Thursday, October 31, 2019

Systems Dvelopment Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Systems Dvelopment Case Study - Essay Example The system also provided the factor of motivation that it was able to identify the cost saving opportunities and prospects for the Pepsi Company. The billing management offered by the project also served as a motivating factor for the company to implement the system. BusinessObjects Corporation was one of the participants involved in the development of the Purchase to Pay System. It was involved for the providence of business intelligence information to Pepsi Co. and also for the storage of the procurement in a well managed and efficient database. The systems development life cycle approach which can be best applied to the Purchase to Pay System of the Pepsi Co. was the iterative approach. Through this approach the prototype of the new project that was to be implemented should be designed for the convenience of the staff of Pepsi and also for the ease of use and should be improved through a number of iterations. For achieving the best system development, the system is improved through iterations in the prototype in this approach. This kind of approach would be helpful for Pepsi to get the best out of the Procurement System that it planned to implement in the company. 5. Assuming that you were responsible for designing and implementing the new procurement system at PepsiCo, what problems and opportunities would you have considered in conducting your initial systems investigation The purcha

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Introduction to case study research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Introduction to case study research - Essay Example appraisal refers to the process of systematically evaluating the two case studies evidence to measure their validity, results and significance before using it to update a decision. Instruments created to maintain quality appraisal normally share some basic strategies for the appraisal of qualitative study (Hill & Spittlehouse, 2003). The evaluation will also involve assessment of each article strengths and weaknesses. The second part of this paper involves critical evaluation of use of case study research in terms of validity, reliability and generalizability. A case study is a precise, holistic, frequently unique case that is often designed to demonstrate a more general standard; the study of an instance in practice; and the study of a developing circumstance (Hill & Spittlehouse, 2003). In addition, case studies demonstrate ‘what it is like’ to be in a given situation. Research is the systematic process of gathering and analysing data (information) in order to augment people’s understanding of the occurrence about which people are concerned or interested (Swanborn 2010). This section involves comparison and explanation of these two studies ‘How to Do Case Study Research’ by Donna M. Zucker and ‘Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ by Andreas Walmsley (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). The first case study is an interpretive research that involves exploration of a research theme or theory. In this study, researcher interprets data to make sense of it and that is what is considered the fact or truth. Therefore in this study theories are reconstructions of realities, and the strategy of a good presumption is a comprehension of meaning of the study (George and Bennett 2005). The author needed to discover how case study is effectively done. This led to questions such as how data have been interpreted it in order to create or confirm theory and ideas. Meanings in natural science are disconnected from reality, while in social

