Wednesday, July 31, 2019
The Coca †Cola Product
Known to manufacture and distribute non-alcoholic and carbonated beverages, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, which is now known as Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated in Charlotte North Carolina, started at Atlanta in 1886. CCBCC also manufactures bottled water, teas, sports drink, etc. The other branches of this company are dispersed at South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and other parts of North America. Coke is a trademark product of this company and has been distributed all throughout the world. It is very trivial where and how this drink has started. According to some historical accounts of CCBCC, the carbonated drink was first introduced as a fountain drink and was not commercially produced as canned or bottled. It was just when Mr. Harrison packaged this product that people became aware of its commercialization. To promote the product, many advertisement programs in radio, television and newspapers were made and had contributed to the fame of Coke. Famous personalities like Bill Gates had been a part of the continuing recognition of the said product. And since its production begun a century ago, there are jingles of Coke that are still remembered now like â€Å"When the Holidays Come Along†(with the lyrics, ‘whenever there’s a coke there’s always a fun†¦), â€Å"The Bee Gees Coke Commercial†, â€Å"Have a Coke and Smile†(produced on 1981) and a very recent commercial aired last year, â€Å"The Coca-Cola Happiness Factory†. Mr. J. Frank Harrison III, a descendant of Mr. Harrison way back in 1902,  is currently the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of Executive Committee and Chairman of Finance Committee of CCBCC. Also, Mr. Steven D. Westphal acts as the Chief Finance Officer and joins the executive committee of the company. Moreover, Coca Cola Enterprises Incorporated shares in owning CCBCC and is said to have 1000 shares as of August 2007. Under the Beverage – Soft Drinks Industry, CCBCC is the top grosser on stocks among Pepsi Company Inc., Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, Groupe Danone World Water Division, and other companies providing the same product as of the present. As of August 31, 2007, CCBCC sells Coke at an average of $58.67. From the recent quarterly reports of the company, it is stated that it has a net income of $11.7 million as of July 1 2007. This is higher than the calculated quarterly net income of April 2007 which was $4.7 million, more than a hundred percent increase on net income. The repots for the stockholders also said that there is a one percent increase on the net sales of the product that was from the decrease in the selling price of bottles/cans. Also, the charts and graphs presented for the evaluation of the sales and production of Coke on July 2007 stated that it has increased its selling price compared to the past months. Since there are still products emerging from this company and their bottling capacities are of good quality (as they claim it), I think that in the future Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated will still be a big influence in the Food Industry, especially in the beverage – soft drinks sections.  By looking on the reports passed to the stockholders (which I think Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. owns), it will have a progress for the years ahead bearing the quarterly increases on the incomes and the people who patronizes coke. Constant observation and evaluation of the company’s performance, the improvements and modifications for the product can be done for a more successful path in the economy. Indeed this product will still be a boom for the next generations. The red truck carrying loads of Coca-cola products will still roam around vicinities in the countries, and Coca-Cola will still rock markets and stocks. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (COKE). 2007. Yahoo! Finance. September 2, 2007.            â€Å"Coca Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated – Company Profile, Information, Business Description,               History, Background Information on Coca Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated†. 2007. Net             Industries, LLC. September 3, 2007. Yahoo stock screener.  2007. September 2, 2007. Coca-cola iungles.2006. Soundboard.com/Mountainside, LLC. September 2, 2007.           Investor Relations. 1998-2003. MarketWatch.com Inc. September 3, 2007.                                                         HOME PAGE FOR THE WORLD'S BUSINESS LEADERS. 2007 Forbes.com LLC. September 3,2007.           ;http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromMktGuideIdPersonTear           heet.jhtml?passedMktGuideId=35265;
Battle of Frediericksburg Analysis
The Battle of Fredericksburg David P. Wrighten, CPT, MS Class 09-002 Small Group 6, MAJ Sims 03 April 2009 Abstract In early December 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac had massed on the northern bank of the Rappahannock River as it was in position to strike the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. The Union also position themselves to cut off the Confederate Army’s main supply route for the import and export of goods in the south. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia confronted the Union Army’s attempted strike on the south side of the Rappahannock by occupying the high ground overlooking the riverside town of Fredericksburg. Caught between the two opposing armies, Fredericksburg was destined to the battleground for a bloody prelude of major battles between the Union and Confederate armies in the open fields of the south. The Battle of Fredericksburg Introduction The Battle of Fredericksburg occurred on 11 December 1862 on the banks of the Rappahannock River near the small town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Pitting three divisions of the Union Forces commanded by MG Edwin V. Sumner, MG Joseph Hooker, and MG William B. Franklin, approximately 120,000 Soldiers against the two Confederate Forces Corps of Northern Virginia commanded by LTG James Longstreet and LTG Thomas L. Jackson approximately 90,000 Soldiers. This battle emphasized the effective use of Weather, Maneuver, Observation Fields of Fire, Cover, and concealment, Obstacles, Key Terrain, and Avenues of Approach. The use of the Battlefield Operating Systems was instrumental in the success of the mission. The primary source used to gather information was, Decisive Battles of the Civil War: the Battle of Fredericksburg by LT. COL. Joseph B. MitchellDrama on the Rappahannock: the Fredericksburg Campaign by Edward J. Stackpole. Secondary sources used were The Battle of Fredericksburg a Special Edition of: Civil War Times by Edward J. Stackpole and Guide to the Battles of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg by Jay Luvaas and Harold W. Nelson. Strategic Setting Fredericksburg, Virginia during the 1860s had developed into a family oriented community. This town happened to be the farthest point to navigate up the Rappahannock River. It was a very important site for trading for imported and exported goods. However, the larger, newer sailing vessels had difficulties in navigating the Rappahannock, which greatly hinder the international trade with other less modern customers of trade. This allowed members of Fredericksburg to live a more normal or less congested big city lifestyle. Militarily, this river is important for resupplying Soldiers critical supplies in order to fight effectively. The town of Fredericksburg changed hands many times throughout the war. Being located so closely to Richmond and Washington, it can greatly assist or resist in a potential attack on Richmond or Washington. In addition, this town could act as a staging area prior to launching an attack on the nation’s capital. Furthermore, four major battles fought within a seventeen-mile radius of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The major encounter during the Battle of Fredericksburg took place in Virginia. MG Ambrose Burnside’s Federal Army of the Potomac tried to countermine Gen Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and capture Richmond. However, this would be a difficult task, since the Confederates were deeply entrenched into a defensive position west of town. Tactical Situation 1. Mission: Gen Burnside’s was to cross the Rappahannock River and seize the heights behind Fredericksburg, Virginia before Gen Lee’s army arrived. After seizing the town of Fredericksburg, the Army of the Potomac would then advance south to Richmond. In order to cross the Rappahannock Burnside had to build multiple bridges; for this purpose, support elements sent pontoon bridge equipment to Fredericksburg. The Union Forces arrived to the northern banks of the Rappahannock; there were no Confederate Forces in sight. It ould seem as if the advantage would be on the side of the Union Forces. 2. Equipment: Gen Hunt deployed riflemen to provide covering fire for the engineers at each end of the three construction points. He also possessed 147 artillery pieces to serve as the main deterrent to the Confederate Forces opposing the Union effort and accommodate a moderate logistics train. His ammo and other classes of supply were plentiful but the distance wou ld slowly cause these resources to erode. The Confederates had sufficient food and water, but other classes of supply were scarce, particularly their ammo. Many carried hunting rifles and shotguns of varying caliber. The Union Forces had a clear advantage. 3. Terrain: The city and its environs along the Rappahannock River in north-central Virginia were significant obstacles to Union advances on Richmond, the Confederate capital. The battlefield consists of a series of flood plains and river terraces with gentle slopes paralleled by north-south ridges that provide structural boundaries on either side, all comprised of Tertiary and Quaternary Coastal Plain sediments. The Confederates, led by Gen Robert E. Lee, effectively used natural terrain features to impede attacks made by the Union army. Tactical benefits also accrued by the Confederates from manufactured obstacles on the battlefield, e. g. , stone walls and fences. After crossing the Rappahannock River, the Union Army, had to attack uphill with little cover in their unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the Confederates. This gave the Confederate Forces the advantage against the Union strike. 4. Troops: Strategically the Union Forces had the advantage with the number of troops under Gen Burnsides command at nearly 120,000. The Confederate Forces had the advantage as having set up their defensive positions and direct access through their supply routes to their headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. The Confederate Forces did lack military training in the ranks as well as standard issue items that would help in the success of their campaign. The Union Forces had a clear advantage as far as personnel, but Confederate Forces had an advantage for their ability to resupply the units. 