Past Present and Future Essay Example for Free

Past Present and Future Essay The University of Phoenix program has enhanced my personal, educational and professional growth and has changed my life for the good. Introduction This essay reflects on my personal, educational and professional growth through the program of study that I had taken at the University of Phoenix. it discusses my past my present and my future life that has changed positively due to the degree that I received at the University and throws light on the benefits that I have received through this program and how it has helped me achieve my goals and ambitions. A) Part One: Reflect upon where you were in your personal and professional life when you started the University of Phoenix program. When I started at the University of Phoenix I was a mother of two which is the most challenging and demanding job and along with that I was working two jobs. I was working as a hospital manager looking over the entire clerical staff at a hospital for over14 years and was recently promoted to a higher position due to my knowledge and experience. I believe my hard work and dedication to my work that has paid off. I believe in one thing with great conviction that dreams only come true for people who truly believe in them. I believe if you dream of something and truly follow it, you can surely achieve it. I have faith in this because I believed and followed my dreams and was able to achieve them, so you should ever give up and try as much as you can, as many times as you can cause one day your wishes will come true. 1) How did you feel about the role of learning and its importance to your personal growth and development? For any individual to succeed in this competitive world, education is a must and the more and more you learn, the better it is for you and your career. I realized that my field, that is management, is an evolving field with more and more research being done in it and newer methods and evaluations being carried out to help make your management skills better; therefore I decided to join the program at The University of Phoenix. I wanted to gain more knowledge so that I can inculcate my knowledge in my personality and be able to excel in my field by being able to help my work place and the people I work with, which require great interpersonal skills. 2) What was your level of professional competence in problem solving, written and oral communication skills, information retrieval and utilization, and collaboration? My knowledge and experience was good enough for me to handle two jobs and that too in the management area. I think these skills are quite necessary to survive at your workplace, whether you are at the management level or just an employee who is lower in the hierarchy. I think problem solving, written and oral communication is very important when you are working with a lot of people and I believe   my skills were good enough as I have survived in my jobs for fourteen years now and I believe I’m a people person. I believe I am someone who can make people work together and be able to utilize resources be it human or other to their best and can retrieve any kind of information, whenever needed, from anyone. It was never a much of a problem for me. 3) What were your career goals? â€Å"There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.† Christopher Morley My career goals have always been the same, to excel and go higher up the management hierarchy and be able to go and work on higher levels of management. To achieve this I wanted to learn and educate myself even more because I believe it is very important for people, to be able to compete with other people, and beat the competition. My career goals are full of determination and passion for success. I believe if you have set career goals you can achieve them because you carry them out with conviction. My career goal is to higher and higher the management ladder and I’m determined to do so. B) Part Two: Evaluate the growth you experienced during your University of Phoenix program of study. Evaluate how your courses and experiences in your University of Phoenix program have contributed to your growth, problem solving, written and oral communication skills, information retrieval and utilization, and collaboration. The courses that I took were quite informative and interesting and I think they were truly adding to my knowledge about my field. I think that they were good for developing both knowledge and skills. I think that my basic skills such as written and oral communication skills have improved a lot with the increase interaction with my peers and the kind of learning subjects these were. My experience in the University and especially, the people who are a part of it, really helped build up my interpersonal skills. I am better able to understand how to be around people and how to manage the people around, how important it is to please and be pleased at the same time. I believe that buy taking these courses, I have increased my skills and I have developed an ability to complete all the work that I have been given and to be able to finish all tasks on time. I have learned better management skills and have become more efficient with the aspect of management. I was able to complete all subjects and I am certain that each subject had added something to my knowledge and experience. 2) Identify the two general education courses and the two core courses taken during your program of study that had the greatest impact on your current or potential employment. Explain why you selected these courses and how they have impacted your personal and/or work life positively. Be specific.   The two general courses during my program of studies that really added something to my knowledge and, were the subjects I believed that had the greatest impact on my current field of employment were Res 320 and Math courses. the reason why these I felt were important was because I believed they enhanced my ability to complete my budgets and maintain costs in the organization I was working in. it increased my knowledge about cost maintenance and helped me find ways to reduce man hours and how to comply with this reduction.   