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Alexander the Great Essay

Alexander the Great Essay With the courage of a tiger and the ferocity of a Lion, Alexander III swept through Eastern Europe and Asia. Alexander the Great as he would be called was believed to be a descendant of the Gods! He was a military genius because his battles throughout Asia Minor, against Darius, the King of the Empire of Persia, would bring him fame, fortune, and eternal glorification as the greatest king to have ruled in all of history. The Macedonian kings level of intelligence, the amount of land that he acquired, and the fact that he was a military genius, is some of the most important aspects to the life of Alexander the Great. The intelligence quota of Alexander the Great was incredible and was recognized at a very young age. By following the teachings of Aristotle, Alexander would expand his horizon of knowledge to an incredible extent. The reason for this great expansion of knowledge was because of the deep rooted respect that Alexander had for Aristotle. We can see this obvious respect because He placed the copy of Homer into a casket, adorned with jewels, and it followed him wherever he went. (Abbott) Alexander loved books. He loved expanding knowledge, not only for himself, but for his people. His famed city of Alexandria was built after him. It housed the greatest library of the ancient world. It had thousands of books and scrolls and all kinds of literature. By using his vast amount of literary resources surrounding him, he was able to sharpen the tip of his spear that was his knowledge of military tactics. By studying ancient generals and kings, whether they were great in what they accomplished or terrible for how they failed, he learned to use their feats in a way to better himself as a king and especially as general. He would go on to use his knowledge to command and conquer the once thought invincible Asiatic empires. Alexander the Great was one of the most amazing leaders in the history of ancient Greece. The expansions of his boundaries of the kingdom were phenomenal. In five years, he expanded his empire east by 2500 miles (Leadership). He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks (Snow). He controlled the vast majority of the eastern European continent and he also controlled much of the Asiatic continent as well. Alexander the Great was one of the best-known rulers in ancient history. By the time of his death at thirty-two, he ruled the largest Western empire of the ancient world (Alexander the Great Biography). By controlling this vast empire, the economy of the Macedonian empire would have flourished dramatically. This would be because of trade. The trade routes that were mapped out by Alexander and his army were extremely important. They allowed trade caravans to be able to traverse through these, previously, unchartered areas. This would allow for the exotic merchandise from foreign lands to stream into the cultures of the Macedonian people, thus causing cultural diversity. He expanded Macedonia, thus, creating an empire that covered over two million square miles. He founded 70 cities and many were on trade routes thus increasing east-west trade. He also saw the need to create a new coinage system so that his whole empire would be connected during exchanges. (Leadership) A major accomplishment of Alexander was that he saw that he needed to make his new subjects happy. To make them happy he granted them freedoms and in return he asked for loyalty. He also tried to integrate families into the Macedonian families and so he would have his soldiers marry some of the women and, thus, creating a more diverse and multi-cultural Macedonia. When Alexander ascended the throne of Macedon following the death of his father in 336, the city states of Greece and the huge empire of Persia had already been in conflict for hundreds of years (Sheppard 9). Alexanders motivation for success was driven by glory. He wanted to be remembered and be seen as a God by all who knew of his name. Alexanders favorite tutor was Lysimachus. This tutor devised a game in which Alexander impersonated the hero Achilles. Achilles was a heroic Greek warrior from a famous ancient poem called theÂÂ  Iliad.ÂÂ  Achilles became the model of the noble warrior for Alexander, and he modeled himself after this hero. This game delighted Olympias because her family claimed the hero as an ancestor (Alexander the Great Biography). He also wanted to exact his revenge on the Persians who had invaded 150 years prior to his ruling. He was a great military leader because he knew about strategy. Alexander inherited a well-trained army from his father and trained them even further. Perhaps surprisingly, the size of his army never went over 40,000. What Alexander did value and perhaps what kept his army smaller, was the mobility and speed gave military advantage (Military Commanders). He realized that through speed and mobility he would be able to quickly alter his positions and to out maneuver and eventually outflank his enemies, resulting in an almost immediate victory. He would never ask anyone to do something if he himself would not do. This means he would never have his soldiers do something dastardly during battle unless if he was there doing it with them. We can see the accuracy of this statement because he would always lead his men from the front. This made him an easy target, but also a huge motivation towards his troops. This may have been the reason that he wounded so many times. On an interesting note, he would never drink water until he knew that all of his soldiers had water to drink. Alexander is given credit for creating the phalanx style of battle. This was a battle tactic that consisted of hoplites in columns. The columns would be ten men across and ten men deep. Men in the phalanx carried a round shield called a hoplon, from which the infantry took their name, hoplites. The hoplites wore metal armor on their chests, forearms, and shins at least, plus a metal helmet that covered the head down to the neck. The addition of armor classified the hoplites as heavy infantry, as opposed to light infantry that wore little or no armor. (The Great Phalanx) With the addition of more phalanx groups Alexander would have created an extremely large and mobile fighting force. Being mobile meant that enemy cavalry could not easily strike a decisive blow against Alexander. The Grecians are known for their ability to organize and form gaps in their lines to prevent effective cavalry attacks. When a man has the ability to have historians put a Great after their names then they have to do something simply remarkable. When they have a city named after them, Alexandria, then they have had to of done something remarkable. If they are in the Bible, a book that has not been edited for thousands of years, as one of the greatest kings in all of history then they had to of done something remarkable. Alexander of Macedon, or Alexander the Great, shaped the history of mankind. In Daniel 11:2-4, we see that he is mentioned as the he-goat that destroys the ram, which a reference to Darius. This is an incredible feat for anyone. A man of his stature, a man who was extremely intelligent, acquired huge amounts of land, and was simply the most inspirational and fearless military leader of his time, deserves to have the title of Great. Alexander the Great would go down in history as the most influential and important ruler of the Ancient Grecian world.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Flaws of The British Criminal Justice System Essay examples -- Criminal

