Holiday Season - Boom or Bust

In the final case reviewed for chapter 7, we discussed strategies companies might use if they had no information on the recipients of gift cards -- and how that would affect demand and supply of products. My original notion was to ask the purchasers of the cards who they intended on gifting them to, however you noted that many people purchase them without a particular person in mind, but rather to purchase them for the holiday season and gift them as one sees fit. I think that by asking a person who they are purchasing a gift card for - regardless, would assist in predicting demand for certain product. Not everyone will know who they are purchasing for, but often times a good amount of people come to purchase a card for a specific someone. A combination of keeping track of this information in a digital system and good forecasting software would be the best option for this situation.

Digital Health

It's becoming a commonly accepted thing that we can do anything on the web - buy groceries, shop, meet significant others..the possibilities are endless. This is why videoconferencing as a means of medical service does not surprise me. Over-the-phone nurse hotlines have been around for years. I think that having checkups over videoconferencing is very efficient and on a more impacting level can help some individuals have medical access that would otherwise be unavailable to them. One of my chief concerns would be that some people might resort to using that when they are in need of desperate hands-on medical attention. However I do know that I personally have made a trip to the doctors office to receive a prescription for something that I already knew I needed - regardless of the doctor's visit (i.e. strep throat..or cough syrup). In cases like this, videoconferencing my doc would have been ideal. It could also prove beneficial in cases where someone is in a critical condition and needs assistance of someone. For example, a medic over the phone could give someone verbal instructions over the phone for performing CPR, but if it were on-screen, it could potentially be much more effective. Overall I think this is a concept that will be widely accepted in a few years..we will just have to wait and see what else the future has in store.

Database Dreamin'

The use of Microsoft Access for database purposes saves a lot of time and makes for an organized compilation of information. While completing the in-class Access exercises as well as the homework, I came to wonder how tedious entering information would be for a database administrator at a company with a long list of clients - it becomes frustrating enough to enter 10 people's info. I began to ponder the idea that one day, companies/people will have an ID that is universal and used everywhere, so that by the scan of a barcode or swipe of a card, all of their information can be both stored and retrieved in a "universal" database. This could pose a problem though..as some information for one purpose may not be relevant or pertain to the next database, not to mention confidentiality issues. Either way, I think it could be something that would save us even more time. More robots to do the work we are too lazy to do ourselves!

D A T A

While speaking of data mining, I had some ideas of the importance of it that were not discussed in class. One additional benefit of data mining is to better predict consumer behavior - this could include the items that appear to be more popular to consumers at a given time period, and determine other products that may be purchased as complementary goods in addition to the original product. Another benefit is a tradeoff. Although data mining is expensive, a company could save time and money on utilizing less employees to determine and analyze these trends, and instead replace them with data programs. Lastly, a company could order items that are better sellers, and less of what does not sell as much. This would up their turnover and most probably boost sales.

Integration Flop!

In cases when IT integration isn't smooth, it was suggested to have employees of the acquired company remain in it for a couple of years until the databases have been combined successfully and information has been derived from each employee. But how can one expect employees to stay with the acquiring company if they are unhappy? In these cases, I would assume there are some financial incentives to make people stay. It makes me wonder if there are other ways that the company can contractually revive that information upon acquisition.

Another topic I wanted to discuss in this blog was the tech news report I read this morning regarding the use of body scanning in public places as a means of detecting individuals carrying bombs and other explosives. I think that it can be a good way of keeping events and transportation stations safe, but it can clearly backfire and cause some unrest among the public. I don't have much confidence that we will have any sort of privacy in the future as technology improves.

Interconnection

In the second case of chapter 4, we discussed the important elements in the success of projects relying on extensive use of XML within organizations. One element mentioned included data sharing and interoperability, reading multiple databases because they are all using the same format. Such accessibility makes me wonder about the use of XML on a broader level. What if governments stored information in databases with the intention to have its data exclusive to just that specific government and members involved? Would the extensive use of XML make it easier for others to access this information?