5. Time: This historic Fredericksburg Campaign planned and executed over a two-month period in November – December of 1862. This was during an extremely cold and harsh winter season. It reduced both the Union and Confederate forces from quiet movements, clear line of sight during pre-dawn hours (fog on the river), heavy snowfall, which restricted movements, thick terrain made of oak, maple, cedar, and highly thick entangled brush cause limited mobility, counter mobility and reduced eyes on the enemy. Therefore, even though the weather did not favor either side, it did not kept tactical goals of either side from being established. The Battle After, the Battle of Bull Run both armies devoted the second half of 1861 and part of 1862 to make serious adjustments for more important battles to come. Procurement of supplies, training, recruiting new soldiers, and other military activities was the primary training mission of both armies. Neither force was in any particular hurry to conduct an offensive operation. An impatient President waited in the White House to see how his popular commanding officer will retrain and utilize his powerful forces. Gen McClellan moved his forces in March 1862, via water, to the Virginia Peninsula between the York and James Rivers. The intent of this move was to take Richmond, Virginia. However, Johnston countered this plan by moving his Confederate soldiers overland in the same direction. Therefore, Gen Mc McClellan staged his troops at Fort Monroe. At the same time, Stonewall Jackson began his Shenandoah Valley Campaign, wounded in battle General Johnston was succeed by Robert E. Lee. On Oct. 6, the President instructed Gen McClellan to â€Å"cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him South. Your army must now move,†â€Å"he said, â€Å"while the roads are good. †Twenty-four days spent in correspondence before Gen McClellan obeyed the order of the president. Gen McClellan complained of a lack of men and supplies to make it prudent to move forward. At length, October had nearly passed by and Gen Lee’s army thoroughly rested and reorganized, and communications with Richmond re-established, the Army of the Potomac began to cross the river (Oct. 26), 100,000 strong. The Nationals led down the east side of the Blue Ridge, but failed to strike the retreating Confederates over the mountain in flank or to get ahead of them; and Gen Lee pushed Gen Longstreet’s troops over the Blue Ridge to Culpeper Courthouse, between the Army of the Potomac and Richmond, ready to dispute the advance of the Nationals. Quick and energetic movements were now necessary to sever and defeat, in detail, Gen Lee’s army. (See Map 1) On Nov. 75, the President relieved Gen McClellan of command, and Gen Burnside took command of the Corps. A sense of responsibility made the latter commander exceedingly cautious. Before he moved, he endeavored to get his 120,000 men well in hand. Gen Burnside determined Aquia Creek Landing as his resupply hub and main base for his assault. His overall decision was to, and he moved the army towards Fredericksburg down the Fredericksburg Route towards Fredericksburg. The allowed his forces to cover Washington and assure better protection of his lines of resupply and communication. Oon Nov. 150 Gen. Sumner led the movement from Warrenton down the left bank of the Rappahannock and covered almost 40 miles in two and one-half days to Falmouth. By November 21, Gen Longstreet's Corps had arrived near Fredericksburg, and Gen Jackson's (which had been downstream along the Rappahannock to prevent crossings there) was following rapidly. Gen Lee at first anticipated that he would fight Gen Burnside northwest of Fredericksburg and that it might be necessary to drop back behind the North Anna River. However, when he saw how slowly Gen Burnside was moving, he directed all of his army toward Fredericksburg. The first pontoon bridges arrived at Falmouth on November 25, much too late to enable the Army of the Potomac to cross the river without opposition. Gen Burnside still had an opportunity, however, because he was facing only half of Gen Lee's army, not yet dug in, and if he acted quickly, he might be able to attack Longstreet and defeat him before Jackson arrived. Once again, he squandered his opportunity. The bridges arrived at the end of the month, and by this time, Gen Jackson was present and Gen Longstreet was preparing strong defenses. Gen Burnside originally plannedplanned to use Gen McClellan’s original plan of to crossing his army east of Fredericksburg; 10 miles (16 km) downstream at Skinker's Neck, but Early's division arrived there and blocked him. Therefore,So he Gen Burnside decided to cross directly at Fredericksburg. On December 9, he wrote to Halleck, â€Å"I think now the enemy will be more surprised by a crossing immediately in our front than any other part of the river. †¦ I'm convinced that a large force of the enemy is now concentrated at Port Royal, its left resting on Fredericksburg, which we hope to turn. †In addition to, his numerical advantage in troop strength, Gen Burnside also had the advantage of knowing his army could not be attacked effectively. On the other side of the Rappahannock, 220 artillery pieces had been located on the ridge known as Stafford Heights to prevent Gen Lee's army from mounting any major counterattacks. (See Map 1) On the morning of December 11, Union Engineers began the construction of six pontoon bridges in preparation for the passage of Union Forces across the Rappahannock River. Two placed north of the Town Center, a third on the southern end of town, and three further south near the confluence of the Rappahannock and Deep Run. During the assembly of the pontoon bridges, Union Engineers came under punishing fire from the Confederate Forces primarily from the sharpshooters of the Mississippi Brigade commanded by Gen Barksdale. Gen Burnside. tThen ordered his Union artillery batteries then to shelled the city. The artillery fire lasted for an hour in terrific bombardment in hopes to drive the Confederate sharpshooters out of their positions. The bombardment failed to dampen the spirits of Barksdale’s sharpshooters, as soon as the artillery fire ceased the musketeers popped out of the holes and resumed firing. Thus, the first attempt to cross the river was a failure due to the Confederates’ fires on federal engineers constructing pontoon bridges on the river. Gen Burnsides’ staff immediately began mission analysis on another plan to cross the river. Gen Hunt suggested the only solution to cross the river are volunteers to cross by ferry rowing in pontoons to secure the opposite side of the river a lay suppressive fire on Confederate sharpshooters to cover the bridge layers. Because of a lack in confidence on his part, Gen BurnsideIf he was confident and swift in issuing was slow in issuing his tactical instructions,instructions; the Union Army of the Potomac may have caught the Confederates unready to defend their positions properly. In addition to the failure of the first attempt to cross, there wasAdditionally, a decrease in morale of the Union ForcesArmy of the Potomac and their senior commandeleadershipr due to the hesitation of Gen Burnsides decisionstheir overall commander on not just one critical occasion but several occasions. Other occasions of indecisiveness and lack of initiative in dealing with the blunder of getting the pontoons transferred from Washington also attributed to the decrease in morale of not only the Leadership leadership but also the Soldiers. Furthermore, the inability of Burnside to consider the advice advice, from Gen Halleck, was trying to give on where to cross the river showed the lack of communication from the field commander to Washington Headquarters. The Chief Engineer of the Army ordered his engineers in the following format (Stackpole, p122): (These were the actual orders that were issued) Engineers will place two pontoons bridges to be constructed at the site of old pontoon bridge, one of them to have approaches for artillery. One pontoon bridge at site of old canal-boat bridge; approaches for artillery. Additionally, we will place two pontoon bridges just below mouth of Deep Run, a mile below Fredericksburg one to have artillery approach. Major Spaulding to throw three uppe r ones: major Magruder to throw the next, and Lieutenant Cross the lowest one. Bridge equipage, now at White Oak Church, to move up and go into park near Phillip’s house by dark. At midnight trains to move down within 400 yards of river, and to move down and begin unloading a two in the morning. If enemy fire is kept down, bridges to be thrown as soon as are unloaded; if too hot, wait until artillery silences it†The battle opened south of the city at 8:30 a. m. on December 13, when Maj. Gen. William Franklin ordered two of the divisions from the Left Grand Division to maneuver themselves through an unseen gap in Gen Jackson's defenses on the right and head towards Hamilton’s Crossing. By 10 a. m. , a thick fog began to lift, and the initially sluggish movements picked up speed. Gen Meade's division of 4,500 men formed the main attack, in direct support of Gen Meade’sthese movements the divisions of Gen Doubleday and Gen Gibbon. The Virginia Horse Artillery under Major John Pelham stalled the attack, and an artillery duel between Pelham and the Union artillery batteries lasted for approximately an hour. MAJ Pelham started his artillery attack with only two cannonsâ€â€a 12-pounder Napoleon smoothbore and a rifled Blakelyâ€â€but continued with only one after counter-battery fire disabled one of the cannons. Gen Lee observed the action and commented about Pelham, age 24, â€Å"It is glorious to see such courage in one so young. †As Meade finally made traction, he ran into Brig. Gen. Maxcy Gregg's brigade, scattering it. Gen Gregg was shot and mortally wounded; he died two days later. To Gen Meade's right, Gen Gibbon's attack against the brigades of Brig. Gen. William Dorsey Pender and Edward L. Thomas made good progress, but Gen Meade and Gen Gibbon men became separated; by 1:30 p. m. , a heavy Confederate counterattack pushed them back to the beachhead of the Rappahannock. Because of the foggy conditions, Federal artillery could not provide much assistance because of the inability to discern between Union and Confederate Forces. Driven back and chased by the Confederate infantry, raised some concerns with Gen Burnside, his divisions may be trapped at the river. The Federal line strengthened with addition of Brig. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles and Brig. Gen. David B. Birney divisions, and Stonewall Jackson's counterattack grounded to a halt. The focus of action moved north to Marye Heights. The initial assaults west of Fredericksburg began at 11 a. . as French's divisiontwo divisions from Gen Couch’s Corps, Gen French’s division and Gen Hancock’s division, moved along the Plank Road, facing a steep-banked drainage ditch and a wide, open plain of 400 yards (370 m), dominated by Confederate infantry and artillery behind a sunken road and stone wall. Earlier, artillerist Edward Porter Alexander, â€Å"A chicken could not live on that field w hen we open on it,†had assured Gen Longstreet. The Union men attacking had to file d into columns over two small bridges across the drainage ditch, making them a massed target. Attempts to shift the attack farther to the right failed because of swampy ground. As in the south, Union artillery was prevented by fog from effectively silencing the Confederate guns as from Stafford Heights Union guns were unable to reach the Confederate positions. Gen Burnside had anticipated this attack on the right would be merely supportive of his main effort on the left, but Franklin had stalled and resisted entreaties to continue, so Gen Burnside shifted his emphasis. After French's division was repulsed with heavy losses, Gen Burnside sent in the divisions of Gen Hancock and Gen Howard, which met a similar fate. By this time, Gen Pickett's division and one of Gen Hood's brigades had marched north to reinforce Marye Heights. Gen Griffin's division renewed the attack at 3:30 p. m. , followed by Gen Humphrey's division at 4 p. m. At dusk, Gen Getty's division assaulted from the east and was repulsed. Gen Burnside sent six Union Divisions in, virtually one brigade at a time, for sixteen individual charges, all of which failed, costing them from 6,000 to 8,000 casualties. Watching the carnage from the center of his line, a position now known as Lee's Hill, Gen Lee quoted as saying, â€Å"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. The action on the heights also included the charge of the Irish Brigade, which lost 50% of its strength in the battle but advanced further up the heights than any other Union Brigade. Confederate losses at Marye Heights totaled around 1,200. The falling of darkness and the pleas of Gen Burnside's subordinates were enough to put an end to the a ttacks. Gen Longstreet later wrote, â€Å"The charges had been desperate and bloody, but utterly hopeless. †Thousands of Union soldiers spent the cold December night on the fields leading to the Heights, unable to move or assist the wounded because of Confederate fire. The armies remained in position throughout the day on December 14, when Gen Burnside briefly considered leading his old IX Corps in one final attack on Marye Heights, but with the suggestions of many of his officers, he reconsidered and abandoned his campaign sending his troops to northern bank of the Rappahannock River. That afternoon, Burnside asked Lee for a truce to attend to his wounded, which Lee graciously granted. The next day the Federal forces retreated across the river, and the campaign ended. SIGNIFICANCE 1. Short Term: The Battle at Fredericksburg clearly showed how disastrous the Union Army Tactics were; President Abraham Lincoln relieved Gen Burnside of command a month after this battle. 