In the “File name” field, type: index. You just need to type the first part of the file name, while Word will automatically assign the .htm” extension. If you have a reason for assigning the full “.html” extension, then name your file – index.html. 6. Make sure to save the file in the My Web Site folder. Click the Save button So, you can see that developing a Web page with Word is as easy as creating a standard Word file. What you do not see is that Word creates the markup code (called HTML and XML) in the background as you are creating your page. To see this code, click View/HTML Source in the upper bar menu. (Note: may not work on every computer.) Note that you can also use the above procedure for converting an already created Word file into an HTML file.

2. Inserting Links into Web pages

To insert a hypertext link (link) in your Web page,

1. Place the cursor where you want a link to get inserted

2. In the upper bar menu, click Insert/Hyperlink

3. In the Insert Hyperlink window, click in the field “Text to Display:” (the field is

the blank line used for accepting your input)

4. Type in the text you want to be displayed in your page

5. Click the field “Type the file or Web page name:” (In some versions of Word, this

may be called “Address”.

 

6. Type in the name of the Web address of some Web page or site – use the name of

the page that you will create later in this lab and will link it to your index.htm page. (Sometimes, there are some address choices listed in the field “Or select from list:”, and so you just need to click a desired address.) You can use a similar procedure to the one above to insert an email address link. The format of email addresses is: emailto:userid@machinename; e.g., mailto:piched@ms.umanitoba.ca.

3. Creating Content of Web Page

To create text, type in as you would normally enter text in a word processor. Be sure to

select a font that is commonly used in the Web (e.g., Verdana). You can manipulate colour, size and other features the same way you do when creating a standard Word file. If you are getting a too large spacing between lines after pressing Enter, you can get lines

closer by using Shift and Enter pressed together rather than Enter. To format text for easer use of your Web site visitors, it is useful to put some pieces of text in “bullets.” These short text lines are technically called ordered list (each line marked by a number) and unordered lists (what we usually call “bullets” – some graphical symbol starts each line). For grouping text in multiple columns and other formations, you can insert a table a then use its cells for grouping the text. Note that you will need to create another page in addition to your index.htm. You should build links into each of the pages that references the other page.

4. Inserting Images

To insert an image from an external file, use the following procedure:

1. Place the cursor in the page where you want the image to be inserted

2. In the top bar menu, click Insert/Picture/From File

3. In Insert Picture menu, click the drop-down list to select the drive where the image file is

4. Click the name of the file

Note: You can save image files right off the Web by right-clicking an image displayed in

your Web browser and then selecting Save Picture As…

Word automatically creates a folder containing your image files. Note that this folder

must be uploaded to the web server along with your Web pages for your Web site to

work properly since the images are not saved in the Web page file. If you have a good reason to bypass this automatic creation of supporting folders, you will need to go to the Tools/Options; then select General/Web options Under the Files tab remove the checkmark in the checkbox for Organizing Supporting Files in a Folder. You can also set a background to your Web pages. To insert a background:

1. In the upper bar menu, click Format/Background

2. Click the color you want

To include a picture as the background,

1. In the upper bar menu, click Format/Background

2. Click Fill Effects…, and choose further options in the tabs and dialog boxes that follow Further background formatting capabilities are available through the Theme… function ion the Format menu.

Sometimes you need to separate parts of a page by horizontal lines. These can be decorative too. To insert a line,

1. Click where you want to insert the line

2. On the Format menu, click Borders and Shading

3. Select the Horizontal Line button

4. Click the line that you want to insert, and then click the Insert clip icon or click

the OK button With these procedures learned, you are ready for creating simple Web pages

When you are done, make sure to save your file.

 

 

 

Q10. One of the key issues associated with the development of a web site is getting people to visit it. If you were developing a web site, how would you inform others about it and make it interesting enough that they would return and also tell others about it?

 

Answer :

 

There are several strategies that can be used in order to get people to visit my Web page. The most important techniques are:-

 

· Search engine strategies. Perhaps the most important — and inexpensive — strategy is to rank high for your preferred words on the main search engines in “organic” or “natural” searches (as opposed to paid ads). Search engines send robot “spiders” to index the content on your webpage, so let’s begin with steps to prepare your webpages for optimal indexing. They idea here is not to trick the search engines, but to leave them abundant clues as to what your webpage is about.

1) Write a Page Title.

2) Write a Description and Keyword META Tag

3) Include Your Keywords in Header Tags H1, H2, H3

4) Make Sure Your Keywords Are in the First Paragraph of Your Body Text

5) Use Keywords in Hyperlinks

6) Make Your Navigation System Search Engine Friendly

7) Develop Several Pages Focused on Particular Keywords

Submit Your Webpage URL to Search Engines

9) Fine-tune with Search Engine Optimization

10) Promote Your Local Business on the Internet

 

· Linking Strategies. Links to your site from other sites bring additional traffic. But since Google and other major search engines consider the number of incoming links to your website (“link popularity”) as an important factor in ranking, more links will help you rank higher in the search engines, too.

 

1) Submit Your Site to Key Directories

2) Submit Your Site to Industry Sites and Specialized Directories

3) Begin a Business Blog

 

· Traditional strategies. Just because “old media” strategies aren’t on the Internet doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. A mixed media approach can be very effective.

 

1) Include Your URL on Stationery, Cards, and Literature

2) Promote using traditional media

3) Develop a Free Service

 

· E-mail strategies. Don’t neglect e-mail as an important way to bring people to your website. Just don’t spam. That is, don’t send bulk unsolicited e-mails without permission to people with whom you have no relationship.

 

1) Install a “Signature” in your E-Mail Program

2) Publish an E-Mail Newsletter

3) Send Offers to Your Visitors and Customers

4) Rent targeted e-mail lists

 

· Miscellaneous Strategies.

 

1) Promote Your Site in Online Forums and Blogs

2) Ask Visitors to Bookmark Your Site

3) Exchange Ads with Complementary Businesses

 

 

Intelligent System

CASE 2 : EXPERT SYSTEM PROVIDES SAFETY IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

 

DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. What features are essential in an expert system responsible for safety of something as potentially dangerous as a nuclear power plant?

· Enable organization to automate aspects of their operation that have historically required the direct human expert.

· Create and interpret fault-free diagrams

· A graphical model illustrating the pathways within a system with logical construct

· Can identify the weakness and points of failure

· Can quickly assess the risks of various types of problems that can adversely impact the plant’s reliability and safety.

· Provide consistency

· Reduces time and effort it takes to make important plant decisions.

2. What characteristic of the process of probabilistic safety analysis do you think led TEPCO to believe that it could be automated in an expert system?

· The aspects of operation that can be automated is those processes that have historically required the direct attention of human experts. Moreover the engineer might take days or even weeks to work through a fault-tree analysis. This tedious process struck TEPCO for automation option in an expert system.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

3. What other industries would benefit from a product such as FT-Free? Why?

The industries that might benefit from FT-Free are:

· Electric Utility industry

· Oil & Gas Companies (the Oil Rigs)

· Chemical companies

· And other business or plant that highly exposed to hazardous.