These factors are very important in the field of management and I felt that these two general courses added the most to these areas of management. The two Core Courses that I feel have had the most impact on my current of future employment prospects are Culture Diversity and Fundamentals of Management. These two subjects have enabled me to build over the experience and knowledge I already had. It allowed me to further strengthen certain points of my prior knowledge or helped me eradicate or alter certain perceptions or believes I had that were hampering my prospects of growing in the field. These subjects allowed me understand that different people have different perspectives and in order to succeed you need to accept and respects this diversity of ideas and thoughts. it enhanced my critical thinking and reasoning skills and also strengthen my ability to take sound and clear decisions, be assertive and positive when making important decisions. Over all the entire program has helped me gain more experience and expertise, however, these courses have added the most   to my knowledge and have bettered my potential to succeed and go higher in my field. 3) Recommend any changes or accommodations that would have enhanced or improved your University of Phoenix experience. Explain how your recommendations will enhance or improve the program for future students. Although my experience overall was quite interesting and rewarding I believe that if certain things such as   the team concept existed the learning environment could have been better and teamwork would have been able to increase our knowledge and practical experience a bit more. I am the sort of person who enjoys working in teams as it helps gain a better understanding of the actual situation. I also believe that working in groups or teams enables people to be more tolerant towards one another and helps them be patient and respectful towards others, this way they also enhance their management skills. Although there was collaborative work, I just wished that there would be more accountability according to the team members. I just wished that some team members would be held more accountable for not completing their work on time and responsibilities were evenly spread. Other than that I think there was nothing that I thought was missing with the program. With the team members being he ld more accountable for their actions and responsibilities, the program would have been better in terms of people management. C) Part Three: Analyze the impact of completing the University of Phoenix bachelors program on your current and future professional goals? After completing the program, I was promoted to a higher paying position, and was able to make way for me to go up the hierarchical ladder. The program helped me gain more knowledge and experience, which is what I needed to get a break through. 1) Now that you have completed your program of study, how do you feel about the role of lifelong learning and its importance to your personal growth and development? After completing this program I feel excellent and extremely satisfied. This program of study has given me the break that I deserved and has changed my life positively.   It has allowed me to fulfill my dream to go higher in my field. I have been promoted to the post of Director over a hospital and I was promoted because of the knowledge and experience that I gained during this program at the University. Now I hope to mentor other students and professionals and I wish to go back to school and give to others and impart all the knowledge that I have so that I can help other people struggling to achieve their dreams and giving them a chance and a way to fulfill them. What are your personal, professional, and educational goals for the next five years? My Educational goal is to obtain my Master Degree after my Bachelors and my professional goal is to teach at University of Phoenix. At personal level my goal is to basically coach and mentor others in achieving their management degree so that they can get the experience that I got with my degree and they too can become whatever they want in their field and get the right knowledge and guidance that one needs for applying to such programs. a) What programs will you attend? I would like to attend Toastmaster, so that I can become a better speaker. b) What skills or competencies will you continue to develop? I would like to develop my communication skills and management skills because these are the two most important skills in the field of management and I need these skills sharp and effective in order to stay on top. c) What professional organization(s) have you or will you join? I would like to work for the Southern Institute and to assist them with their billing system for the hospital industries to make the hospital billing more effective. d) What conferences or workshops will you attend? I will attend the Collection seminars to mentor and coach my staff on collecting copy and deductibles from patients prior to services at a hospital. e) What additional degrees might you pursue? Like I mentioned, I would like to pursue my education and maybe get a Masters degree in management or a Doctorate. This is all to increase my experience and sharpen my skills to achieve greater heights in my field. Conclusion I believe that everyone who dreams big should follow them and should get the right direction and the make the right decision so that they able to materialize what they envision and are able to succeed in life. I was able to achieve my goals and dreams by getting the degree at the University of Phoenix and I believe that if you dream it with conviction, you can achieve anything.