2. Long Term: This was a major victory for the Army of Northern Virginia and costly to the Army of the Potomac. Many believe that Gen Lee lost his best chances to destroy the Gen Burnside’s forces at Fredericksburg. Overall, the loss broke the morale of the Army of the Potomac and showed a weakness in the indecisiveness and lack of imagination in part of Gen Burnside. ANALYSIS Gen Burnside failed to achieve the tenant of Initiative and his overall objective of destroying the enemy forces securing the town of Fredericksburg because he violated the Principle of Security and the Battle Operating System of Intelligence. The bulk of his forces fought to cross the river and very few were concerned with providing suppressive fire for the unit crossing. Gen Lee’s forces upon making contact with what he believed to be the enemies fleeing main force at Devil’s Swamp, he committed himself to battle without pausing to use his cavalry to reconnoiter the country. Gen Lee used his CCavalry Troops conducted rereconnaissancecon'd to the east and west of the Rappahannock marshy lowlandsRiver;, an action that gave him an extreme advantage into witnessing the movement of Gen Burnside's forceswhich might have permitted him to cross unmolested at a point up or downstream from the swamp. Thus, outflanking Culpepper and forcing him to withdraw without an opportunity to spring his cleverly crafted trap. The use of the terrain also gave Gen Lee a clear advantage as the Rappahannock River and extended entrenchments gave Gen Burnside’s forces great difficulty. For his part, Brigadier CulpepperGen Lee effectively adhered to the Principles of Maneuver, Mass, and Economy of Force. Through the Tenant of Synchronization, these factors combined to create the culminating Principle of Surprise. Outnumbered and outgunned, he realized that he could not achieve his objective of ascertaining Morgan’s Gen Burnside’s force and denying it control of the rail and road junction, as well as Yearlingvilletown of Fredericksburg, by engaging in a conventional battle on anything approaching even terms he used unconventional tactics to achieve his goal. He possessed a clear understanding of what he had to accomplish and how he had to do so. He Gen Lee employed Maneuver and Mass of critical combat power at the decisive time and place while making effective use of both the weak and strong points of the units he led. By marring Morgan in the swampsstalling Burnside’s movement across the river, he placed his enemy in a position of disadvantage. He shifted the battle to one where he positioned his massed combat power into a fixed enemy whose only option was to sink and die discontinue its efforts of seizing the town of Fredericksburg and retreat to the north side of the Rappahannock River. Culpepper Gen Lee exercised effective Synchronization and Economy of Force, deftly controlling the movements and fires of the disparate elements of his force in accordance with the elements of an intelligently conceived and workable plan of action in order to bring about the desired combat power at the decisive point. His employment of his cavalry, guerrillas, and militia reflected a thorough thought process of utilizing each element in ana precisely orchestrated maneuver exact orchestration to achieve the desired effect of ousting the Army of the Potomac from the town of Fredericksburg back to the northern banks of the Rappahannock River. uring Morgan’s troops into the killing field of overwhelming force. His exploitation of Union Forces weaknesses in decisive movement and execution of a sound plan display Gen Lee’s his Seminole scouts’ superior knowledge of critical terrain features while denying the enemy the opportunity to effectively reconnoiter the same gro und gave the critical element of Surprise once the battle was opened in accordance with the time, place and circumstances of his own choosing. Stackpole, Edward J. Drama on the Rappahannock: The Fredericksburg Campaign. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1991 P. 23 Stackpole, Edward J. Drama on the Rappahannock: The Fredericksburg Campaign. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1991 P. 121 Stackpole, Edward J. Drama on the Rappahannock: The Fredericksburg Campaign. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1991, P. 122 O'Reilly, Francis Augustin, The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock, Louisiana State University Press, 2003, P. 148 Goolrick, William K. and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Rebels Resurgent: Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville, Time-Life Books, 1985, P. 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY FM 3-0 Operations. Washington, D. C. : Headquarters Department of the Army, 2001. Goolrick, William K. Rebels Resurgent: Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville. Time-Life Books, 1985. Kennedy, Frances H. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. Luvaas, Jay and Nelson, Harold W. The U. S. Army War College Guides to the Battles of Chancellorsville & Fredericksburg. Lawrence: the University Press of Kansas, 1994. Mitchell, Joseph B. Decisive Battles of the Civil War. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1955. O'Reilly, Francis Augustin. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock. Louisiana State University Press, 2003. Palfrey, Francis W. The Army in the Civil War: The Antietam & Fredericksburg. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885. Parish, Peter J. The American Civil War. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc, 1991. Stackpole, Edward J. Drama on the Rappahannock: The Fredericksburg Campaign. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvannia: Stackpole Books, 1991.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Wal-Mart (Bus 644)
Wal-Mart BUS 644 Operations Management November 6, 2011 Introduction Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world, and it has obviously enjoyed tremendous success. But while many welcome its location in their communities, others do not. Some complain that its presence has too many negative effects on a community, ranging from traffic congestion to anti-union sentiment to unfair competition. â€Å"According to a recent study from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, the entry of a Wal-Mart does significantly impact sales at other local establishments (McDevitt, 2009). In regards to Wal-Mart impacting small businesses and town residents, it varies. There are both pros and cons of having Wal-Mart in local communities despite biases or beliefs of critics. Owners of small businesses located nearby. After observing the effects of seven Wal-Mart openings, researchers saw a 40 percent sales drop at nearby mass merchandise chains and 17 percent sales drop at supermarkets†(McDevitt, 2009, P. 1). Those small businesses within the same area of Wal-Mart often lose out on a lot of money or go out of business due to Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices and convenient shopping. With gas prices being at $4 a gallon, people wonder if customers will stay closer to home to shop, causing Wal-Mart to lose out on customers (Barett, 2008). There are those that think Wal-Mart is bad for local small business owners and those that oppose this viewpoint. Andrea Dean of West Virginia University argues that Wal-Mart has not had a negative effect on small businesses as critics think. Instead, the company has unleashed forces that have changed the nature of small businesses in this country in unexpected ways (Bandyk, 2008, P. ). Town residents and residents of nearby towns Town residents may have concerns ranging from an increase in noise pollution to a decrease in property values and those residents in favor of having Wal-Mart in local communities argue that Wal-Mart could be beneficial to residents; bringing in new jobs and tax revenue. Many Seekonk residents are not pleased about the soon to be Wal-Mart supercenter that is to be built at 150,000 square feet and located on 2 acres. â€Å"Another concern is the possible increase in crime in the area. Mello says that police officers have come to her house in the past to search the property for alleged shoplifters that fled through the woods from one of the retail stores†(Calverley,2011 P. 1). Another Seekonk resident is concerned that the pollution and dust will affect her husband’s health that is suffering from a respiratory illness and requires oxygen 24 hours a day (Calverley, 2011). Decrease in property value is likely to occur with there being a decrease of 10 to 18 percent in property value. Wal-Mart handling criticism I think that despite the criticisms Wal-Mart face, their success speaks for itself and customers always come back. Businesses worldwide will always face criticism, its how these businesses decide to follow up on these criticisms that truly matters. Wal-Mart needs to be careful when deciding where to station Wal-Mart centers; making certain that people in the local community are affected a minimal amount. People will ultimately be affected by location no matter where; however, the level in which they are affected should be strategically thought up so that few people are affected. So, instead of remaining silent on the sidelines as critics and watchdogs continue to tear it down, Wal-Mart is recruiting its own positive watchdogs as a combative measure (White, 2008, P. 1). It’s important for customers to feel valued and the network that Wal-Mart has collectively created will help to achieve this. Conclusion While there are downfalls of Wal-Mart supercenters being placed in local communities, there is without a doubt positives and Wal-Mart seems to be taking measures to reach out customers, for example, the efforts to establish the Customer Action Network, they are giving their customers a voice in hopes of helping them feel valued. There are several problem areas to be worked out on the behalf of Wal-Mart, however, with Wal-Mart being the largest Corporation in the world, critics will always pay careful and have negative feedback. References Barett, A. (2008)Does Wal-Mart Really Hurt Small Businesses? Retrieved on November 6, 2011 from http://www. businessweek. com/smallbiz/running_small_business/ Calverley, L. (2011). Residents Concerned about Proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. Retrieved on November 6, 2011 from http://reportertoday. com/seekonk/seekonk/stories/Residents-Concerned-About-Proposed-Walmart-Supercenter Bandyk, M. (2008). Should Small Businesses Fear Wal-Mart? Retrieved on November 6, 2011 from http://money. snews. com/money/business-economy/small-business/articles/2008/08/01/should-small-businesses-fear-wal-mart McDevitt, C. (2009). Is Wal-Mart Killing your Business? Retrieved on November 6, 2011 from http://www. inc. com/news/articles/2009/04/walmart. html White, B. (2008). Wal-Mart Fights back Against Opponents. Retrieved on November 6, 2011 from http://www. bloggingstocks. com/2008/11/24/wal-mart-weekly-wal-mart-fights-back-against-opponents/
Monday, July 29, 2019
Fruit content of fruit juice and apple juice content of cider using Literature review - 3
Fruit content of fruit juice and apple juice content of cider using DNA methodology - Literature review Example The PCR –RFLP method was used for the analysis of the different fruits in the fruit juice. The PCR heteroduplex system was successfully applied to the LOC and was found to show greater sensitivity for the identification of the fruit juices. After this process, random reannealing of the amplified DNA was done based on Hardy- Weinberg law. The heteroduplexes obtained from these studies have proved that the heteroduplexes were underestimated at the lab-on-a-chip method. The differential data interpretation is done to obtain better results. (Scott and Knight 2009). DNA profiling method was developed for the fruit samples. Different DNA extraction methods were practiced for the isolation of the genomic DNA from the fresh fruits. Some of the DNA extraction methods are CTAB- based DNA extraction method and some kits such as Nucleon Phytopure plant DNA Extraction kit, DNeasy Plant mini kit and G2 buffer & Genomic –tip 20/G kits can be used for the extraction of the DNA from the given fruit juices. SSR markers are used for the identification of the DNA from the given samples. The SSR analysis was able to reveal that the genotypes were the same for the dried fruits and the fresh juices. The DNA samples obtained from the canned and processes foods will be very small of 500 bp. (Yamamoto et al. 2006). These DNA samples can be easily amplified using the high quality primers. In the pear fruit DNA sequence there are 15 SSR sequences and among them 9 SSR markers were obtained from the fruit juice containing pear. The reason for this could be that the DNA obtained from the fruit juices were around 150 base pairs and they were very small for amplification. The DNA profiling and the cultivar methods were found to be very useful for the identification of the DNA of the fruits from the fruit juices. (Yamamoto et al. 2006). Orange juice is one of the most
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Hw5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2