Those industries might need the FT-Free, is that they share same characteristic of danger or hazard mitigation. Theirs plant are sizeable, operating 24 hours, the default or accident will cause damage to other industries which use their facility.

4. Why do you think TEPCO decided to package and market its FT-Free system to other power companies?

With using FT-Free system ,they found that the engineers drive critical decision about a plant’s process configuration and its operational safety procedures. The system can do in minutes what used to take days or weeks. Not only it is a huge time saver, but it also provides consistency that was previously lacking.

Is this a wise move in terms of competitive advantage?

In term of business wise, may be TEPCO has narrowed the gap of technology advantage between them and other power companies, however everything come with price if the FT-Free system is justifiable enough for TEPCO then why not they share the technology with other company. At the end of the day, it’s the price that matter.

Network

NETWORK

CASE STUDY: CASE 1 – STOP & SHOP CUSTOMERS MAKE A NEW BUDDY

DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. In what ways does Shopping Buddy provide benefits and conveniences for Stop & Shop customers?

Shopping Buddy provide benefits & conveniences for Stop& Shop customers due to the followings:

 

· Time saving

· Customer can verify theirs buying list

· Do not have to line up at the register – speed up the purchase

· Easy payment – transaction done by transferring or deduction from the customer account

· To find the goods in the store

 

1. How does the Shopping Buddy system assist the Royal Ahold Corporation in understanding its clientele and the Stop & shop store owners in running a smooth and effective operation?

Shopping Buddy system can assist Royal Ahold Corporation in understanding its clientele and Stop & Shop store owners in running a smooth and effective through it system that be able to :

 

· Determine or track the type, brand of goods that highly demanded by its customer.

· Can smoothen the payment process at the register

· Stop & Shop owners can monitor the stocks by reviewing the customer buying record. It’s made store/stocks management more efficient and easier.

· Can determine the Shopping pattern of its clients, it even can track and market its client individually.

 

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

1. What issues of security and privacy are introduced through the wireless system of Shopping Buddy?

The security issues of privacy introduced through the wireless system of Shopping Buddy are as follow:

 

· The potentially being robbed – client do not have to bring along the cash

All the purchases will automatically be deducted from the Shopping Buddy device to the check out system.

 

1. In what types of businesses would you expect systems such as Shopping Buddy to begin cropping up? How might devices such as Shopping Buddy assist customer making large purchases such as automobile or even homes?

Shopping Buddy also suitable to be used in businesses such as :

 

· The department store

· Book Store

· Any store actually.

 

But I think the Shopping Buddy will do little, in large purchases such as

automobile and homes because, Shopping Buddy is most suitable to a routine purchases like grocery, and it repetitious purchases. While for home and automobile it’ s more like a one off purchases, there’s not much can be done to create bonding with the customer.

E-Commerce

Q3.Do research to learn more about the use of WAP and other specifications being developed to support m-commerce. Briefly describe the specifications you uncover. Who is behind the development of these standards? Which standards seem to be gaining the broadest acceptance? Prepare a one-to two-page report for you instructor.

Answer:

 

What is WAP?

Wireless Application Protocol or WAP is an open international standard for applications that use wireless communication. Its principal application is to enable access to the internet from a mobile phone or PDA. A WAP browser is designed to provide all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but simplified to operate within the restrictions of a mobile phone. WAP is now the protocol used for the majority of the world’s mobile internet sites, known as WAP sites.

 

What is m-commerce?

Short for mobile e-commerce, m-commerce is the term used to describe the growing trend of using networks that interface with wireless devices, such as laptops, handheld computers or mobile phones to initiate or complete online electronic commerce transactions. May also be senn written as M-commerce or mcommerce.

The influence of wireless technology is seen everywhere these days. Whether it is sending text messages, making wireless telephone calls, accessing remote information, or connecting to the Internet, wireless technology is having a major impact on people’s lives all across the globe. Early on the framers of wireless technology realized that defining a common set of wireless protocols would help put wireless technology development on the fast track, and help prevent the proprietary bottlenecks often faced in other areas of development. Thus WAP came into existence.

WAP is a standardized technology for cross-platform, distributed computing, very similar to the Internet’s combination of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), except that it includes one vital feature: optimization for low-display capability, low-memory, and low-bandwidth devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless phones, and pagers.

The major accomplishment of WAP is that it has managed to the major extent to overcome the drawbacks of handheld devices – small screens, low memory and low bandwidth.

WAP allows wireless devices to view specifically designed pages from the Internet, using only plain text and very simple black-and-white pictures. The WAP programming code at the Web site has to be explicitly designed and written for the micro-browser used in that specific model of WAP device. The pages themselves have to be small, because data speed on mobile phones is limited. Also, the WAP-enabled devices have screens of different shapes and sizes, so the same page can look very different depending on the actual device we are using, quite independently of the version of the micro-browser being used in the phone itself.

There are a number of interesting benefits for WAP-enabled mobile system users. They are:

§ It is portable and easy to use,

§ One can access to a wide variety of services on a competitive market,

§ WAP services can be personalized and get fast, convenient, and efficient access to services,

§ WAP devices are coming in different forms, such as pagers, handheld PCs, phones and PDAs

Here comes a number of exciting services that WAP brings to mobile users. Actually most of the online services that we have today can be of interest to the wireless community also. The respective fields are Banking, Finance, Shopping, Ticketing, Entertainment, Weather and Advanced phonebook management.

WAP also opens new possibilities for service and content providers. There are numerous Web and WAP sites that are providing WAP applications.

WAP forum was formed for the purpose of creating standards for various tools and software for developing WAP sites. Having found that HTML is not fit for WAP development due to several inherent reasons, WAP forum created a new markup language called Wireless Markup Language (WML), an offshoot of eXensible Markup Language (XML). WML is bound to overcome many of the issues facing mobile devices.

Recently, the WAP forum released WAP 2.0, which successfully accomplish several objectives that are not found in the earlier releases. WAP 2.0 provides support for protocols such as TCP and HTTP. WAP 2.0 permits applications and services to operate over all existing and foreseeable air interface technologies and their bearers. WAP 2.0 facilitates a rich application environment which enables delivery of information and interactive services to digital mobile phones, pagers, PDAs and other wireless devices. It minimize the use of device processing power and optimize network resources in order to minimize costs and maximize performance. Finally, it incorporates flexibility, enabling a variety of user interface (UI) designs for manufacturers to differentiate themselves according to device form factor and target market requirements.

In the previous versions of WAP, a WAP proxy, often referred to as a WAP gateway, was required to handle the protocol interworking between the client and the origin server. The WAP proxy communicated with the client using the WAP protocols that are based largely on Internet communication protocols, and it communicated with the origin server using the standard Internet protocols. WAP 2.0 does not require a WAP proxy, since the communication between the client and the origin server can be conducted using HTTP/1.1. However, deploying a WAP proxy can optimize the communications process and may offer mobile service enhancements, such as location, privacy, and presence-based services.