Geoinformatics Research Centre Essay Example for Free

Geoinformatics Research Centre Essay The two countries are in the same hemisphere, and temperature latitudes but situated on either side of the prime meridian. In this context, the paper looks at some of the specific viticulture related aspects in different modalities, such as vector (point, contour), raster and text formats and then investigates into analysing the multimodal data collectively at a regional scale which is considered as appropriate for such a comparative study in this specific domain. The commonly used major themes for modelling viticulture and wine production until to date have been; growing degree days (GDD), minimum/ maximum temperatures during berry ripening, frost days at budburst for the wine regions within a country or in the world, and are briefly outlined. Meanwhile, at a relatively recent meso / micro scale (precision viticulture) modelling using grapevine vegetative growth and grape yield requires expensive equipment for multispectral satellite/ aerial borne imagery and yield data acquisition. Following a brief outline on the use of contemporary technologies, such as GPS, and methodologies to analyse information integrated into GIS, the paper then elaborates on the results of a comparative study conducted on seven major wine regions of New Zealand and Chile using GIS based thematic mappings of terrain, topography, climatic conditions, grapevine varieties as well as wine quality, the latter represented by regional vintage ratings, sommelier comments and wine label ratings. The results of one-way ANOVA tests show the difference across viticulture climate regimes of the seven regions as significant (95% confident). However, between countries the difference is significant only for dew point in November and December, sea level pleasure in December, and total precipitation in December. Keywords: viticulture, wine quality Legend Major lines of Latitude Tropic of Capricorn Tropic of Cancer Equator Prime Meridian Chile Colchagua Maipo Santiago New Zealand Hawkes Bay Martinborough Martinborough Central Otago Figure 1. Chilean and NZ wine regions and viticulture climate regimes (base climate) source: http://www. weatherbase. com (T=Temperature) 1146 Shanmuganathan et al. , Analysing the Wine Regions of New Zealand and Chile: a GIS perspective . INTRODUCTION New Zealand and Chile are among the well-known â€Å"New World† wine producing countries. Incidentally, the major wine regions of the two nations are also in the same hemisphere, and temperature latitudes but on the opposite sides of the prime meridian. The rapid progress achieved in producing premium wine from these regions over the last few years have been described as remarkable hence a comparative study of this nature especially, on grapevine varieties cultivated and wine styles produced from the regions of the two countries would be appropriate. It is also considered as a timely one because the wine regions of both old and new world countries are seen as highly vulnerable to the predicted global climate change in the near future (Jones, 2007, Web, 2006). In this context, the paper looks at some of the specific viticulture related aspects in different modalities, such as vector (point, contour), raster and text formats and then investigates into analysing the multimodal data collectively at a regional scale which is considered as appropriate for uch a comparative study and for analysing the effects of climate on viticulture and wine production. The paper presents an overview of 1) the base climate and the 2) a detailed description of modelling the seasonal variability in climate and on grapevine phenology as well as wine quality. Interestingly, until to date, the commonly used major themes for modelling viticulture and wine production have been; †¢ †¢ †¢ growing degree days (GDD), minimum/ maximum temperatures during berry ripening, frost days for the wine regions in relation to varietal tolerance within a country/ in the world. Meanwhile, modelling at micro and meso scales using modern precision viticulture (or PV) using grapevine vegetative growth and grape yield with finer details integrated into a GIS, requires expensive GPS fitted equipment for multispectral satellite/ aerial borne imagery and yield data acquisition. PV is about the use of GPS and GIS technologies (at the micro scale) to understand the impact of plant-soilwater dynamics at different phenological growth stages on vine physiology in order to achieve improved yield by introducing subtle changes to vineyard management practices. Such a multipurpose integrated approach to mapping soil spatial properties illustrated in (Buss, et al. ,2005) as well described the success of the approch in generating irrigation management zones, evaluating the performance of the new irrigation schedules and the use of near continuous soil-water profile dynamics in irrigation scheduling, implementation and management strategies. The irrigation management strategies included were; regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial root zone drying (PRD). Similarly, many more studies have reported on the complex and challenging issues relating to managing the dynamic relationship between site, soil, water and phenological stage, vine and wine quality within and among vineyards using a GIS and integrated data captured using wireless sensors (Fuentes, 2005). There is also research reported outside of Australia into climate and environmental factors integrated with the irrigation management in grapevines which are a traditionally nonirrigated crop (Cifre, et al. , 2005: Patakas, et al. , 2005: Ben-Asher, et al. 2006 : Guix-Hebrard, et al. , 2007). Recently remote sensing has led to the use of airborne multispectral and hyperspectral imagery incorporated into GIS for yield mapping integrated with soil or other properties such as soil spatial variability, vegetative growth, vulnerability to diseases (Ferreiro-Arm? an, et al. , 2006). Since the late 1990s, there has been significant progress in the use of PV with advanced GIS functions for monitoring yield and soil-water-plant dynamics with commercially available devices and technologies (Bramley, 2001). However, yield mapping against vigour in vegetation over vintages is a very recent method, as far as Australian viticulture is concerned only three years old. Despite this recent introduction, it has been shown that a number of Australian wine grape growing areas could have grape yields in single management unites varying as much as 8 to 10 fold. The surveys also emphasised the need for more data within individual blocks on yield, fruitvine indices and soil properties to optimise yield, and to find the blocks that produce high yield, by overlaying the data on different thematic mappings in a GIS. With that introduction to the use of contemporary technologies and methodologies for analysing information integrated into a GIS at the micro scale, the next section elaborates on the methods utilised for comparing and contrasting the wine regions of New Zealand and Chile using GIS climatic conditions, grapevine varieties as well as wine quality based on regional vintage ratings at the regional scale, and then sommelier comments and wine ratings at the vineyard level. 1147 Shanmuganathan et al. Analysing the Wine Regions of New Zealand and Chile: a GIS perspective 2. VITICULTURE AND THE CLIMATE Grapevine is among the most expensive cultivated and sensitive crops (Jones, 2007). Different grapevine varieties thrive under specific ideal climate conditions and niche local environmental settings, such as well drained soil, site aspect (compass direction of the slope). Due to this reason viticulturists undertake extensive investigations when selecting a site and the grape variety for a vin eyard. Of the many factors, base climate1 is the main factor used to determine a variety for the site. Once several blocks of vineyards have been established in a broader area, its climate patterns (or macro climate) becomes identified with certain grapevine clones of Vitis vinifer (or wine styles) for that area covering about 100 to 1000 miles, also referred to as the regional scale (Jones, et al. , 2003). Such base climate regimes and their varieties of seven wine regions (four from New Zealand and three from Chile) are shown in figures 1 and 2, and Table 1 respectively. On the other hand the quality of vintage wines is determined by the seasonal weather patterns that ripened the grapes. In view of the above factors the analysis is conducted in three parts; 1. 2. Initially, the base climate and wine styles famously linked with the major wine region of Chile and New Zealand are outlined. Secondly, the regional ratings and monthly climate data from (Wine Enthusiast wine vintage chart, February 2011 p56-57) (http://www7. ncdc. noaa. gov) respectively are analysed to establish the correlations between the regional wine quality ratings and the climate data. In the third part, quality of vintage wines are analysed to establish the correlations between wine descriptors extracted from sommelier comments (text) and their corresponding ratings (numeric) also provided by sommeliers. Chardonnay style Vintage wines from all seven regions are analysed individually and altogether to find the descriptors used for high and low rated vintages of this style. 3. 3. MODELLING THE CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS Observations and results of this three part analysis are discussed in this section. 3. 1. Viticulture climate regimes of New Zealand and Chile The major wine regions of New Zealand and Chile (the viticulture climate regimes) as well as wine styles produced from the regions are listed in Figure 1 and Table 1. The viticulture climate regions of Chile seem to exhibit the extremes at both high and low temperatures (see Figure 1 graph). Furthermore, Pinot Grigio/ Gris are not grown in any of the Chilean regions. Of the all seven regions Colcahgua exhibits the lowest annual recorded temperature (-10oC) and second highest recorded annual high. Petite Sirah style vine is produced only from Maipo Valley region. Casablanca and Hawkes’s Bay have the mildest conditions in the Chilean and New Zealand regions respectively. Wine styles Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir are produced from all seven regions hence could be described as more tolerant varieties. 