Strategic Fit of It Service Management

IBM Academy of Technology Academy TechNotes ATN Volume 2, Number 9, 2011 Strategic fit of IT Service Management iven the crucial role that IT (Information Technology) plays in businesses today, IT departments have a significant responsibility to ensure that its value is optimized. IT optimization can be obtained through the adoption of the IT Service Management proposition by IT operations. G Pietro Della Peruta However, IT Service Management concepts and tools are complex changes to introduce to an organization. To achieve the right fit of such concepts and tools it is important that the introduction is congruent with the company’s operating mode. The Company Operating Mode concept was introduced in the seminal work of Nolan and McFarlan on the â€Å"IT Strategic Impact Grid† (Harvard Business Review, October 2005, Information Technology and the Board of DirecTurnaround mode is characStrategic Dependence: Current value of IT on tors). According to the IT terized by the business havbusiness Strategic Impact Grid, ing a low strategic dependHigh companies operate in Low ence on IT which has high four possible modes: strategic impact. Firms in Turnaround Strategic High support, turnaround, facturnaround mode expect a IT Governance Focus IT Governance tory, and strategic. These new system to change their on system s and Governance modes determine the on business business. New systems promapplications Strategic Im pact: services Scope of IT current value IT has for ise major process optimizaFuture value of IT on operations the business (i. e. strategic business tion and service transformaSupport Factory Managem ent dependency) and the tion as well as cost reducBusiness Applications Focus future value IT has for the tion. IT operations are charservice and system m anagem ent m anagem ent business (i. e. strategic acterized by a great attenLow impact). To optimize the tion to efficiency, and they Legenda IT Managem ent Mode value of IT, for each are mostly process driven. Business Focus System Focus Com pany Operating Mode Company Operating Mode, The IT operations focus is on Focus of IT a well-defined level of IT the systems with attention to operations service management (IT IT governance processes (i. e. service management mode) needs to be implemented ITIL). y the IT operation. The IT service management mode is Strategic mode is characterized by IT having high stratecharacterized by the focus of IT operation (i. e. system gic dependence and high strategic impact on the busifocus or business focus) and by the scope of IT operations ness. Firms in this mode require dependable systems and (i. e. management focus or governance focus). When a must exploit emerging technologies to hold their comcompanyâ €™s currently adopted IT management mode petitive position. IT operations are seeking effectiveness does not match the operating mode the company is in, and efficiency. IT operations focus is on managing busithe IT department must modify the way IT services are ness service from a business point of view (effectiveness) managed in order to optimize the value of IT. as well as using a process driven approach to manage Support Mode is characterized by IT having low strategic the IT (efficiency). This means IT governance and business impact on the business which has a low strategic deservice focus. endency on IT. Companies in support mode are least dependent on IT. In this mode systems operate mostly in About the Author: Pietro della Peruta is an Executive IT Archimaintenance mode. Service interruption might not protect, IBM Software Group, a member of the IBM Academy of duce serious consequences. For a company in support Technology, and has 20 years of experience in systems mode, systems and applications are monitored and some availability and p erformance management. est practices exist for recovery from performance and availability problems. IT operations are focused on systems and applications resources, and the scope of operations is management.  © Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 Factory mode is characterized by the business having high strategic dependence on IT which has low strategic impact. Companies in factory mode are more dependent on information technology. If systems fail for a minute or more, there is an immediate loss of business. Increased response time has erious consequences for both internal and external users. IT management in the factory mode is characterized by a high level of effectiveness via tailored control of business service quality. KPIs (key performance indicators) are defined at business level more than at IT level. IT operations have a business focus but still a management scope. In factory mode, the focus of IT operations is more on managing the business services than on the systems or the applications as single entities. For more information please visit the Academy web site.

Pill Bug Lab Essay

Introduction The study of animal behavior is ethology. There are two basic categories of animal behavior: learned behavior and innate, or inherited, behavior. Learned behavior is when animals acquire knowledge about their behavior through experience. Unlike learned behaviors, innate behavior exists naturally in animals, meaning that animals are born with some behaviors. In order to find a suitable environment, animals use orientation behaviors. The two types of orientation behaviors are taxis and kinesis. Taxis is an animal’s natural ability to know whether a stimulus is suitable or unsuitable. Kinesis is defined as random movement that is not exhibited in response to a stimulus (Lab #12). Isopods, otherwise known as pill bugs, are scavengers that feed on dead and decaying plants and animals. Pill bugs vary in color from dark grey to dark brown and are easily recognized by their oval, segmented bodies. They are the only crustaceans that have adapted to living their entire life on land (Potter). However, pill bugs still breathe through gills; therefore, they are restricted to live in environments with high humidity (â€Å"Isopod, Pillbug, Sow Bug Information†). Isopods tend to remain under objects during the day and are most active at night. They thrive in moist shaded places: under rocks, large fallen trees, and flower pots and in moist leaf litter and damp basements. Experimental Hypothesis If pill bugs are generally found in dark environments such as under flower pots, under logs, under welcome mats, and in piles of leaves, then they will prefer the dark side of the choice chamber rather than the light side of the chamber. Experimental Design Materials -2 sheets of filter paper -choice chamber -2 lids -paintbrush -10 pill bugs -box -timer Procedures Collect filter paper, a choice chamber, 2 lids, a paintbrush, 10 pill bugs, a box, and a stopwatch. Set the materials up. First, place the choice chamber on the table. Next, position the filter in the bottom of the chamber. Then, place 5 pill bugs on each side of the chamber. Lastly, place the lids on top of each side. In order to create a dark atmosphere, place the box over one side of the choice chamber. This lab will be completed over the course of ten minutes. The main task is to observe the position of the pill bugs in two minute intervals using the stopwatch. Use the paintbrush to lead any stray pill bugs back into the choice chamber. Write down any observations and/or comments.