In addition to the application environment and the increases in capability of the micro-browser, WAP 2.0 also supports other features to improve the user experience. These features expand the capabilities of the wireless devices and improve the ability to deliver useful applications and services.

1. WAP Push – This service allows content to be sent or pushed to devices by server-based applications via a Push Proxy

2. User Agent Profile (UAProf) – This service provides a mechanism for describing the capabilities of clients and the preferences of users to an application server

3. Wireless Telephony Application (WTA) – This service provides tools that provide for a range of advanced telephony applications to be operated from within the application environment that traditionally supports data functionality.

4. External Functionality Interface (EFI) – This service specifies the interface between WAE and components or entities with embedded applications that execute outside of the defined WAE capabilities. This is analogous to providing a plug-in module, which extends or enhances the capabilities of browsers or other applications.

5. Persistent Storage Interface – This capability specifies a standard set of storages services that are coupled with a well-defined interface for organizing, accessing, storing and retrieving data on the wireless device or other connected memory device.

6. Data Synchronization – To ensure a common solution framework, WAP 2.0 has adopted the SyncML language as its choice for the data synchronization solution.

7. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) – This service provides features and functionality that permits delivery of varied types of content.

8. Provisioning – This service provides a standard approach to providing WAP clients with information needed to operate on the wireless networks.

9. Pictogram – This service permits the use of tiny images that can be used to quickly convey concepts that permit efficient communication.

There are a number of WAP editors and emulators for WAP development. Apart from these, there exists a few software developer kits (SDKs) and integrated development environments (IDEs) such as Nokia WAP Toolkit and Phone.com SDK for creating WML files and testing them. Also there is a software tool called as Pic2wbmp that can convert images from PhotoShop (PSD files) into WBMP (Wireless bitmap image)

 

Who is behind the development of these standards?

The telecommunication and the software developer companies.

Which standard seems to be gaining the broadest acceptance?

The standard which gaining the broadest acceptance is the WAP for mobile phone, and most of it using the Java application

Database

QUESTION CHAPTER 5

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

 

Knowledge management (KM) may refer to the ways organizations gather, manage, and use the knowledge that they acquire. The term also designates an approach to improving organizational outcomes and organizational learning by introducing into an organization a range of specific processes and practices for identifying and capturing knowledge, know-how, expertise and other intellectual capital, and for making such knowledge assets available for transfer and reuse across the organization.

Knowledge management programs are typically tied to specific organizational objectives and are intended to lead to the achievement of specific targeted results such as improved performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of innovation.

While knowledge transfer (an aspect of KM) has always existed in one form or another, for example through on-the-job discussions with peers, formally through apprenticeship, professional training and mentoring programmes, and — since the late twentieth century — technologically through knowledge bases, expert systems, and other knowledge repositories, KM programs seek to consciously evaluate and manage the process of accumulation and application of intellectual capital. KM has therefore brought together various strands of thought and practice relating to:

· intellectual capital and the knowledge worker in the knowledge economy

· the idea of the learning organization;

· various enabling organizational practices such as Communities of Practice and corporate Yellow Page directories for accessing key personnel and expertise;

· and various enabling technologies such as knowledge bases and expert systems, help desks, corporate Intranets and extranets, Content Management, Wikis, and Document Management.

 

While Knowledge Management programs are closely related to Organizational Learning initiatives, Knowledge Management may be differentiated from Organizational Learning by its greater focus on the management of specific knowledge assets. The rise of KM has seen an increasing understanding of the relevance of the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, sophisticated perspectives on the management, assessment and use of intellectual capital, and the emergence of new organizational roles and responsibilities such as the position of Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO).

Key Concepts in knowledge management

1) Tacit versus explicit knowledge

A key distinction made by KM practitioners is between tacit and explicit knowledge. Some scholars add one more category, implicit knowledge, but most presume there are two kinds. The former is often subconscious and internalised, and individuals may or may not be aware of what they know and how they accomplish particular results. At the opposite end of the spectrum is explicit knowledge — this refers to knowledge that individuals hold explicitly and consciously in mental focus, and may communicate to others, and especially to such knowledge when codified into written or another permanent form. Note that there is a partial inconsistency between the definition of tacit and explicit knowledge, and the definition that knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware. Such inconsistency arises from the necessity to manage knowledge in organizations, originating an overlap between the concept of knowledge and that one of information. For example, explicit knowledge can be stored in systems (knowledge bases), but this is a contractdition of terms if we assume that knowledge has no isolated existence, that is, there has to be a person who wants to know. Nonaka and Takeuchi argued that on the one hand, a successful KM program needs to convert internalised tacit knowledge into explicit codified knowledge in order to share it, but on the other hand, individuals and groups must also internalise and make personally meaningful explicit knowledge once they retrieve it from its codified form (e.g., in a KM system).Critics have however argued that Nonaka and Takeuchi’s distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is oversimplified, and even that the notion of explicit knowledge is self-contradictory.A third kind of knowledge is embedded knowledge. Embedded knowledge is a knowledge that is embedded in a physical object but not in a explicit way, that is, it requires other knowledge to be extracted. For example, the shape and characteristics of a unknown device contains the key elements to understand how that device can be used.

2) Knowledge capture stages

Knowledge may be accessed, or captured, at three stages: before, during, or after knowledge-related activities.For example, individuals undertaking a new project for an organization might access KM resources to learn best practices and lessons learned for similar projects undertaken previously, access the KM network again during the project implementation to seek advice on issues encountered, and access the system afterwards for advice on after-project actions and review activities. Similarly, knowledge may be captured and recorded into the system before the project implementation, for example as the project team learns information and lessons during the initial project analysis. Similarly, lessons learned during the project operation may be entered into the KM system, and after-action reviews may lead to further insights and lessons being recorded in the KM system for future access.

3) Ad hoc knowledge access

One alternative strategy to encoding knowledge into and retrieving knowledge from a knowledge repository such as a database is for individuals to instead access expert individuals on an ad hoc basis, as needed, with their knowledge requests. A key benefit of this strategy is that the response from the expert individual is rich in content and contextualized to the particular problem being addressed and personalised to the particular person or people addressing it. The downside is, of course, that it is tied to the availability of specific individuals in the organization, and does not capture their insights and experience for future use should they leave or become unavailable, and that expert’s memories of particular technical issues or problems previously faced may change with time.

Drivers of knowledge management

There are a number of ‘drivers’, or motivations, leading to organizations undertaking a Knowledge Management program.

Perhaps first among these is to gain the competitive advantage that comes with improved or faster learning and new knowledge creation. KM programs may lead to greater innovation, better customer experiences, consistency in best practices and knowledge access across a global organization, as well as many other benefits, and KM programs may be driven with these goals in mind.

