Outsourcing Hurt or Help?

This video is a brief news report on the growing trend of outsourcing.  It discusses how outsourcing, although cost efficient, may be hurting the U.S. economy by eliminating jobs.

TJX Information Breach

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2007/012907-bradner.html

I found this article interesting becasue it focuses on one of the larger, more recent information security breaches in the country.  The author does not focus on the acutal breach of information but rather the aftermath of the situation.  The author focuses on what TXJ did wrong after the intial press relaease and how they could have handled the whole situation better.

Knowledge Mangement Tips and Tricks

http://www.eknowledgecenter.com/articles/1006/1006.htm

This article was written by a man with much experience in knowledge managment projects.  In the article, the author discusses many of the tips for implementing a successfull knowledge management project.  The author discusses every phase of the project from assessing the environment and implementation to evaluation of success.

What is Business Intelliegence?

I found this video gives a good overview of what exactly business intelligence is.  It is a short video that describes how companies use date in order to make decisions.  It shows how these decisions based on data affect furure performance.  The video also gives a good example of how business intelligence is used in the credit card industry.  Another point made is the difference between business intelligence and business analytics.

Angie's List

Business intelligence can play a very significant role in the construction industry.  This is not my current field of work but one in which I was employed previously.  With the help of a specific online tool, the company with which I was employed was able to issue and receive construction contracts with greater ease and less risk.

            The online tool used by my company is known as Angie’s List.  Angie’s List is a website that contains reviews of hundreds of service providers in any area selected for review.  Services provided can range anywhere from health care, automotive or in my case, independent contracting services.  Service providers do not pay to put their company on this website.  A company is added when any consumer posts a review for any specific company.  Consumers must pay to browse through or post reviews of their own.  Monthly or yearly memberships can be purchased for a reasonable price.  The fact that only paying subscribers can browse or post reviews keeps the information on the site as accurate as possible.

            This is helpful in the construction industry in regards to sub-contracting.  A construction company may bid on and win the rights to a certain job that they have no intentions of completing.  Instead, the company will sell the contract for the job to a second company.  This second, sub-contracted, company will now complete the job while the initial company still bears some risk.  With the use to Angie’s list, contractors can look at reviews of other contracting companies and decide which ones to sub-contract to and which ones to avoid.  Various aspects of a provider are reviewed specifically.  Examples include price, quality, responsiveness, punctuality, and professionalism.  Each of these aspects can be weighed differently depending on what the contracting company is interested in. 

ERP

I found this video interesting because it was made by a few students in Australia studying enterprise resource planning.  The video gives several examples of ERP uses today.  Also, the students bring up several interesting questions in an interview with an ERP user.

How does Craigslist work?

http://money.howstuffworks.com/craigslist.htm

Here is an article about one of the most popular E-business sites around today.  It is an interesting article about behind the scenes at craigslist.com.  I found this article interesting because I am a frequent user of the site.  The article dicsusses many aspects of craiglist including how the site makes money.  I was always curious about this as I use the site often and have never paid them dime.  The article also discusses a few interestin controversial issues facing the site.

5G

http://www.freewimaxinfo.com/5g-technology.html

I found an interesting, informational article discussing the future of wireless technology.  In chapter six, the book discusses 1G - 4G technology but does not address 5G technology.  The article discusses what new features 5G technology will have to offer and how it is an improvement over its predecessor 4G.