Hw5 - Assignment Example The theory also explains that most of the universe large parts do not support complex life calling the places to be dead zones. The places that support the complex life are known to be the habitat zones for the living creatures. The habitat zone acts as a primary function having a distance from the galactic center. When the distance between the two places increase, the stars’ content begin to reduce creating terrestrial planets. The dangerous x rays that are produced from the black hole found at the galactic center including the stars of the neutrons and quasars become less intense. This creates hell to the life and enables the hypothesis to identify the early life of the universe. Also, the gravitational that occur between the stars and the planets become less due to the low density caused by the decrease of the stars. This explains that if a planet is far from the galactic center, it is likely to have been hit by a bolide. It is an impact that affects the complex life. 2. The population density for the galaxy proofs to be 50,000 light years. Having 2, 500 civilizations while assuming that they are equally spaced, there separation will be found by dividing the light years by the civilizations. One civilization will proof to have 20 light years. 3. There is compatible function between the humans and the nature itself. In nature, there are a number of circumstances that lead to the human survival. Science and nature has also a new version on the relationship between humans and nature. It proofs that the physical substances that surround human beings are complex. There is also a lot of interdependence between the humans and nature. This begins with the human genes that are able to produce several traits creating a survival. The lives that are on earth have the form of life that is found only at the biosphere that is the membrane of both the plants and animals. On the same note,
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Hepatitis C Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Hepatitis C - Research Paper Example Transplantation of organs from infected people also spreads the hepatitis C virus. But in 1992 the health professional formulated a blood donation test which detects the presence of hepatitis C virus. After 1992 the blood of donor is tested for the hepatitis C virus before transfusion of blood or transplanting organs due to which the chance of transmission of hepatitis C virus is lowest nowadays. Hepatitis C virus is also transmitted by sexual contact with an infected partner or one having many sex partners. Transmission of virus also occurs from infected mother to baby during birth but the ratio of transmission by this way is low (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Anatomy: The liver is one of the main organs of digestive system which is reddish brown in color. Liver is the largest gland of the body which produces different hormones. Liver is divided into two lobes right and left lobe on the anterior and posterior surface. On the inferior surface the liver has two small lo bes quadrate lobe and caudate lobe between the right lobe and the left lobe. In between the caudate lobe and the quadrate lobe is porta hepatis which receives hepatic portal vein, hepatic artery proper and common bile duct. Liver receives blood by two blood vessels hepatic artery and portal vein. The parenchyma of liver is made up of epithelial cells called hepatocytes. Blood sinusoids are present in between hepatocytes which are known as hepatic sinusoids. Portal area is a space which contains three tubular structures collectively called portal triad. The portal triad contains a branch of portal vein, a branch of hepatic artery and bile duct. A delicate covering is present around the parenchyma of liver known as Glison’s capsule. The liver performs different metabolic functions. Liver helps in protein synthesis like albumin which helps in regulating osmotic pressure. Liver synthesize fibrinogen which helps in blood clotting. Liver produces globulin which helps in immunity. I n fat metabolism liver plays important role. It synthesizes cholesterol and also performs lipogenesis. On the other hand liver produces bile which is necessary for the emulsification of fat which is breakdown of fat so liver plays role in synthesis and breakdown of fat. Bile is then transported to gall bladder for storage. From gall bladder the bile goes to the duodenum for fat emulsification when fat reaches the duodenum for digestion. Liver also plays important role in carbohydrate metabolism as gluconeogenesis, glycogenolysis and glycogenesis occur in liver. Liver also stores the extra glucose in form of glycogen. Thrombopoietin is hormone which is also produced in liver. The function of thrombopoietin is the regulation of platelets production in bone marrow. The liver helps in the breakdown of different substance like insulin, hemoglobin, different drugs and ammonia etc. During the first three months of fetal life the liver produces red blood cells. Liver also plays role in bloo d pressure regulation because it produces angiotensin hormone (Robbins et al 2005). Abnormality: By attacking liver cells the hepatitis C virus make morphological changes in the tissues of liver. The hepatitis C virus starts necrosing the liver cells and causes the shrinkage of the liver. The liver becomes wrinkled and red in color. Cross sectional examination of the necrosed liver shows muddy red appearance and blotchy bile staining. There is complete destruction of
Friday, July 26, 2019
Faith Integration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
Faith Integration - Essay Example Today, marketing management is more than the delivery of goods and services to customers. It is the science and art of effectively selecting target markets, maintain and growing customers base by developing, availing and communicating greater customer value (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Thus, the verse correlates to the marketing management principles in a way. The verse gives an assurance to the Israelites whom may be considered as the customers. Joshua is the individual who is developing and delivering to them through communicating the value attached to God’s Promised Land. Joshua was informed that there was an assurance of victory. Likewise in marketing management perspective, there is an assurance of market target and growing customer base through effectively obeying and applying accepted marketing principles. For instance, marketing management should be ethical and never apply malpractices. The book of Joshua talks of, â€Å"Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged". Through analysis, God gives encouragement and hope to the Israelites that He won’t forsake them as long as they trust in Him (Spence, 2013). This particular part of the Scripture echoes to marketing management to be hopeful despite the dynamic business environment that they operate. The dynamic business environment that marketers operate is full of competition and unethical practices, and as such, the verse prepares marketing managers in the world full of intimidation (Sites, et al., 2009). From a religious point of view, the marketing management is required to translate this statement to be a motivation from God, and use the energy to propel the company to a profitable level. Other qualities of marketing management include developing plans, capturing insights, building the brand, shaping the market offerings, and creating Long-Term growth. These tasks also pertain to what Joshua had to do. For example, Joshua had to develop a proper plan in the best way possible to attack Jericho. Likewise,
Organization in the Freight Forwarding Industry Research Proposal
Organization in the Freight Forwarding Industry - Research Proposal Example Organizational change or change, in general, can be defined from a variety of points depending on the perception of the user. An individual or employee in an organization may look at a new post or position as a change while higher management may feel it is unimportant. (Cao et al, 2000, p187). Changes viewed also by management may also not be looked upon as change by outsiders like competitors or suppliers. This has led to the categorizing of change in various ways, some of which include strategic and non-strategic change, incremental and radical change, changes of identity, co-ordination and control, planned and emergent change, change in terms of scale, human-centered change in terms of individual, group and inter-group or organizational level, quantum change and so on. (Cao et al, 2000, p187; Todnem, 2005, p372). Innovation is a management change process. There is a growing number of existing literature on value drivers, core competencies, and success factors in an organization. E .g. Sim & Ali (1998) compared the attributes and performance of firms from developed countries with those from developing countries within the same industry, Park & Russo (1996) focus on the differential impact of firm's size to its success and parents shareholders value, Hagan (1998) and Prahalad & Hamel (1990) focus on the core competence of an organisation, however, none of these studies has addressed the qualities and salient features with respect to a particular organisation. Under today's fierce competition it has become increasingly necessary to probe into some of the puzzling questions of what factors create an organization dominance and success in one industry while others continue to lag behind. This is the primary question this paper seeks to address with respect to Innovation and cross-functional team. The main research question, therefore, is to find out how innovation by cross-functional team creates a strategic breakthrough in companies. Thus this paper has as the mai n research objective to evaluate and analyze innovation by the cross-functional team as a competitive breakthrough in companies. The paper draw samples from the freight forwarding and transportation industry. 1.2Purpose and Objectives of Study The main objective of this piece of work will be to analyze the effect of innovation with a cross-functional team on the activities of the organization.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Human motivation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words
Human motivation - Research Paper Example The behavioral scientists have mainly confirmed that raised productivity is a task of the level of human wellbeing. This notion surpasses awareness being focused on instruments only since at the core of the company and its complete structure, the employees enabled with proficiency, knowledge, mind-sets and intellect is the most important their nature in factor grouping of capital generation and creation procedure. Companies, regardless of their nature, always target at attaining their commercial objectives, or else, the endurance of such venture will be more of a delusion and not a reality such extremely significant. The achievement of any company is mostly calculated by the level of its productivity. Even though, this can be considered autonomous on the mind-set as well as self-esteem of the personnel in form of their level of job dedication. No corporation can consequently afford to overlook any of the factors that may contribute to the improving of the dedication levels of its emp loyees, which is motivation. During every productive activity, the fundamental components and factors incorporate property, funds, labor, and the capitalist (Bruce, 2002, p. 56). The laborers and the capitalists are human and as such extremely significant within any productive venture. They make use of the other aspects for the understanding for the objective of the venture. It can then be adduced that human beings have a very significant position within any system and especially in organizations.... Companies, regardless of their nature, always target at attaining their commercial objectives, or else, the endurance of such venture will be more of a delusion and not a reality. The achievement of any company is mostly calculated by the level of its productivity. Even though, this can be considered autonomous on the mind-set as well as self-esteem of the personnel in form of their level of job dedication. No corporation can consequently afford to overlook any of the factors that may contribute to the improving of the dedication levels of its employees, which is motivation. During every productive activity, the fundamental components and factors incorporate property, funds, labor, and the capitalist (Bruce, 2002, p. 56). The laborers and the capitalists are human and as such extremely significant within any productive venture. They make use of the other aspects for the understanding for the objective of the venture. It can then be adduced that human beings have a very significant po sition within any system and especially in organizations. Therefore, they should be considered with a high concern so that they can chip in successfully and competently throughout productive activities. Effect of Motivational Theories A simple meaning of motivation is what makes individuals put actual effort as well as energy into what they perform. One may anticipate the motivational theories to be the ideal place to search for a normally agreed upon meaning. However, the field of motivation is described by a large quantity of various theoretical frameworks and models that make it tricky, if not impractical, to recognize similarities and differences