Considerations driving a knowledge management program might include:

· making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services

· achieving shorter new product development cycles

· facilitating and managing organisational innovation

· leverage the expertise of people across the organization

· Benefiting from ‘network effects’ as the number of productive connections between employees in the organization increases and the quality of information shared increases

· managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments and allowing employees to rapidly access useful and relevant knowledge resources and best practice guidelines

· facilitate organizational learning

· managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire – in larger numbers than they have in a long time – and new workers are hired

Knowledge Management enablers

Historically, there have been a number of technologies ‘enabling’ or facilitating KM practices in the organization, including expert systems, knowledge bases, software help desk tools, document management systems and other IT systems supporting organizational knowledge flows.

The advent of the internet brought with it further enabling technologies, including E-learning, web conferencing, collaborative software, Content management systems, corporate ‘Yellow pages’ directories, email lists, Wikis, Blogs, and other technologies. Each enabling technology can expand the level of inquiry available to an employee, while providing a platform to achieve specific goals or actions. The practice of KM will continue to evolve with the growth of collaboration applications available by IT and through the Internet.Since its adoption by the mainstream population and business community, the Internet has led to an increase in creative collaboration, learning and research, e-commerce, and instant information. There are also a variety of organizational enablers for KM programs, including Communities of Practice, before-, after- and during- action reviews (see After Action Review), peer assists, information taxonomies, coaching and mentoring, and so on.

Knowledge Management roles and organizational structure

Knowledge Management activities may be centralised in a Knowledge Management Office (KMO), or responsibility for Knowledge Management may be located in existing departmental functions, such as the HR or IT departments.However, many of the more successful Knowledge Management initiatives have begun in more limited, tactical areas such as customer or end user support, where metrics for success are easily quantifiable. Organizations committed to Knowledge Management on an ongoing basis may create a specific position such as a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) or similar, or assign responsibilities for management of a Knowledge Management program to a specific relevant organizational department (e.g. to Human Resources to manage intellectual capital, to IT to manage IT systems for Content Management and Document Management, etc.)

 

Knowledge Management is easy to described as one of the object of Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The most popular are SAP ,JDE Solution and many more. Below are among 3 company offer such software and their customers.

1) StylusInc ( http://www.stylusinc.com)

 

 

KNOWLEGDE MANAGEMENT

1) Opportunity Identified

Depends of a organisational rewuirements on system that will help in managing information, projects, processes and knowledge in my organization. I wish to implement a system for employees in my organization to capture, store and disseminate information.

Useful information usually resides in various documents, email messages, chat transcripts, projects, processes, and most of the time in people’s heads. Most of the time this knowledge isn’t stored and therefore difficult to retrieve when necessary. Information about processes and practices are usually resident in a particular individual’s head and even more difficult to capture and use.

People tend to work within silos of information that don’t get shared across an organization easily. People are forced to indulge in repetitive work when they could actually tap into a knowledge system and work in a more innovative manner. A knowledge management system should afford an easy-to-use interface and allow access to information based on the role the user plays. This system would connect to all kinds of documents like web pages, text documents, spreadsheets, emails, PDF docs, images and more. Information also exists in people’s heads and I’d like this system to provide an impetus for people to document or share knowledge that is resident in their heads.

2) Solution Proposed

We understand that the system that we are going to develop ought to capture all the different kinds of information existing in your organization and also make it easy for all your employees to capture, store and disseminate information. The knowledge stored in this system must be accessible to search parameters and operate in the same manner that the human brain does. It should collate, organize, store and retrieve information in an effective manner. Once created the system will manage itself. From an easy-to-use interface it should help collaborate workflows and harvest employee knowledge, both of the tacit and explicit kind. A workflow process library, a document management system and an event management system are some of the essential parts of a knowledge management system.

3) Benefits

When employees possess the requisite knowledge or information and are able to use it at the right moment, relationships with customers, dealers, suppliers and distributors generally improve. Such knowledge workers can make better decisions by increasing the amount of relevant information that they have access to. A knowledge management system introduces the elements of expertise and experience through collaboration capabilities and shortens the time it takes to make better decisions.

Free flow of ideas encourages innovation and improves efficiency. Sales-effectiveness and customer service can be improved by streamlining response times. And within the organization, employee retention rates get better. In general, benefits gained include streamlined operations and overall cost reduction.

Companies today have to learn faster than anyone else, share the results across the enterprise and constantly foster the development and sharing of new knowledge. This should begin at the managerial level. Company leaders need to take a serious look at how knowledge flows within the organization, how it meets other knowledge and how it combines with other flows and so on. Is this a case of pure sharing of information? Today’s IT infrastructure allows us to share information readily, but are we talking of the surface knowledge or something more? Isn’t there a deeper structure to knowledge that requires an adequate portrayal here? We are talking about the difference between superficial information and deeper knowledge. Explicit knowledge that lies in our heads and documents is the one kind while the other is tacit knowledge, the plain know-how that resides in processes and practices that people follow. A knowledge management system that is able to capture both kinds of knowledge to the best capacity is what will eventually help an organization.

 

An efficient knowledge management system will function just like the human brain does. Map information. What can it do for an organization?

· Beneficial Features

· Knowledge capture and creation – bringing a structure to unstructured information.

· Capture tacit knowledge from an individual or group.

· Create a rich view of information captured.

· Build and innovate from this knowledge – brainstorm, apply tacit knowledge to existing problems, develop new techniques, processes and products.

· Help individuals and team members work intuitively – by capturing a great deal of information at one time, see what individual members are thinking, link and associate packets of information, create reusable views of information.

 

Present all ideas and information through a common interface. Knowledge repositories, e-learning applications, discussion and chat technologies, search and data mining tools, synchronous interaction tools are all part of a knowledge management system. Contact us with your specific requirements and we’ll get back with a suitable proposal. A successful knowledge management strategy happens only when a culture of knowledge sharing is inculcated in the organization. No system or technology, however efficient will help unless every prospective knowledge owner understands this fact.

 

StylusINC Knowledge Management Customers……….(http://www.stylusinc.com/portfolio/Testimonials.php)

www.diaryphone.com, www.foodEU.com, www.indiens.net, www.omniExchange.net, www.intermedia-technologies.com, www.GlobalAnimatedEmail.com , www.apexsmartrent.com, www.arthurjones.com, www.bizassoc.com/kn_wholesale, www.deanengineering.com, www.websiterecorder.com

 

 

 

 

 

1) TALISMA www.knowledgebase.net

 

Provide consistent and relevant information to customers, partners, vendors, and employees. Talisma Knowledgebase delivers instant value and rapid ROI. Achieve dramatic results similar to many Talisma Knowledgebase customers:

• Reduced email volume by 80%
• Recognized positive ROI in less than six months
• Reduced call volume by 15% in the first month of use, 50% in the first year
• Increased search accuracy from 10% to 90%

Talisma Knowledgebase streamlines the entire documentation process for companies to share information with employees, customers, and partners. The flexible, self-learning knowledge base captures and presents current, relevant information to customers, in a Web self-service mode, and to agents through a flexible portal within the single screen agent interface.