The Criminal Justice System, a system the British government set up to deal with the treatment of law-breakers, has three main goals to achieve social order, these are, (1) enforcing criminal law, (2) maintaining law and order in the society, and (3) helping victims. This may seem to be a well thought of system, but like any other organisation, there are flaws, and one of the major flaws is discrimination, and the bias that stems from discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity operates at the level of attitude, on the street, in the home, at the workplace or at social venues. In regards to the Criminal Justice System, race and gender are always accounted for in court proceedings. As Smith in 1997 said, â€Å"the apparent ‘fairness’ of the criminal justice system does not mean that the outcomes will necessarily be unbiased†. Tonry in 1997 found that even though certain ethnic groups are far more often caught in the net of criminal justice than others, they have elevated rates of official offending which differ from one country to another. The major ethnic group in Britain and Wales being black people whose families originated from the Caribbean in the 1940’s. (cited in the Oxford Handbook). Black people find themselves subject to rules made for them by white people, it is also the same for other groups living in the same culture, e.g. it seems to be men th at make the rules for the women in society, even though this seems to be changing in the United States. Foreign-born people often have their rules made for them by the Protestant Anglo-Saxon minority. The middle-class seem to make all the rules which must be obeyed by the vast majority - in the schools, the courts, etc. Th... ... discrimination from the judges and magistrates who remembered the time of segregation and other similar matters, this would build up and provide a racial outlook therefore showing discrimination. Being a part of an ethnic group is seen as being a member and an important source of personal identity, it is seen to be an attack on the group as a whole when one member has been targeted. This is why there are many practical problems when trying to improve decision making procedures. The criminal justice system should take into account there are not enough minority groups in the workforce, especially the police, or the courts, so therefore try to improve the standards when dealing with offenders. Even though racism and discrimination is part and parcel of living in a society, a person’s identity as a human should be more important than the colour of the skin.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Hypothesis Testing Essay

The intent of hypothesis testing is to let an person to take between two different hypotheses refering to the value of a population parametric quantity. Learning squad C has conducted a hypothesis trial environing the sum of clip spent on prep by males and females. and will turn to if there is a correlativity between the variables. Additionally. larning squad C will find if there is a positive or negative correlativity. and how strong that correlativity is between both variables. Overall. statistics can be really ambitious and we will portion some of the most enigmatic constructs experienced in Quantitative Analysis for Business therefore far. When carry oning a hypothesis trial. it is imperative that a void hypothesis is identified. The void hypothesis is the hypothesis that is assumed to be true unless there is sufficient plenty grounds to turn out that it is false ( McClave. 2011 ) . The void hypothesis for this experiment: Is the average sum of clip spent on prep by females equal to the sum of clip spent on prep by males? The ascertained significance degree is. 05. which means that there is a five per centum opportunity that we will reject the void hypothesis. even when it is true. The activity informations set provided were eight informations points for adult females and six informations points for work forces. Because of the little sample size. we have conducted a t-test for this experiment. The grades of freedom equal 12. which we assign a critical value of 2. 179 from a t-table. If the trial statistic ( t-statistic ) is less than -2. 179. or greater than 2. 179 we will reject the void hypothesis in favour of the option. The t-statistic for the clip spent on prep by work forces and adult females is – . 4899. This figure does non fall into the rejection part. so we fail to reject the void hypothesis. In other words. the average sum of clip spent on prep by work forces and adult females are equal with a 95 per centum assurance degree. We have besides determined the correlativity coefficient. The correlativity coefficient ( denoted by the missive R ) is the step of the grade of additive relationship between two variables ( Webster. edu. n. d. ) . The correlativity coefficient can be any value between negative one and one. If the correlativity coefficient mark is negative. it means tha t as one variable decreases the other variable additions. The opposite is true for a positive correlativity coefficient. if the value of one variable increases the other variable lessenings. It is of import to observe that correlativity does non needfully intend causing ; we can non presume a right decision based on correlativity entirely. For this experiment. the correlativity between work forces and adult females was 0. 346102651. When informations with values of R are close to zero. they show small to no straight-line relationship ( Taylor. 2015 ) . Even though the correlativity for this experiment was positive. it is non a strong correlativity. The closer the value of R to zero agencies that there is a greater fluctuation around the line of best tantrum ( Laerd Statistics. 2015 ) . Statisticss can be a really dashing topic. and there have been some constructs that have proven to be hard for each member of larning squad C. Many squad members struggle with the proper choice of expressions in Microsoft Excel. while others struggle to replace values into the many equations involved in statistics. There are besides legion symbols to retrieve. and decently place when calculating an equation. From a conceptual point of view. chance is tough subject to hold on. The construct itself seems unintuitive. and is hard to understand an intangible construct that is based on guesswork and the best opportunity that an person has to see one event or another is random ( chance ) . When you take that construct and seek to do it touchable by seting it into an equation. things get rather confounding. Hypothesis proving can be good when an person is seeking make up one's mind on what hypothesis to take refering to the value of a population parametric quantity. When make up one's minding to carry on hypothesis proving it is of import to travel through the five stairss of the hypothesis proving process that include: making premises. saying the nothing and alternate hypothesis. finding the right trial statistic and trying distribution. calculating the trial consequences. and construing the determination ( Boston University. n. d. ) . Interpreting the determination can include comparing the agencies for each of the groups can give a better apprehension of where each group falls as an norm. Interpreting the determination besides includes finding whether there is a correlativity between the two variables and finding whether the correlativity is positive or negative. For this experiment. the end was to find if there was a important difference for clip spent making prep by males and females. Hypothesis testing is used to find if there is adequate statistical grounds to back up a certain belief about a parametric quantity. MentionsBoston University. ( n. d. ) . The 5 stairss in hypothesis testing. Retrieved from Boston University. web site. Laerd Statistics. ( 2015 ) . Pearson-product minute correlativity. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //statistics. laerd. com/statistical-guides/pearson-correlation-coefficient-statistical-guide. php McClave. J. T. ( 2011 ) . Statistics for concern and economic sciences ( 11th ed. ) . Boston. MA: Pearson Education. Taylor. C. ( 2015 ) . How to cipher the correlativity coefficient. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //statistics. about. com/od/Descriptive-Statistics/a/How-To-Calculate-The-Correlation-Coefficient. htm Webster. edu. ( n. d. ) . Correlation. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www2. Webster. edu/~woolflm/correlation/correlation. hypertext markup language