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Film analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Film analysis - Essay Example This situation is thematically depicted in the 1992 film â€Å"A Few Good Men†under the screenwriting of Aaron Sorkin and direction by Rob Reiner. Basically, â€Å"A Few Good Men†presents how the intertwined lives of military lawyers Lt. Daniel â€Å"Danny†Kaffee (Tom Cruise) and Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) would be faced with dilemmatic crisis between the duty to abide by orders and the humanitarian responsibility of acting in righteousness to reveal the truth and save the innocent colleagues. In the story, two men of the U.S. Marines distinguished as Pfc. Louden Downey and Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson are alleged to have committed murder on fellow Pfc. William Santiago at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. As Kaffee takes charge to defend the side of Downey and Dawson, during the course of investigation, he and Galloway are bound to learn of the ‘code red’ issued by a high-ranking officer who powerfully commands the naval base at Guantana mo. According to Capt. Whitaker, â€Å"A Marine corporal named Dawson illegally fires a round of his weapon over the fence line and into Cuban territory†(Memorable) and Santiago is perceived the risk of becoming a whistleblower to the incident so rather than granting the requested transfer off the base, he is to be kept on Guantanamo ground for training under the supervision of Lt. Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). Kaffee figures, nevertheless, that Col. Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson) orders Kendrick the ‘code red’ via Downey and Dawson where Capt. Whitaker particularly confesses in evidence â€Å"Pfc. William Santiago threatens to rat on Dawson to the Naval Investigative Service -- Dawson, and another member of his squad Pfc. Louden Downey, go into Santiago's barracks room, tie him up, stuff a rag down his throat -- An hour later Santiago's dead -- The attending physician says the rag was treated with some kind of toxin†(Memorable). To analyze, Kaffee’s role as a seemingly unscrupulous junior Navy lawyer known to have not at the time gained pertinent trial-on-court experience is utilized to the advantage of Jessup though it is not meant to be divulged as such due to the fact that it only serves being a cover-up. Kaffee, in which case, is expected to understand this purpose and not ever question his disposition on transacting plea bargains which have been his normal line of task even with the assignment of defending the position of his clients who must be made to admit the sole fault of causing Santiago’s death. At the expense of Downey and Dawson, hence, the court proceedings with foul play should be carried out in favor of Jessup who is apparently the principal villain of the story. Then the turning point comes to Kaffee and Galloway as a challenge of whether to get by the typical rule of following instructions or protect the reputation of the two U.S. Marines from unjust ruin. This time, the inexperienced l awyer is caught between two opposing decisions in which choosing the right one would necessarily improve his unfulfilled character. In a conversation with his friend Capt. Ross, Kaffee expresses â€Å"
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Critical Examination of the applicability of module topics to two Essay
Critical Examination of the applicability of module topics to two globally trading companies - Essay Example n the company’s strategic plans it was evident that there are numerous retail chains in the market thus it had to come up with a strategy that would ensure it stands out of the rest and, in the long run, maintain a competitive advantage over its rivals (â€Å"Strategies for Reaching†, 2010). Despite offering its goods at low prices, the quality of goods sold to clients is not compromised, even though; profit maximization remains the principal objective of the organization. It is literally difficult for an organization to achieve all these three parameters at a go, but Wal-Mart has managed to conquer them all through strategic planning and implementation. The company conducted its analysis of the industry and came to the conclusion that the value of retail goods increased exponentially from the time of manufacturing for the time they get to their stores. Thus, they came up with a rapid transportation system that supplied its stores with goods from the suppliers in time, and only the required products were reimbursed in the stores (â€Å"Wal-Mart: Key†, 2014). The company developed an integrated inventory system that was coordinated with their primary suppliers for instance Proctor and Gamble whereby goods would be replenished in the stores immediately their volumes run below the recommended levels. In that sense there would be no time a good would be missing in Wal-Mart stores since the system would update the suppliers of the goods that were on demand and the rapid transport system of Wal-Mart would dispatch them to the respective stores within twenty-four hours. The fact that Wal-Mart deals directly with its suppliers ensure that the cost of essential goods is significantly discounted and those price cuts are transferred to customers in terms of low prices (Govindarajan, and Gupta, 2002). The company is notable with its low prices a feature that has seen it accrue billions of dollars yearly in terms of revenues and made other market players to shut business
Monday, July 22, 2019
The Qur`an Essay Example for Free
The Qur`an Essay This website contains selections from the Quran, particularly those sections fundamental to Islam. These sections deal with Allah (God), the worship of Allah, mans purpose in relation to Allah, and the purpose of the revelation to Muhammad. In addition, this website provides scripture about the Quran, belief and disbelief, the relationship between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and the Islamic view of an afterlife. Given the history of wars between these three faiths, it is interesting to note just how much their scriptures teach similar precepts. Islam views Mohammed (approximately 570 A.D. until 632 A.D.) as the final revelation from God or Allay to people of this world until the world comes to an end. Like Judaism that had been in existence for at least 1500 years and Christianity that had been in existence for more than 500 years, Islam is a monotheistic religion based on a book, the Quran. Each of these religions come from the tradition of Abraham and his descendents. Given the world today and the current animosity between those nations considered Christian and those considered Muslim, there are a surprising number of similarities between the two religions. In addition, given the strong anti-Semitic feeling among the more radical groups of Islam, it is hard to believe that they both come from similar traditions. In the discussion of Muhammads purpose, we read. Thus have we sent amongst you an apostle of yourselves, to recite to you our signs, to purify you and teach you the Book and wisdom, and to teach you what you did not know; remember me (God), then, and I will remember you; thank me, and do not disbelieve. This is remarkably similar to much of the teachings and actions of Jesus who worked against the Pharisees to purify Judaism in Jerusalem in the first century A.D. In the section called God it is interesting to read and note how much of the description is like the book of the Old Testament. Your God is one God; there is no God but He, the merciful, the compassionate of the Quran compares to the ten commandment statement of thy God is a jealous god, Thou shalt have no other god before Me. In the Quran Allah seems more mature. It is claimed that he is the one god, but that he is merciful and compassionate. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God seems less mature, more given to anger and more demanding of those who worship him/her. There is a more alive and celebratory quality to the writings of the Quran. Instead of saying something like God created the heavens and the earth as in the Old Testament, just a simple declarative statement, the Quran provides a different slant, He created the heavens and the earth. May God be exalted above all that which they join with Him! This passion and emotion expressed in the Islamic tradition is greatly different than what is experienced in many Christian Churches today. This is reflected in the behavior of Muslims, who are passionate and open in newscasts today, as opposed to the restrained, remote, detached worshipping that many Christians and Jews do. The Quran and the Bible offer many similar teachings. Sadly, Moslems, Christians and Jews seem determined to emphasis the differences instead of embracing the similarities. Works Cited Hooker, Richard. Islam the Qu-ran. 02 Dec. 2006 http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ ISLAM/QURANSEL.HTM
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Factors Influencing Public Policy
Factors Influencing Public Policy As for a good government, the valuable public policy, which refers to the government action or inaction to deal with particular issues, can be regarded as one of the evaluation criterions. Thus, it seems that the process of policy making, turning the government political vision into the actual programs and actions in the real world (Cabinet Office, 1999), becomes significant which should be put on much more emphasis. Especially, good quality policy making depends on high quality information, derived from a variety of sources-expert knowledge; existing domestic and international research; existing statistics; stakeholder consultation; evaluation of previous policies and new research(Cabinet Office, 1999). The high quality information here mainly refers to evidence which becomes more and more important part for the policy making. Even more, the increasing use of various kinds of evidence by government has determined the central role of evidence in policy making for 21st century. The te rm evidence-based policymaking naturally comes up at the same time. Actually, the rise role of evidence in policy making does have its own reasons. As the development of modern society, the growth of well-educated and well-informed public cast their interest to the exact information provided by the government and ask why. Thus in certain distance, it facilitates the government to explore the precise data of all types with the help of developed information technology(Davies, Nutley and Smith, 2000). Whats more, an increasing demand on accountability in government spurs on the significance of evidence in a democratic society. Due to the above reasons, in UK the Blair Government, who was elected on the basis of What matters is what works, announced that to produce policies that really deal with problems, that are forward-looking and shaped by evidence rather than a response to short-term pressure, that tackles causes; not symptoms(Modernising Government, 1999 White Paper), and demonstrated that it was a good time for the new government to begin evidenc e based- approach to public policy (Gary Banks AO, 2009), At the same time, they built a new relationship between social science and government as well as pointed out that public policy had to be driven by evidence. So, what exactly does evidence mean? UK Cabinet office defines it as analysis of the outcome of consultation, costings of policy options and the results of economic or statistical modeling(Cabinet Office, 1999) According to Chambers Dictionary, evidence consists of results of systematic investigation towards increasing the sum of knowledge (Davies, Nutley and Smith, 2000). Both two definitions can be divided into four kinds serving for policy making: descriptive data, analytic findings, evaluative evidence, and policy analytic forecasts(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). Descriptive data is a tool to show objects condition, location, relation and direction of change. Consider, for instance, before the Hong Kong Government introduced the environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags, amount of data are collected to show the increasing danger brought by the plastic bags. 3-the average number of plastic bags is used by Hong Kong people per day. 13,503-the number of tons of solid waste is disposed of at landfills per day (EPD Hong Kong, 2009). 