Praised by customers and industry analysts alike for its ease of use and reporting functionality, the knowledge base is completely integrated across Talisma’s assisted and self-service channels, improving service quality and increasing first contact resolution.

Talisma Knowledgebase offers:

• Powerful search and retrieval methodologies, ensuring customers receive rapid, accurate, and consistent responses.
• Easy authoring, robust review workflow, and flexible article access to further enhance the centralized knowledge repository.
• Insightful reporting tool indicating which articles users seek and what information is unavailable, driving continuous improvements.

 

Talisma Knowedge Management Customer includes DELL, MICROSOFT, AVAYA, FORD, DAIMLERCHYSLER, DHL, EPSON and many more. http://www.talisma.com/tal_news/customers.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Projistic ( www.projistic.com)

 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

Projistics helps organizations build their own knowledge libraries. Business and technology intelligence gained during one project can be effectively used during subsequent projects to reduce cost and overall risk. One can keep track of best practices that have been known to produce positive results and use them for repeated project success.

 

With built-in document management, knowledge bases, persistent discussion threads, check-in / check-out functionality, comprehensive user-based and role-based information security coupled with hierarchical access level control, extensive audit trial and change history maintenance, approval routing and configurable workflows, Projistics, as a collaboration software suite, is ideal for management of knowledge gained from project implementation across the enterprise.

 

 

 

The Document Center of Projistics is a very efficient tool to manage documents and any kind of information critical to the organization in the most systematic and optimized manner. Document Center helps facilitate complete collaboration of employees, clients and vendors by acting as a central repository for all up-to-date information in a distributed environment. It also provides the ease of information storage on basis of different projects and categories. Besides, it helps improve business continuity by mitigating the risk associated with the loss of information or with the use of inconsistent information.

The flexibility of anytime, anywhere web-based access, multi-dimensional document classification, preference based subscriptions and alerts, advanced search features, and maintenance of information consistency through automatic as well as user-defined version control enhance an organisation’s responsiveness by making it more agile and well informed.

 

Integration of workflow with document management capabilities of Projistics allows one to customize and automate review and approval processes. Besides, through automatic escalation of delays in decision-making and approval processes, Projistics provides complete visibility to the stakeholders and helps in quick resolution of critical issues before they turn into bottlenecks.

Key Knowledge Management and Document Management Capabilities of Projistics at a glance.

- Web Interface for Flexible End-User Access

- Intuitive Document Classification with N-level Folder Hierarchy support

- Automatic as well as User-defined Version Control

- Check-in/ Check-out Facility for editing

- Robust Search facility with full text search and multiple filters.

- Custom Workflow for Routing Documents for Review and Approval Processes

- Custom Information attributes as Custom Fields for capturing additional document details

- Preference-based Subscriptions and Alerts for new additions and modifications

- Detailed Audit Log for tracking Document History

- Independent of File types

- Support for Threaded Discussions on Articles

- Rating and Feedback feature for Articles

Software

QUESTION CHAPTER 4

Web exercises

Question 1

Microsoft still remains market and brand leader in personal productivity software suite. It’s the best selling software compare to the alliance since late 90’s. In Malaysia itself, 99% of personal productivity software is Microsoft user. Despite all odds, Corel and Lotus continue to introduce new office suites that attempt to stay in step with Microsoft’s Office innovations. And Corel and Lotus prolong their hold on devoted users of their business applications that once dominated their markets, such as WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, and Paradox. Although Corel and Lotus continue to offer upgrades, none of the new versions are likely to entice many Microsoft Office users from their mainstay.

Microsoft Office currently dominates its market for a reason: The suite is one of the best in the business. But are loyal Corel and Lotus users making the switch to Microsoft applications? Not exactly. Most don’t feel the need to do so when they have robust programs that still get the job done for less money.

So the battle of the suites is a stalemate for now. Many of the decision-making process about which one to buy depends on what you are accustomed to use, and what works best with what you already have. Dedicated users seem to stay with what they know. If, by some chance, we aren’t already tied to one of the three suites and are trying to decide which one to choose, how do you even start evaluating suites? Of course, they all have their strengths and about the same range of powerful applications. And whenever one application receives noteworthy enhancements, its chief competitors seem to add similar features to their own versions of that application. We’ll discuss many of these features now and provide you with some highlights for each suite.

Among these three market leader, they have healthy competition on selling their product. This is because each of them has what other doesn’t have and vice versa. Let’s make it clear: SmartSuite does pretty much everything that Microsoft Office 2000 can plus a whole lot more, but costs just the same. The suite includes four business essentials: word processor (Word Pro), spreadsheet (1-2-3), database (Approach) and presentation (Freelance Graphics).

It’s good to see a full database package in there, especially since other office suite publishers tend to omit them from their Standard editions. Also thrown in is the desirable Lotus Organizer for managing contacts and appointments even across networks and the Internet, and which also happens to import data from Outlook, ACT and Sidekick. SmartSuite optionally installs an interface enhancement called SmartCenter which puts a row of expandable ‘drawers’ across the top of your screen. These can hold application shortcuts and Explorer lists, dictionaries and thesauri, appointment calendars and program help. It’s just a shame that SmartCenter’s calendar doesn’t integrate in any way whatsoever with Organizer. Word Pro and 1-2-3 are superb business programs for the power user, yet neither are mere copies of Microsoft Word and Excel, while Approach on the other hand does feel similar to Microsoft Access in many respects. Freelance Graphics is much more than a presentation package, also letting you publish to multi-page Web sites and handle in-page editing of vector art and color correction of photo images. You also get a dedicated Web publishing tool called Fast Site which could be very handy for updating online documents regularly.

SmartSuite incorporates IBM’s Via Voice speech recognition technology and headset as standard, not as an extra-cost item. Also thrown in the box is a full version of ScreenCam for recording real-time on-screen actions and overlaid audio as special movies for playback, which is extremely useful for IT training. Another look in the box reveals a free copy of Notes 5, Lotus’ groupware client, into which SmartSuite can integrate directly. This is certainly not an office suite which leaves you wanting. Forget any preconceptions you might have about WordPerfect, once the king of word processors in the days of DOS. Today’s WordPerfect Office 2000 is a fresh, fast and very well-featured suite of applications and utilities. And as we’ve come to expect from Corel, you certainly get a heck of lot of software for your money. The WordPerfect 9 word processor is clean but powerful, is much more usable than Microsoft Word for certain functions (such as toggling grammar-checking functions on and off) and you can spellcheck in up to 30 languages. It’s also the most graphical word processor on test here, and its dedicated HTML layout, import, export and publishing features are quite excellent. You can even publish to Acrobat PDF format, which will save some users a considerable bundle of cash. For spread sheeting, Quattro Pro 9 is shockingly under-rated. It’s an easy match for all the big-name spreadsheets, but looks prettier and produces some fabulous reports. Quattro Pro supports Cross Tabs Reports (the equivalent of Excel’s PivotTable) and the potential depth of the program is positively vast. At the same time, we found it all quite easy to get started with.