TOWS Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

TOWS - Research Paper Example The company is listed in LSE and in FTSE 100 index. It has also got second listing in NASDAQ. Internal Strengths The company works with 354 companies of Fortune Global 500; 28 companies of Dow Jones 30, 60 companies from NASDAQ 100 and 33 companies of Fortune 50. Therefore, the international client portfolio of the company comprise of several world renowned companies. The customer centric high quality of the service offered by WPP also adds to its inner strength. Internal Weaknesses The recession phase of 2008-2009 had a negative influence on the operation of WPP. This resulted in poor revenue and constantly shrinking profitability. In 2007, the profit for the year was $1,037.2 million that declined in 2008 by $ 934.2 million and finally it reached $ 819.9 million in 2009. Again, the company’s clients are mainly from the developed nation (US and UK). This results in too much dependency on the developed nations from west. This low degree of diversification enhances business ris k of WPP. External Opportunities Considering the economic growth in the developing markets, the company has an opportunity to diversify its client base and enter in these emerging nations. China is the world’s fastest growing followed by India (BBC NEWS, â€Å"Overview†). Therefore, the Asian nations are developing at a faster rate. The companies in these nations are trying to compete with international revivals and thus WPP can offer them the required expertise knowledge and guidance. As the US economic condition is reviving, the companies are in the process to expand their marketing budget. This will result in more business prospective for WPP. External Threats In the last decade, the companies have realised importance of integrated marketing communication to attract and retain their customer base. As a result they are ready to pay high fees to the ad agencies. This made the marketing communication service sector one of the attractive industries for the new entrants and the degree of competition in this sector has grown a lot (Neff, p.2). This growing competition is a major threat for WPP. Apart from the growing competition, there is risk of double-dip recession in Euro zone (Hannon, â€Å"UN Sees Risk Of Double-Dip Recession As Europe Pursues Austerity†). This disturbs the economic recovery rate in Euro Zone and considering the fear of financial crisis, companies are hesitating to invest in marketing related activities. SO box The high economic growth in emerging market that is resulting in growing demand for international marketing communication as well as the customer centric service offered by WPP reflects healthy sigh of growth for the company in near future. Considering these internal strength of the company and the external opportunity, it can be said that the company has a sound growth prospect in these emerging markets. WO box Though the global market condition is improving but WPP’s poor financial performance can deterio rate its image as a market leader in global marketing communication industry. The company may face problem in raising fresh capital to expand its business in near future because the creditors may doubt about WPP’s ability to repay the loan. This may hamper the growth prospects of the company. ST box The customer based high quality communication service is one of the major strength of the company. This should be effectively used to face the threat from growing competiti

The Same Sex Couples Raising Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Same Sex Couples Raising Children - Essay Example As the essay highlights the issues related to same-sex couple are included in the most controversial and current concerns in the society in the past few years.   From the issues of acceptance of the same-sex couples to the laws related to marriage, every subject matter had been greatly discussed and sensationalized.   To be able to achieve a certain level of awareness on the different dynamics in the social context, the paper is aimed to present the views of various forms of media on one of the important issues related to same-sex relationships, which is the manner they raise children and the processes related in terms of legal, social, ethical and cultural aspects.This research declares that the issues related to same-sex couples are included in the main concerns in the society.   Raising children for same-sex couples is the main focus of the study because one phase considered by these couples in establishing a family is having children and eventually raising and supporting th em.  There are different aspects of the issue on raising children by same-sex couples.   One of the important aspects is adoption of the child for the same-sex couples specifically the gay couples.   Different countries implement different laws regarding the process.   In 2000, the states of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Utah prohibited adoption of children to gay parents.   On the other hand, countries in Europe such as Denmark, Norway and Iceland had been legally open to adoption of children to same-sex couples.