20 to 1000-the years are needed to decompose the plastic bag. From the exact data, government could clearly see the negative environmental affect caused by the plastic bag. Thus, governments policy is made on the basis of large and comprehensive data. The second kind is analytic findings which refer to the identified information conducted by an academic research and analysis system, discovering the relationship between factors and current situations(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). Also in the same policy-the environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags, after academic analysis, we can conclude that the low environmental consciousness of public endangers the situation of indiscriminate use of plastic bags. The analytic findings are the direction for seeking positive solutions in the process of policy making. Evaluation serves for directly examining the existing policies in other countries or places, and then selectively choo sing for own use. Taiwan, as one of the pioneers in environmental protection, provides valuable experience for the Hong Kong Government enacting the plastic bag levy scheme. After evaluating positive and negative sides of Taiwans Restricted Use Policy on Plastic Shopping Bags and Disposable Plastic Tableware (Our Groups Essay on Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags, 2009), the HK Government adopts the same policy of restricted use of plastic shopping bags while temporarily abandons the unavailable policy on plastic tableware. The last one is policy analytic forecasts. In common situations, analyst will calculate and predict the potential cost and benefits of the coming policy. The report of prediction will influence the final release of the new policy(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). In short, these four kinds of evidence are used as the basis of the government policy making. Nevertheless, no matter how important evidence is, in the process of policy making, its nature has several limitations and difficulties. According to Gary Banks research on evidence-based policy making, methodology the government choose, data deficiency or overload, evidence transparency, people who research and analyze evidence, and the limited time to do the data collection are all the potential factors to influence the effectiveness of evidence used in policy making(Gary Banks AO, 2009). Sometimes, quantitative data could be collected, but that does not mean they are the real valuable data needed. The increase use of plastic shopping bags has no necessary correlation with the heavy air pollution problem. Thus, the evidence for air pollution should directly from car emission, industrial emission, waste deposition, etc. People with diverse political value or interest could be not reluctant to accept the evidence which obeys their interest. Whats more, even for the policy makers, the y would like to set the mode of policy first and then look for confirmation evidence. In this sense, evidence only can be regarded as one of the crucial factors in policy making. It will be much more appropriate to call that evidence-influenced policy making( H.K. Wongs lecture note). In addition, other three main factors-political, economic and social factors, also have a intensive power to affect the complex process of policy making. Politics here concerns with political system and crisis. On one hand, as we know, the stable political system determines the usual way of the government policy making. From the first beginning of policy proposal to the consultation and to the final policy making, every step complies with a certain regulate with minor change. Moreover, the same as the steady political system, political ideology and beliefs also become the major elements to force the policy made(Philip Davies, 2004). On the other hand, crisis explosion becomes the direct primacord to urge the government to enact and implement a new policy in the immediate time. After the explosion of the global financial crisis, once the economic situation in Hong Kong got worse rapidly, and the Hong Kong Government carried out series of policy to stimulate the recovery and development of economy. In the 2009-2010 Budget, the government introduced several measures to ensure the stability of financial institutions and the market to bols ter public confidence in our financial systems, including the provision of liquidity assistance to the banking system and the establishment of a Contingent Bank Capital Facility(The 2009-2010 Budget of Hong Kong). Meanwhile, in order to decrease the unemployment rate caused by the financial crisis, the Hong Kong Government also sustained the provision of more than 60000 employment chances, increased the recruitment of civil servants, and closely cooperated with Guangdong Province to create more jobs(The 2009-2010 Budget of Hong Kong). Thus, it seems that in some certain situations, political factors are more available than evidence which needs time to collect and analyze. The economy is often closely connected with the politics. The long-standing development of economy should base on valuable policies. In every years policy address, economic policy is the most important one. According to the specific economic situations, the government have emphasised their policy on different aspects. For instance, when the Hong Kong market was heavily hit by the financial tsunami, the policy emphasis are placed on how to cope with it and how to recover this year. This is why the government make great effort to stabilize the financial system, support enterprises and preserve employment(2009-2010 Policy Address). Comparing to the previous year, there was no financial tsunamis hitting, the Hong Kong Government focused more on 10 large-scale Infrastructure Projects which aimed to improve Hong Kongs transportation and link up socio-cultural and business activities with more efficient transportation systems(2007-2008 Policy Address). When talking about economic factors, w e should notice that every policy is restricted within the government finance. As we know, if the budget of a policy is largely beyond the governments financial endurance after exact calculation and the cost effectiveness/efficiency system, the policy will be cut off. Social factors here include experience and judgement of policy makers, habit and tradition, pressure groups and consultants(Philip Davies, 2004). Normally, the experience and judgement of policy makers are precious conclusion on the basis on the previous policy success or failure, embodying rational capital and tacit knowledge(Philip Davies, 2004). They are consider as an influence factor. Actually, the use of experience and judgement often appears in the condition where the evidence is incomplete or non-existent(Grimshaw, et al, 2003). It can be regarded as a complement for evidence in the process of policy making. Habit and tradition constitutes another social factor affecting policy making. Some institutions stagnate due to the unchanging habit and tradition. They refuse to make and implement new policy to stimulate the development of themselves. To a certain extent, Changing traditional and habitual ways of doing things to accommodate the forces of rationality and modernity prese nts a major challenge for policy making(Philip Davies, 2004). The last social factor-pressure groups and consultants, increasingly influence the policy making in the current days. The fast development of think tanks in society, they have already deeply penetrated into the politics. Especially when a policy contradicts with think-tanks and pressure groups interest, their opinions are powerful enough to affect the policy making. In a word, all the above factors come together to influence the process of policy making. Evidence, political, economic and social factors supplement with each other, preparing for the fully consideration of policy making. However, factors come together here does not mean that every factor should become one necessary part in a policy. In most conditions, there are only two or three factors influence the policy making. Now, I will analyze how these factors come together to affect policy making within one case. Small Class Teaching in Hong Kong is a typical case which could prove many elements come together to influence policy making. As the development of modern knowledge-based society, more and more requirements are raised on education system and method. Especially, for the comprehensive development of younger generation, it is commonly supposed that small class with smaller number of students per class is much more helpful than the normal large class in primary and secondary school. As for the teachers in small class, they could reduce their heavy workload, pay more attention to every individual student and then teach students according to their ability. For the student, in small class they would have more opportunities to communicate with teachers and classmates, participant in class activities and get more immediate feedback of their own study from teachers(Group 2s Essay on Small Class Teaching). Since July 1998, an oral question on class size in primary and secondary schools was first raised by Hon Cheung Man-kwong in the Legislative Council. Till 2007, the Chief Executive finally announced that the small class teaching would be launch in 2009/10 school year in his 2007-2008 Policy Address. During the long period of policy making, in order to collect more resource as well as considering some controversy issues concerned with the small class teaching, the government conducted a pilot study in primary school with effectiveness strategies of class and group teaching in 2003/04 school year and another scheme in primary schools with high concentration of disadvantaged pupils with effect from 2005/06 school year. During the study, amount of feedback and quantitative data have been collected from teachers and students through the way of questionnaire. Qualitative data, carefully analyzed through systematic lesson observations and case studies, get a conclusion that schools and teac hers have not really benefited a lot from the small class teaching (Group 2s essay on Small Class Teaching). Even though the final result of the study has not been released to the public, from the aspect of evidence, it can be regarded as a good way to start. In addition, the evaluation and experience-learning on the basis of overseas experience is also a kind of evidence. The United State is a successful example on the implementation of small class teaching, who conducts specific cost-effectiveness analysis and fully considers the allocation of funds, the target popularity, the class size and so on(Group 2s essay on Small Class Teaching). From the aspect of social factors, most of academic and parents representatives concurred with the policy of small class teaching with the reasons that teachers should be professionally trained and care more about individual students need. Moreover, political parties such as Democratic Party and Liberal Party, also agreed with the implementation of this policy. Thus, a great major of stakeholders were unanimous the implementation of small class teaching which they believed students and teachers would benefit a lot from it. In this sense, the strong opinions for stakeholders have a certain impact on the whole policy process. From the aspect of political factors, in 2002, the Consolidating High Cost and Under-utilized Primary Schools policy was introduced by Education and Manpower Bureau, leading to a threaten to amount of teachers jobs. Thousands of teachers hold a march and protested against the policy in July 2003(SING TAO, 2003). This political pressure became one element to influence the making of small class teaching policy. Originally, the Hong Kong Government attempted to practice evidence-based policy making by conducting the pilot study, evaluating and analyzing the research as well as learning from overseas experience. However, political and social factors partially become the elements of affecting the policy making. Thus, evidence in this case is still the most important factor and the policy of small class teaching could be called evidence-influenced policy. To conclude, in the complex process of policy making, evidence as well as the political, economic and social factors constitutes the influence elements. On one hand, Evidence, by means of descriptive data, analytic findings, evaluative evidence, and policy analytic forecasts, occupies the most significant position in policy making. On the other hand, to some extent, the limitations and difficulties of evidence restrict the policys formation. It leads to the evidence-influenced policy, instead of evidence-based policy. Yet, the existence of the political, economic and social factors makes up the limitation of evidence in a certain distance. They all serve for the whole policy process. Reference Cabinet Office, 1999, Professional Policy-Making for the Twenty-First Century, Strategic Policy Making Team, London, Cabinet Office. http://www.civilservant.org.uk/profpolicymaking.pdf ( accessed on 18 November, 2009) Cabinet Office, 1999a, Modernising Government, White Paper, London, Cabinet Office. Carmen, Fiona, Helen, Gloria, Selin and Yvonne, November 2009, Group Paper: Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001, What Kind of Evidence in Evidence-Based Policy? Third International, Inter-disciplinary Evidence-Based Policies and Indicator Systems Conference, July 2001 http://www.cemcentre.org/Documents/CEM%20Extra/EBE/EBE2001/P284-291%20Carol%20Weiss.pdf (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Chau Kam Yan, Hon Heung-Kwan, Kung Tin Ho, Leung Lok-Sum, So Tsit, October 2009, Group Essay on Small Class Teaching Donald Tsang, 2007, Policy Address 2007-2008: A New Direction for Hong Kong, policyaddress.gov.hk, http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/07-08/eng/agenda.html (accessed on 20 November, 2009) Donald Tsang, 2009, Policy Address 2009-2010: Breaking New Ground Together, policyaddress.gov.hk, http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/09-10/eng/index.html (accessed on 20 November, 2009) Environmental Protection Department Hong Kong, 2009. Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags. http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/env_levy.html (accessed on 3 November, 2009) Gary Banks AO, 2009, Challenges of Evidence-Based Policy-Making, Australia Public Service Commission, http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications09/evidencebasedpolicy.htm (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Grimshaw, J.M., Thomas, R.E., MacLennan, G., Fraser, C., and Ramsay, C.R., 2003, Effectiveness and Efficiency of Guideline Dissemination and Implementation Strategies, Final Report, Aberdeen, Health Services Research Unit. H.K. Wong, 2009, Lecture Note 3: The Rhetorics and Reality of EBPM Hum Davies, Sandra Nutley and Peter Smith, 2000, Introducing Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Public Services, In What Works? Evidence Based Policy and Practice in the Public Services, Chapter One, 1-11, Bristol: Policy Press John Tsang Chun-wah, 2009, the 2009-2010 Budget, http://www.budget.gov.hk/2009/eng/speech.html (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Philip Davies, 2004, Is Evidence-Based Government Possible? To be presented at the 4th Annual Campbell Collaboration Colloquium, Washington D.C., 19 February 2004 http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/policyhub/downloads/JerryLeeLecture1202041.pdf (accessed on 20 November, 2009) http://www.singtao.com/archive/fullstory.asp?andor=oryear1=2003month1=07day1=21year2=2003month2=07day2=21category=allid=20030721a01keyword1=keyword2= (accessed on 20 November, 2009)
Types Of EC Transactions Used By Dell
Types Of EC Transactions Used By Dell B2B transaction is an e-commerce business between two businesses/companies such as manufacturers and suppliers or wholesalers. This is the type of e-commerce which takes care of relationships among businesses. This type of e-commerce is now recognized as the E-commerce segment with major /the biggest potential. The B2B market has two primary components: e-frastructure and e-markets. E-frastructure is the architecture of B2B, primarily consisting of the following: Dell provides business to business (B2B) transactions which helps to low procurement costs of an organization. Within a B2B transaction, you can shop online from within your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) procurement application and return the contents of your shopping session back to your ERP system electronically. No longer are you required to enter duplicate information in order to purchase. The electronic requisition can now be routed through your standard ERP workflow where it can be approved electronically. Once this electronic requisition is approved, it can become an electronic purchase order and be transmitted instantly to Dell. These orders flow directly into Dells manufacturing system where your orders are built immediately, saving you hours or days in processing time. This brings you the latest technology at the quickest pace. Dell defines B2B Integration as server-to-server communication over the Internet integrating both systems and business processes to dramatically transform the way we conduct business with our partners, suppliers, and customers. By electronically integrating these processes, we not only benefit in process efficiency and information accuracy, we also increase our ability to respond and interact with each member of a business relationship. Dells has two objectives with its B2B integration initiative: To quickly integrate with customers who are capable today To help customers build a B2B solution for rapid deployment and connectivity Dell has built a solution that extends its existing Internet infrastructure and E-Commerce capability to easily integrate with any customer who supports open, industry document standards of XML (such as cXML based on Ariba, xCBL based on Commerce One) and EDI. This allows Dell to provide the same customized catalog most customers use today with Premier Pages, and integrate this dynamic commerce functionality into their internal procurement systems. If a customer is not currently capable of integrating their procurement systems and processes with their suppliers, Dell can provide the necessary hardware, software, and consultation to help build and deploy a solution that not only connects the customer to Dell, but one that can to connect to even other suppliers or customers. Benefits: Better align Dell with customer procurement processes Ease the purchasing process and reduce errors by eliminating duplicate data entry Reduce costs for clients by eliminating paper purchase order/fax processes Reduce customer cycle times for ordering approval and payment Process controls for shoppers versus buyers B2C: Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) transaction is when businesses such as companies and retailers serve their products and services to individual consumers directly. This transaction can be done online by consumers using shopping carts in the website. It is the earliest form of electronic commerce and the largest after B2B transaction form. By enhancing customer access to information and make it easier to customers to find a competitive and economical price for some products and services, B2C can decrease transactions costs. Moreover, constructing and maintaining a website costs much less than installing a brick-and-mortar structure for a firm; therefore, B2C e-commerce also reduces market entry obstructions. Its origins can be traced to online retailing (or e-tailing).13 Thus, the more common B2C business models are the online retailing companies such as Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, Beyond.com, Barnes and Noble and ToysRus. In the case of information goods, B2C e-commerce is even more attractive because it saves firms from factoring in the additional cost of a physical distribution network. Moreover, for countries with a growing and robust Internet population, delivering information goods becomes increasingly feasible. B2B2C: Business-to-Business-to-Consumer e-commerce (B2B2C) : It is when a business sells products and services to client businesses. The business provides products and services to client businesses to maintain its own customers. This can be when a business provides products and services to agencies, which are considered as business partners, sell it to customers. (Efraim Turban, Electronic Commerce, 2006) Dell uses e-procurement services and offers it to its agents who purchase the products. Customers visiting the agents website will find a link which connects the user to Dells website. After that when the customer buys a product, the agent receives a commission which is a percentage of the price of the product bought by the customer. B2G: Short for business-to-government, B2G is the exchange of services and products from one company to a government agency. Business-to-government e-commerce is generally described as commerce between companies and parts of a countrys economy which is controlled or supported financially by the government. B2G e-commerce form indicates a large market potential since the public sector plays an important role in establishing e-commerce, also, to make the procurement system effective, the public sector need the public sector has the greatest need for making its procurement system more effective Business-to-Government e-commerce (B2G) is a type of transactions where the government buys information, products, or services from businesses. (Electronic Commerce, Efraim Turban, 2006) Dell sells its products and services to governments. It provides a separate section called public sector in its website which serves several divisions within a government. The company offers special products and services to government divisions and areas supported by government such as State government, Local government, Federal government, Higher education and Healthcare. Government agencies can buy the offered products and services from the companys website online and the delivery service is provided by Dell. http://www.dell.com/content/segmenter.aspx//pub?c=uscs=2684l=ens=pub~ck=mn B2E: E Collaboration: Collaborative commerce should help companies forge long-term relationships while reducing the costs of cooperation, says Lisa Williams, an analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston. For example, a Web server hub could substitute for distributed groupware for jointly managing projects such as constructing a building. Instead of all the partners buying the same groupware product, theyll all just sign on to the Web site, she says. But while collaborative commerce has the potential to be the next big trend in partneringits just beginning to take shape, says Stan Lepeak, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/46547/Collaborative_Commerce Collaborative Commerce In todays global commerce environment, the need for accurate, standards-based information is critical for conducting business efficiently. By standardizing the way information is communicated, and by having all trading partners accessing the same information, the opportunity for errors decreases dramatically, costs are reduced, and supply chains operate more efficiently. http://barcodes.gs1us.org/dnn_bcec/Solutions/CollaborativeCommerce/tabid/195/Default.aspx Collaborative commerce is a technology that enhances a companys communications with its business partners electronically. It enables companies and organizations to share information between each other, including Coolaborative commerce helps/provides companies and organizations a variety of benefits and opportunities by reducing service costs, Key business issues: Decreased service costs Faster cycle times Increased customer satisfaction Streamlined operations Enhanced flexibility and responsiveness Rapid, reliable fulfillment Improved planning through better system visibility In a collaborative environment, organizations and individuals can work together, share sensitive information, protect their privacy, and collaborate on activities and projects efficiently and effectively. Dell provides support forums for users and customers to refer in order to gain information from experts who bought Dell products and services. In this way, customers will be able to know how to buy and which product or service they should choose. It will also avoid buying products and returning it to Dell if it was not suitable due to the lack of knowledge. (http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/default.aspx) Collaborative commerce (or c-commerce) can be regarded as the next evolutionary step beyond the more basic process of electronic commerce (or e-commerce). It is an emerging area that is based on interactions enabled by Internet technology. The business models used by Dell: EC business models can differ depending on the industry and the companys strategy. According to Weill and Vital methodology/framework (2001), there are eight elementary e-commerce business models combines to create Online Direct Marketing: online direct marketing is very inexpensive, especially as postage rates continue to raise. With a little effort, it can also generate enough responses to be equally successful. Generally, online direct marketing focuses on creating communication between you and your customers, giving you the opportunity to target specific customers with relevant promotions. Read more: How to Be Successful in Online Direct Marketing | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2103036_be-successful-online-direct-marketing.html#ixzz1AqFb2CsV 1- Online