 

Will Microsoft will become the only provider of such software? I would 100% agree with that. It’s always been hard to beat Microsoft. The company continually introduces sophisticated programs with all the bells and whistles you could ask for. Would this be good or bad? If Microsoft becomes the only provider of such software then it is already a monopoly business. Obviously monopoly is bad. Somehow, some economist would love monopoly but none of them will agree monopoly business in IT world.Why?. Actually no software is perfect. This much is known from academia and every-day experience. Yet our industry knows how to design and deploy software so as to minimize security risks. However, when other goals are deemed more important than security ( money/profit ), the consequences can be dangerous for software users and society at large.

Microsoft’s efforts are to design its software in evermore complex ways so as to illegally shut out efforts by others to interoperate or compete with their products has succeeded.The monopoly product we all now rely on is thus both used by nearly everyone and riddled with flaws. A special burden rests upon Microsoft because of this ubiquity of its product, and we all need to be aware of the dangers that result from reliance upon such a widely used and essential product. Its warned of the security dangers posed by software monopolies during the US antitrust proceeding against Microsoft in the mid and late 1990’s. We later urged the European Union to take measures to avoid a software “monoculture” that each day becomes more susceptible to computer viruses, Trojan Horses and other digital pathogens. However, the growing consensus within the computer security community and industry at large is striking, and had become obvious: The presence of this single, dominant operating system in the hands of nearly all end users is inherently dangerous. The increased migration of that same operating system into the server world increases the danger even more.

Over the years, Microsoft has deliberately added more and more features into its operating system in such a way that no end user could easily remove them. Yet, in so doing, the world’s PC operating system monopoly has created unacceptable levels of complexity to its software, in direct contradiction of the most basic tenets of computer security.

Microsoft, as the US trial record and experience has shown, has added these complex chunks of code to its operating system not because such programming complexity is necessary, but because it all but guarantees that computer makers, users and consumers will use Microsoft products rather than a competitor’s. These competition related security problems have been with us, and getting worse, for years. The recent spate of virus attacks on the Internet is one more sign that we must realize the danger we are in.’s product

MICROSOFT

To sum up this section:

• Microsoft is a near-monopoly controlling the overwhelming majority of systems.

• Microsoft has a high level of user-level lock-in; there are strong disincentives to switching operating systems.

• This inability of consumers to find alternatives to Microsoft products is exacerbated by tight integration between applications and operating systems, and that integration is a long-standing practice.

• Microsoft’s operating systems are notable for their incredible complexity and complexity is the first enemy of security.

• The near universal deployment of Microsoft operating systems is highly conducive to cascade failure; these cascades have already been shown to disable critical infrastructure.

• After a threshold of complexity is exceeded, fixing one flaw will tend to create new flaws; Microsoft has crossed that threshold.

• Even non-Microsoft systems can and do suffer when Microsoft systems are infected.

• Security has become a strategic concern at Microsoft but security must not be permitted to become a tool of further monopolization.

Near-monopoly dominance of computing by Microsoft is obvious beyond the findings of any court. That percentage dominance is at peak in the periphery of the computing infrastructure of all industrial societies. According to IDC, Microsoft Windows represented 94 percent of the consumer client software sold in the United States in 2002. Online researcher OneStat.com estimates Microsoft Windows’ market share exceeds 97 percent. Its Internet Explorer and Office Suite applications share similar “Wal-Mart sells more Linux wares online,” Matt Hines, News.com. August 21, 2003.

“Microsoft’s Windows OS global market share is more than 97% according to OneStat.com,” OneStat.com press release. September 10, 2002, Control of their respective markets. The tight integration of Microsoft application programs with Microsoft operating system services is a principal driver of that dominance and is at the same time a principal driver of insecurity. The “tight integration” is this: inter-module interfaces so complex, undocumented, and inaccessible as to (1) permit Microsoft to change them at will, and thus to (2) preclude others from using them such as to compete. Tight integration of applications and operating system achieves user lock-in by way of application lock-in. It works. The absence of published, stable exchange interfaces necessary to enable exchange of data, documents, structures, etc., enlists such data, documents, or structures as enforcers of application lock-in. Add in the “network effects,” such as the need to communicate with others running Microsoft Office, and you dissuade even those who wish to leave from doing so. If everyone else can only use Office then so must you. Tight integration, whether of applications with operating systems or just applications with each other, violates the core teaching of software engineering, namely that loosely coupled interfaces make maintenance easier and life-cycle costs lower. Academic and commercial studies supporting this principle are numerous and long-standing.

Question 2

Redhat Linux and Microsoft Windows XP are the latest consumer appliances. This two is the most popular among other like Sun OS, Lindows, Ginix, MaC and many other Open OS.Between Redhat Linux and Microsoft Windows, Redhat Linux seems to be gaining he most widespreade usage. For the year 2004 and 2005, Redhat Linux have been the most widespread OS in the world from the survey by ComputerWorld. Why? Most of people believe this is beacuse of two factor which is what and dolar? What Redhat Linux offer to you and how much dolar you have to spent on it. Reo be bladhat Linux is the member of the Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org . The Free Software Foundation (FSF), established in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users’ rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free software, particularly the GNU operating system, used widely in its GNU/Linux variant. And the from the all Open Source Redhat promise user contionus global support by their development team (RHN) to guarantee your system is vulnerable and safe. Redhat Linux is the proven best Open OS security from other OS. Of course Sun Solaris, IBM AS 400 and other Open source also offer fantastic security with Sun showing the lowest hacker attack statistic but the maintenance cost for a year is ten times more than what Redhat Linux offer to you. As the System Administrator configure Redhat Linux and update all patches and only make the system vulnerable to what the system is dedicated for, Redhat Linux is the most safe OS.

 

Many Board Of Director, Coo, Ceo, Manager, IT manager, IT staff and to home users will be ask how safe their system is. How safe a deal involved money, business, trading and many more? The information are all numbers, data! What the OS guarantee so you can sleep well tonight? For those who pick Linux, are you sure your Redhat Linux is secure ? If it is, are you sure there is no virus or spyware threat in your system? In case you are to make a responsible choice, you must be interested in the truth behind. May using Linux be more secure indeed? The question seems to be so simple that is might not be responded reassuringly. From early year of computers it still and still depends…………….

Let us start with exploring which factors constitute the security of Linux systems:

1. The errors to be exploited for attacks. Obviously, the more errors there are in an operating system, the less secure it is. Linux performs better in this field than its greatest rival, however, not as well as it is generally assumed. It is to be noted though that it is not the operating system which contains a significant proportion of security holes but the software running on it. A Linux system is easy to be rid of the unnecessary applications users do not need. Even the graphical user interface can be disposed of in case a special area of using Linux allows this. By doing so, the number of security holes in our system can be remarkably reduced.