Case Study eassy on Weight Watcher INC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study eassy on Weight Watcher INC - Essay Example The main competitors of Weight Watcher are Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and eDiets. According to the report the weight management industry came to light in the late 1990s., from 2006 onwards there is a promising upwards trend in the world diet control market. Generally there are two distinct kinds of strategies associated with the diet control industry, one is the strategy for long term growth of the organization and the second one is retention of the customer base to maintain their involvement . During the span of last 20 years, there is a continuous trend of the growth in the population. With the growing trend of population obesity as well as overweight also increased during this time span. The importance of the physical exercise , awareness of health benefit , loosing weight all these parameters now have a huge demand in the world population. So along with the time, the weight management industry is also growing along with the time. But in the recent time, there are also some negative impact in the weight management industry. According to the report, the industry rose to $ 59.7 billion in the year 2009 which was only about 2% growth YOY. But it was failing to close in with historical 6% growth rate. (Taber et.al, 2010, p. 8). There are also different challenges associated with the growth of weight watchers. Being one of the leading organizations in the market it is now facing a tough competition from others, moreover it is also facing a challenge to develop a forward focus diet plan for the 21st century. According to this report, during the year 2011, Weight Watchers tried to represent themselves in the markets of USA and abroad. Their focus also shifted from women centric to cover all the gender across the society, launching new and innovated diet program to capture the market potential. General Factors and Industry Environments that Affect Weight Watcher’s Choice of Strategy The weight Watcher’s business strategy is based on different parameters like the any top organization. Being a top performing company in this sector their strategy was also very up to date and for a long span of time they remain the sole dominant force in this field. To decide on the strategy, they rely on following points. They believe in giving to the customer what they want not what they need, they have designed their strategy based on marketing the feelings of loosing weight not the product. Different factors like creating exclusive products for different age groups, different weight groups. At the very beginning the main focus of the organization was to target the women to reduce and maintain their weight as the obesity was one of the key disease in the country. To reach up to the maximum number of people, they have designed online course material as well as several live campaigns in different places to ensure that they can reach up to the every corner of the society for every class. General factors which are associated with their strategy are like giving their customer what they want in a scientific and standard way so that customer remains interested in their services. Their customer centric approach increased the customer base drastically. The general factors and the environment related to the strategy of the organization is governed by porter’s five force model. Hill and Jones (2010), in their analysis mentioned Porter’

History Lectures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

History Lectures - Essay Example In the years that followed, humans started to come up with ways to develop reliable food supplies through the planting of crops and domesticating of animals (Levack, Muir, Mans, & Veldman, 2010). People began to live longer, and as a result, were able to increase their population. Most people became farmers, increasing food supplies to the point of excess, with which they would trade and barter with others (Levack et al., 2010). With these initial commerce practices, the civilized societies slowly emerged. Around 6000 B.C.E., the picture in Southwest Asia presented that of farming and interactive communities. From these communities, the Sumerians from Southern Mesopotamia, slowly emerged, and they built cities to govern their ways of life (World History, 2007). It is important to note that the existence of these cities were dependent on the ability to control the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers because most of these cities relied on water for their sustenance and for the support of their farms and their livestock (Dellapenna and Gupta, 2008). As in contemporary rule, the traditional Sumerian cities were also ruled by a leader; these cities were controlled by kings. The people from these times worshipped the sun and the moon and sometimes inanimate objects and they built temples to honor their gods. They made a valuable contribution to society with their introduction of cuneiform writing which is now the basic foundations of our current writing and reading (Levack et al., 2010). War and conquest were common themes during these early times. The Sumerians were no exception, as they were conquered by the Akkadian empire (Northern Babylonia which is now a portion of Iraq) (Abrams and Wang, 2003) and made a part of a multi-ethnic empire being exposed to various languages and cultures. Other societies emerged at this time, bringing about the Assyrian and Babylonian cultures. A significant contribution by the Assyrians (later

Individual Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Individual Assignment - Essay Example The geographical concentration of production units which was once part of the developed world such as US, UK and other parts of the Europe is now clearly finding its way towards cheaper and sustainable production locations across the globe. What is critical to note and understand however, is the fact that automobile industry has remained also one of the symbols of national pride for the developed economies. US and other economies have virtually developed with the development of their automobile industry and it was also because of this reason that after the financial crisis of 2008, US government injected large amount of money into the automobile industry in order to help it survive the recession. Though the traditional concept of nation-state is linked with the geographical area from where political legitimacy as a sovereign state can be driven however, the overall concept has changed over the period of time. (Ersoy, 2010).   Since the advent of globalization, it has been advocated that world has become border less and the role of State has either been vanished or is minimized to the best. This however, has not been the case as State and the concept of nation-state has survived over the period of time. (Dicken, 2007) In traditional sense, a State is usually a political and geographical entity whereas the nation is more of a cultural concept. The nation-state therefore is a concept which combines both the concepts and suggests that nation-state can be formulated at different times and different places in the world. A nation-state therefore has an official language, its own legal system, issues a currency, and makes use of bureaucracy to order the overall society. A nation-state also extracts the legitimacies and loyalties for abstract entity called State. (McNeely, 1995) The advent of globalization has resulted into a gradual decline in the power of State to work