Direct Marketing: It means selling products and services online directly to customers. This E-business model reduces costs and makes the distribution/dispersion of procurements more efficient, where sales are direct from the manufacturer or retailers to customers without processing through/using agents and physical stores. Dell offers e-procurement service to customers and businesses willing to buy products or services from the company. It allows buyers to browse, buy and order stocks through the Dell website which offers to buyers a chance to contact their staff for any guide. In premier B2B; another more developed version of e-procurement; authorized users of British Airways staff are provided with e-procurement tools to be able to access the intranet service and request for a product or order stocks from Dell Company. (Electronic Commerce, Efraim Turban, 2006) Electronic Tendering Systems: E-tendering is used for large-value purchases which are usually made by large organizations or public organizations. Conducting such a tendering online through Dells website will consume less time and money. Government agencies use e-tendering in most of their procurement to buy products and services efficiently. E-tendering can be applied on B2C business transaction as well as B2B transaction. In this way, Dell can become more popular and gain more customers to the company. Also many government agencies recommend tendering in most of their e-procurements. (Electronic Commerce, Efraim Turban, 2006) Dell established an e-procurement model to share it with business partners, such as British Airways. Electronic Tendering help them in requesting for bids when buying from sellers. Dell uses e-tendering in buying large quantities of components for their products. In this case, Dell will be to save more money when buying products through tendering. (Electronic Commerce, Efraim Turban, 2006) Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is an internet-based marketing where an arrangement is made between the company and a marketing partner which is refered/called affiliate , . The affiliate will place/display an online advertisement of the company on his website by placing a banner ad or the companys logo or its link. A commission will be given to the affiliate partner every time a customer visits/refers to the selling companys website or makes a transaction/purchase through the advertisement placed in the affiliate website. the publisher (also known as the affiliate) It is a pay-for-performance model which means if an affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner. Dell appoints affiliate partners to link their websites to Dell website (dell.com). This partner receives 2 to 4 percent of the price of the product sold, if the buyer used the link of Dell website at the partners website. (Electronic Commerce, Efraim Turban, 2006) Online Auctions: Online auctions are sales transactions conducted online where shoppers make bids for products and the highest bidder wins the auction and gets the product delivered to him. The participants could be consumers, retailers or companies. The functionality of buying and selling in an auction format is made possible through auction software which regulates the various processes involved. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_auction_business_model Dell auction has renewed Dells computers and other products at dellauction.com. Whereas the online auction is important sales channel in 2006, Dell has opened physical stores, mostly in reaction to customer demands. (Electronic Commerce, Efrim Turban, 2006) Viral Marketing: Dell has support forums in its website where buyers and users can refer to gain knowledge and information about Dell products. Customers of Dell who bought products and services will be able to help those who do not know what to buy, as they can make use of their experience from what they bought. In this way, Dell can gain more customers by encouraging their customers to inform others about Dell products in the forum. Also loyalty can be gained from customers by Dell when they find specific and accurate information is provided. (http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/default.aspx) Supply Chain Management: E-supply chain management: e-supply chain management is a joint technology used- to improve the processes of B2B transaction along with improving agility, speed, real time control and customer satisfaction. Vi Dells Website Dells suppliers The customers E-customer service Mass customization Dell IT has successfully implemented this solution for Dells Americas, Brazil, Europe, and Asia Pacific/Japan regions. By using the same processes for disaster recovery, backup, and monitoring across all Dell operations, Dell IT has achieved a cost-effective and readily supported deployment model. January 2007 Page 5 Dell Enterprise Technology Center This article describes in depth how Dell IT made the transition from proprietary Unix-based servers to running mission critical supply chain management applications on Dells own hardware. The problem being solved by these database applications is described in detail in Section 3. The old solution and the Dell-on-Dell solution are described in Section 4 and Section 5. Finally, measured performance improvements are shown in Section 6. Dells Supply Chain Management The sheer number of transactions and pieces of information that the supply chain management system needs to handle is impressive. Each of the core components of the supply chain management (SCM) system are heavily used and relied on to keep Dells operations running smoothly. Configuration Management: The Configuration Management system manages over 1 million Dell part numbers across approximately 200 product families, and over 2 million Bills of Materials (BOMs) per year. BOMs listing component part numbers are created for manufacturing to build assemblies and sub-assemblies to produce Dells products. Procurement: The Procurement system manages nearly 1.8 million Purchase Order lines per year, from more than 5,000 suppliers worldwide. To streamline the procurement process Dell uses an automated application which includes workflow approvals and vendor communication, and provides for services such as defective part warranty replacement. Cost: The Cost component of the system runs mostly in batch mode to calculate the costs to Dell for all Bills of Materials. These batch jobs run weekly, monthly and quarterly, with each run rolling up total material costs. Inventory: Between all sites there are more than 3 million inventory movements daily from stock rooms to the factory floor. A corresponding 3 million messages are transmitted to various systems for reporting, analysis and factory scheduling. Accounts Payable: Accounts Payable handles approximately 15,000 items per day including payments to Dell suppliers, invoices and receipts. Vendor information includes number, location, negotiated terms and contact information. On top of these order-related transactions, there are several batch process jobs that need to be run to rollup data every week, month or quarter. The longest of these, the end-of-quarter (EOQ) rollup, took 31 hours under the Unix-based solution. In Dells Americas region the SCM Oracle database application consists of approximately 3,000 database objects (functions, packages, procedures, triggers, tables, and views). The same SCM system is also supported by 6 Dell PowerEdge 2650 application servers, 5 internally developed web-based applications, more than 50 system-to-system integrations, approximately 125 batch jobs, and about 500 user interfaces deployed to support the entire SCM application. Dells Supply Chain Management (SCM) System allows customers to make their own orders. This feature involves the customer directly and cuts down costs for Dell salesmen salaries at the same time. Furthermore, Dells SCM system allows customers to build up their own computer systems with all provided options. Thus, customers will be forced to review all the available options along with adding components and parts they might not have thought of adding initially. When customers can review all of the possible options at their own pace, without direct sales pressure from a salesperson, Dells can benefit from additional component sales. Dell is also striving on establishing good communication and better customer service. The company now is providing easy access to support through its web site. Customers can find answers to frequent/common problems without the need of Dells technical assistants which helps the company to reduce its payroll costs. Dell also provides other opportunities like online chat, email and phone to make it easier for customers to contact the companys customer service for enquiries and to solve problems that are not mentioned in the website. Dell uses chat groups and users groups to keep customers involved with the company, which help to retain customers for future components sales from satisfied customers. Dell has established a web site that provides wide information options for its customers. In order to make it easier to its customers, The company has splitted the home page into a number of main customer groups; 1- Home Home Office, 2- Small Business, 3- Medium and Large Business and 4- Government, Education Healthcare. (Dells Website Flowchart I made illustrates this perfectly.) In each group, customers will find particular products and services that are suitable to their usage. Classifying the website shows that Dell realizes each customer groups needs and saves consumers time by displaying the products and services that concern them only. Dell also devoted a particular division for customer service and support on its website, which shows the companys high priority to customer satisfaction. Dell has provided Service Support group and its duplicated in all customer group pages. Dell makes it possible for the customer to do a significant amount of research on their own. The website contains a large deal of information that will address their needs and answer most of their enquiries and questions. Dells customer support and service field is greater than its competition in comparison to other companies (Dell.com). Recommendation: Industry advisory firm, Technology Business Research (TBR), issued a report on support satisfaction among corporate buyers and has indicated that Dells satisfaction ratings have slipped to 80.98, down from 83.4 in the third quarter of 2003. TBR questions buyers on eight aspects of support, including their overall satisfaction with a companys support service, and assigns each one a weighted score for a total of 100 possible points. Although Dell still topped rivals HP and IBM in the TBR survey, its score was the lowest seen since the research firm began tracking Dells satisfaction levels in the first quarter of 2001. According to the TBR report, IBM outscored Dell in the fourth quarter of 2003 based on product design/features and long-term durability. From polling customers that have switched from Dell to IBM, customers stated that their reasons for changing companies were product performance, pricing and support. Although Dell has maintained its strong leadership posi tion in the fourth quarter of 2003, Dell needs to address their customer loyalty and keep customers from changing companies. As a result of these polls, Dell is working toward reversing the declining customer satisfaction trend and to return to the industry leader in the area of customer service. Dell is aware that the PC business is becoming increasingly commoditized, marked by similarly equipped machines and price erosion. By cutting out the middleman, Dell believes it has established a closer relationship with its customers. One way to stand out from the crowd is to appeal to existing and new customers by offering better service and support than competitors (4Q03). Although US consumers have condemned Dell in some fields, Dell is still doing extremely well in other countries. According to Technology Business Research (TBR) reports report in September 2003, the France Customer Satisfaction Study determined Dell is the No. 1 ranked desktop and notebook vendor in France and is tied No. 1 server vendor. Dell was significantly ranked higher than other vendors within most notebook categories in loyalty and satisfaction. Moreover, customers in France consider that Dell provides excellent long-term durability hardware. Dells General Manager in France, Thierry Labbe stated These results, and recent strong market share gains in France, show this is starting to pay off. We will however, constantly drive value up and prices down, and focus on providing a great customer experience, giving customers plenty of reason to continue choosing Dell (Customer Satisfaction in France).
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