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Ready To Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry Essay

Restrained competition amongst themselves through â€Å"unwritten agreements† to limit the in-pack premiums (free toys, gifts, e tc) -Refrain from trade dealing-offering discounts to retailers for special treatment or special promotions -Refrained from widespread fortification of their brands because it was believed to not be in the long run interests of the industry (vitamin fortification) FTC also argued the big three took specific actions to make new entry ventures unprofitable -prevented entry into the RTE cereal industry by encouraging super markets and other retailers to adopt a shelf space plan that ensured the big threes products received the most valued center aisle position Caught off guard with the introduction of natural cereal brands Industry environment in the 1990’s Technology Processes utilized in creation of many children’s cereals took substantial engineering expertise and production experience to master. -Standard plant was estimated to req. a capacity of 75 million pounds per year to achieve minimum efficient scale -employed 125 people -req. capital in excess of 100 million -a singly plant could produce many brands of cereal because the main source of scale economies was in bagging -Spent about 1% of gross sales on R&D (slightly higher than the food industry average) 2 PROBLEMS that have persisted over the 100 years of making cereal 1. It was difficult to keep cereal crispy in milk, and in cereals like Raisin Bran, the flakes tended to become soggy in the box because they absorbed the moisture of the fruit 2. NOT easy to combine things with varying water activity characteristics a. A typical solution to this problem was to coat the fruit with a thin layer of fat to trap the moisture thus preventing the flakes from getting soggy in the box Even tried to alter the shape of the cereal to prevent mild absorption and preserved the crispiness Distribution Prime shelf space and its importance! -Slotting Allowance: securing shelf space for a new brand required pmt to grocers -larger cereal firms had more flexibility than new entrants in shuffling their allocation of space among brands(sometimes replacing a failed brand with a new introduction) Introduction of supercenters-Large 125,000 sq. foot stores that combined a supermarket, a general discount retailer, and specialty retailers under one roof They really increased non-supermarket sales of food from 5% in 1993 to 20% by 2000 Supercenters helped shelf space! Significantly less entrenches than in supermarkets and thus allowing start-up value oriented brands to obtain a market presence AND†¦..DID NOT require slotting allowances INTERESTING FACT- Big three accounted for 75.6% of sales in food stores, they only had a 41.3% mkt share in mass merchandisers Advertising, Promotions and Pricing Advertising/ sales ratio fell from 1960s. Especially intense though around a new product introduction RTE cereal industry historically had rounds of price increases usually initiated by Kellogg and then followed by other manufacturers of branded cereals Known as the process of â€Å"price up and spend back† In addition to being amongst most advertising intensive industry, the RTE cereal industry was the top issuer of coupons -Coupon use grew a lot, by 1994 the average value of redeemed coupons had climbed to 87 cents In addition to coupons, other forms of trade promotions were become prevalent such as: -per case discounts to retailers and cash payments for special in store promotions and cooperative advertising, -Buy One Get One promotions-one of the most costly -Might gain 2-3% market share with aggressive price promotion for value sensitive customers -Neither coupons nor forms of trade promotions were believed to stimulate the total cereal demand dramatically -mostly led to stock piling and brand switching by customers -price promotion spiral drove RTE cereal prices up 15.6%! From 1990-1993 -development of new brand took 2-4 years on average and expenditure of 5-10 MM -Brand extensions perceived to be more likely to succeed than new brands and thought to offer economies of scale in advertising and were technologically simpler to develop and produce because the basic process was already in use -Rapid innovation and introduction of new cereal brands led to increased product failure Co-branded cereal in 1994 was very popular -Several companies also attempted to extend the reach of RTE cereal into snack food Competition Kellogg was the clear leader with 35.2% mkt share in 1993 -Had great diverse assortment of products (toaster pastries with pop tarts, frozens waffles with eggos, and granola bars