2. The rate of error correction. In an open-source project, like Linux, errors are revealed relatively quickly and there is always someone to come up with a correction. Users making use of mailing lists can patch their holes accordingly. In official versions patches may appear with a lead time of several months thus most users have to wait even for half a year to get the security update. Redhat Network offer you 24×7 coverage for cheap!!!

3. The actual risk is significantly affected by the fact that Linux is currently not popular enough for an illdisposed virus to spread out in the world by means of it. Owing to the numerous Linux distributions, the various users’ environments as well as the users’ notion of security being above average, the „critical mass” will not be realised soon.

4. Yet there is a further factor often overlooked when discussing pros and cons. Linux is still not yet an especially user-friendly environment. Compared to other operating systems, its installation is more complicated and its maintenance requires more expertise. In addition, it is to be noted here that the main part of Linux users exchange their window-like working environment for a penguin-like one due to higher management decisions. Consequently, „desktop users” of Linux generate a significant human risk factor. They are the ones causing serious damage owing to their uncertainty, the ones who need the system administrator’s assistance even with the slightest problem as well as the ones who often generate errors on purpose, as long as they are given their accustomed operating system back. As can be seen from the above, using Linux operating system is no guarantee for security. Decision-makers are to consider carefully how the business processes of their company will be affected by the exchange of the operating systems, further to this, whether the drawbacks would generate a security risk not being worth the change. All in all however, we do dare to claim that with Linux used in a competent way the highest level of security can be achieved.

www.balabit.hu 2/4

Linux in an inhomogeneous environment

Several companies decide to use the leading operating system as the desktop system while the cheap and secure Linux, maintained by a professional, is used for the servers. Thus the costs of the office staff training

can be saved, as well as the losses due to the exchange, sometimes to be perceived even for a year. It is standard practice that even if a company – or more and more often a budget organization – decides to

change its whole system to Linux, another operating system will occur in the network. The reason for this may be a privileged leader, a notebook operated by an external business partner or software that could not

be replaced by one working on Linux. Many laymen ask the question whether more operating systems can run in one network. Yes, indeed. A tried and tested technology guarantees the highest standard of business security. Difficulties and costs are mainly generated by human factors, as there is a relatively few system administrators available on the labor market who can get on well in an inhomogeneous environment. Many may say that this factor does not affect security – but they are wrong. The vulnerability of informatics systems is mainly to be accounted for human factors, even today. Employing a properly educated, experienced as well as motivated professional is the first step to take for the secure operation of an effective informatics system.

In order our Linux servers to operate securely, well serving the business processes of our company, the following essential steps are to be taken.

1. Hiring competent professionals. The headcount of the informatics department is a question of the field of activity as well as of the size of the company, similarly to the fact whether a group responsible

for IT security exists. Still, however big our informatics staff is, it is essential for them to know all the specialties and interworking characteristics of the operating systems in the network.

2. Creating an Information Security Procedure (ISP). At this point the company management determines the standard of security required for the processes and the rules get defined according to

which the certain departments may use the informatics infrastructure.

3. It is advisable to place the Linux servers into a segment separated from the desktop operating systems, i.e. to separate them by a firewall. The main reason for this is that attacks against the

company intranet may not merely come from the Internet but also from the users – circumventing the weaknesses of the desktop operating systems.

4. Linux servers have to be disposed of all their unnecessary components, and processes are needed to be elaborated in order to provide continuous security updates.

A well-configured IT system along with its well-developed applications is guarantee safe against the attacks coming from the Internet even without a network border protection. However, creating and

maintaining a system like this – due to the human factor mentioned above – is nearly an impossible task to be realized in practice. This is especially true to the inhomogeneous network environment where even more

risk factors occur. Therefore, it is advisable to protect these networks with a firewall of high security standards, possibly tackling virus protection at the border line. Fortunately, most network firewalls run on Linux, thus companies have a wide range of products available. Useful to know that low-price, „hardware-price” firewalls do not contain more than a properly secure Linux operating system along with some firewall function as a default. These solutions are suitable for environments with low security standards; however, do not decide for them when having high-class security standards required. Network firewalls offering proper security need significant investments while you are provided with real protection in return.

Redhat have been two year straight as most trustee IT Executive OS and below is CIO Insight Business Study.

Hardware

 

QUESTION CHAPTER 3

Component	Business Processing Enterprises	Quantity	Amount
3 GHz Pentium with 256 MB RAM with 40 GB hard drive	$505	6	3030
Upgrade to 512 MB RAM	65	2	130
Upgrade to 120 GB hard drive	125	-	-
Standard 15 inch 28 dpi SVGA monitor	210	4	840
High resolution 17 inch flat screen monitor	420	2	840
Wireless mouse and keyboard	60	2	120
Surge protector/power strip	32	6	192
Three-year warranty (parts and labor)	300	2	600
TOTAL			5862

 

I will choosing Business Processing Enterprises as the Vendors that because this vendor gives the rationale price on the 3 GHz Pentium with 256 MB RAM with 40 GB hard drive compare to another 2 vendor. Because of only two people will use their computers more than three hours perday, I will upgrade 2 computers to 512 MB RAM and High resolution 17 inch flat screen monitor because the new staff need to working in long hour with these computer and High Resolution 17 inch flat screen monitor will protect their eye. Beside that I also provide 2 set Wireless mouse and keyboard to the 2 new staff where need to working in long hour with computer so them can more comfortable with their seat and do the job. As the requirement from management I will purchase 2 color jet printer where cost $55 each. I will purchase 6 sets of Surge protector/power strip where cost $32 each to protect each of the computer from thunder. Because of cost and budget given by management so I just can warranty 2 sets of computer only. But because of I have purchased the Surge protector/power strip so I think the risk will become less for damaged of the computers. So I will cover the computer where I have upgrade to Upgrade to 512 MB RAM and High resolution 17 inch flat screen monitor. The total cost just using $5862 to purchases 6 sets of computer hardware.

 

CASE ONE :

 

Hilton Hotels Implements “OnQ”

Discussion Questions No.1

The biggest benefits that Hilton gained by implementing its “OnQ’ information system :

 

 

a) Hilton Hotels Corporation recently installed/implement a common IS platform to link all its brand and all its hotels with computers and powerful servers from DELL, offering its members convenience and feel comfortable where the history of staying in Hilton’s group of hotels for the customers can be tracking online via special report that the guest’s special room requirement and amenities have been taken care of at Hilton’s group of hotels

b) The total cost of conversion cost was close to $4 million but Hilton Hotel Corporation can save about $5 million from its $150 million IS budget

c) Hilton Hotels Corporation able to do cross-selling amounted for more than $300 million per year in incremental system wide booked revenue among the entire Hilton family of brands that helps ensure that Hilton keep business within its system when a customer’s first choice is not available.

d) In addition to traditional way of transactions, Hilton Hotel Corporation really positioning their place in this competitive industry where the capability and with technology advancements taking on increased importance in the years ahead, it gives Hilton Hotels Corporation the real competitive and distinct advantage to operate the business efficiently and maximize customer service and loyalty.

 

e) The increased of productivity and efficiency of back room operations such as payroll, purchasing and financial forecasting to maximize revenues.

 

Discussion Questions No.2

 

The factors to be consider when selecting vendor for computer hardware:

 

a) Compatibility and realibility of the hardware to support Hilton Hotel Corporation ‘s business model – operational workflow (internal and external) and volume of business generated.

 

b) Lower and stable of operating and maintaining cost for the computer hardware provided by the vendor.

 

c) Enough technical and consultation support/manpower when needed or 24 hours from vendor where the vendor able to be contacted and resolved issues/problem within short period especially during hardware downtime in the critical period.

 

d) Highly qualified and quality technical manpower to provide 24 hours services by vendor to Hilton Hotel Corporation .

 

e) Disaster Recovery Centre that provided by vendors in case of systems disaster.

Critical Thinking Questions No.3

Hilton Hotel Corporation able to maintain a permanent competitive advantage with “OnQ” system because :

a) At this point of time none of Hilton Hotels Corporations has the capability like “OnQ” system with the advancement of the technology which create distinct and competitive advantage in the industry.

 

b) The massive system upgrade and conversion of which already saving millions of dollars in operating costs and software license fees. Hilton Hotels Corporation become more strategically; the total changeover in its infrastructure including server hardware, operating systems, database and application architecture will greatly simplify maintenance and support and free up IT staff to concentrate on business process improvements.

 

c) The PeopleSoft application servers and SQL Server database servers that used by Hilton Hotels Corporation “ran like a scalded bat,” performing six times faster than the previous system. Gratified and emboldened, Hilton’s IT shop moved on to migrate the PeopleSoft HR and payroll systems for 71,000 employees where it creates the ultimate real-time environment.

 

d) Dell, Microsoft and PeopleSoft provided sustained on-site support, as did BEA Systems Inc., supplier of the WebLogic Web servers and Tuxedo application servers used in the project. The technology of engineering was never done before by other people with the enormous amount of brainstorming on the new setup and how to load-balance across it to make it work.

 

e) The new architecture had streamlined processing that decreased processing time considerably where the time had come to streamline, simplify, and standardize in order to cut costs and be competitive in the market or in other words, Hilton Hotels Corporation had a lot less blood, sweat and tears and a lot less overtime.

 

Critical Thinking Questions No.4

Before the merger, in response to the Y2k challenge, Hilton had replaced its local, independent payroll, human resources and financial systems with centralized PeopleSoft 7.5 client/server applications running on HP hardware and Sybase database server software. The resulting production environment was far from bulletproof. It had been a mad scramble because of the Y2k issue, and toward the end they were just slamming things things together and hoping for the best.

Human resources, payroll and financial applications at the former Promus hotels, which had been running on IBM AS/400 computers at a central data center in Memphis, were moved to the PeopleSoft-HP-Sybase system as well.

But then Hilton made a key decision to put all hotels from both companies on Promus’ custom-built, SQL Server-based property management system. The two companies had too many servers, operating systems and databases even before they merged. After the merger, the mix of technologies was untenable, a situation not improved by the instability of the production environment. This showed that Hilton Hotels Corporation gave consideration until to the level to care for customer’s requirements and amenities and cross selling among the entire Hilton’s family of brands in order to create awareness and satisfaction for the guest/customers.

Introduction

CASE ONE

Tyndall Federal Credit Union explores new ATM services

Discussion Questions No.1

The banking services offered will influenced anybody where the services and products provided by Tyndall Federal Credit Union were end to end services and products. The following criteria that influenced my decision:

a) Tyndall Federal Credit Union recently installed a joint solution from IBM and Wincor Nixdorf, offering its members the ability to do most of the functions that have Historically needed to be done in a branch.

b) Tyndall selected the self-service compactBANK to provide its members with branch services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

c) Tyndall’s ultimate goal is to off-load teller workload, expand its presence without having to build new branches, and offer its members new functionality such as web based banking services like real time account balances, account transfers, extend account history, e-mail payment.and electronic statement.

d) In addition to traditional ATM transactions, Tyndall Federal Credit Union now offers its customers members coin and cash deposit for immediate credit, and check scanning, image printing, loan application and approval notification, corporate cashiers checks and check reorder, printing statements and dispensing temporary ATM cards.

e) The services offered were fast, reliable and convenience to have access to consistent interfaces and services from any of its branch office, ATM and Web –based services where the increased competition in the marketplace still Tyndall’s services/products were differentiated from other financial institutions

 

Discussion Questions No.2

Eventough Tyndall Federal was deploying automated compact-BANKs around the town, Tyndall Federal still need to be maintain the manpower in order to :

a) In order to have smoothen tele-banking centre or service centre, Tyndall Federal need to have the manpower or employees where this people will help and assist any queries from customers through tele-banking centre or call centre

b) The bank teller of Tyndall Federal need not to worry about their position because their assistant to service the customers still needed by Tyndall Federal and they would find better, easy and satisfied working together with compact-BANKs systems.

c) Centralization of processing where Tyndall Federal with the above compact BANK will easily monitor and control the customers satisfaction index via online and in development of the tele-banking services

d) Provide better and extra services such tele-banking for 24 hours that build strong customer relationship and satisfaction.

 

 

Critical Thinking Questions No.3

There are 2 security concerns that important to address and solve in designing and need to be focused :

a) Internal security

Internal security consist of security level to access among the employees of Tyndall Federal where it can avoid financial fraud. The internal security should develop in order to avoid unauthorized access and abuse by insiders and also the theft of proprietary information. Different level of position is allowed to access certain level and the security level to be control via idenfication numbers and passwords.

 

b) External Security

External security consists of protection from spam, unwanted e-mail, virus, sabotage and prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to the computer system. The concept of web cameras can be implemented in critical areas and citizen spotters to be hired to monitor webcams. The installation of firewalls of which is the software and hardware that protect a computer system or network from outside attacks will also help the compact-BANKs web-based system. The tighten security for external is also important to avoid hackers which can sabotage and create system penetration, telecommunication fraud and active wiretap.

 

 

Critical Thinking Questions No..4

The credit union might be preferred to do banking with branch office over banking with and ATM because:

a) Some of their members might be senior people. These senior people still preferred and believed in traditional way where they feel more comfortable dealing in the traditional rather than using the highly sophisticated compact-BANKs systems.

 

b) Fear, no confident and not believed in the compact-BANKs system in term of security devices internally and externally to do banking transactions such real time account balances, dispensing both cash and coins, scanning and cashing out personal checks, e-mail payments and account transfers.

 

c) Consistently offline that create the downtime for the members who would like to use it especially in the critical time.