1 Figure 2. Major wine regions of Chile (left) and New Zealand (right) with the terrain elevation of the regions. Base climate reflects the weather conditions experienced over a longer time period i. e. , 3-5 decades. 148 Shanmuganathan et al. , Analysing the Wine Regions of New Zealand and Chile: a GIS perspective Table 1. Major wine regions of Chile and New Zealand along with the wine (styles) produced from the seven regions during 1990-2009. (Source: http://buyingguide. winemag. com) 3. 2. Seasonal climate change effects on the quality of Chilean and New Zealand wines Seasonal weather is the major influencing factor in determining the quality of vintage wines a part from those arising from grapevine varietal and winemaker experience/ talent. The influence exerted by the seasonal weather as 50% and this can be seen in literature of traditional grapevine growing and winemaking as well as recent research findings (Shanmuganathan, et al. , 2010). In view of this, monthly average, maximum and minimum temperatures, dew point and total precipitation are analysed along with regional wine ratings (figure 3). The monthly averages were calculated from the daily weather data extracted from (www. ncdc. noaa. gov) for the closest stations for each of the seven regions for this work. Meanwhile the regional wine ratings for the seven regions were obtained from 2011 vintage chart (www. inemag. com). The graphs (figures 3 and 4) show the years of high and low vintage ratings at the regional scale and the average variability in weather conditions experienced in the regions between 1990-2009. ANOVA test results One-way ANOVA test results of weather data (monthly averages of daily minimum and maximum temperatures, sea level pressure (slp) an d total precipitation over the growing season September-April (19902009, figure 4), confirm the difference in the seven regions as significant (at 95 % confidence) except for monthly average sea level pressure in February. Meanwhile, One-way ANOVA test conducted to see the difference across countries showed monthly averages of dew point for November, December, average sea level pressure and total precipitation, both for the month of December significant (at 95% confident level). Figure 3. Graphs showing the regional wine ratings of the Chilean (left) and New Zealand (right) wine regions from 1990 to 2009 analysed to establish the correlations between macro climate and regional wine quality. Data source: http://www. winemag. com/PDFs/Vintage_Chart_022011. pdf 1149 Shanmuganathan et al. , Analysing the Wine Regions of New Zealand and Chile: a GIS perspective Figure 4. Seasonal climate variability (averaged for 1990-2009) observed in Chilean and New Zealand regions. Central Otago monthly averages of temperature, dew point and total rainfall are the lowest even though Colchagua base climate graph (figure 1 bottom) exhibits the lowest of all regions. Classification rules WEKA (J48) Rules created with monthly averages of dew point for November, December, average sea level pressure and total precipitation for December (significant by ANOVA test results) are listed in Table 2. 3. 3. Modelling the wine vintages and sommelier comments using ratings Wine styles Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir are produced from all seven regions (see table 1), hence Chardonnay wine comments from all seven regions were studied to investigate the correlations between wine descriptors and ratings specified by sommeliers. The sommelier comments extracted from (http://buyingguide. winemag. com) for 556 wines, were programmatically converted into a matrix of 190 wine descriptors and 556 weights (of 350 Chilean and 206 NZ vintages) for this vector space model text mining approach as applied in (Shanmuganathan, et al. , 2009). The vintages used in the sample were from 1996-2010. Of these 190 wine descriptors only 55 were found to be significant by a one-way ANOVA test ran for both Chilean and NZ together and separately. Using this 556 x 55 wine descriptor weight table, rules were generates with C5, CRT (Clementine), JRip and J48 (the latter two WEKA algorithms). For this analysis wine ratings were converted into a binary rate with one (=87). The descriptors found to be correlated with these two ratings are presented in tables3. Furthermore, it could be noticed that a few descriptors used exclusively for describing wines of a particular region and either for one/two rating, for example blanc (for Sauvignon Blanc) is used for Marlborough region (table 4).

Integrated Customer Ordering Service

Integrated Customer Ordering Service Introduction (107 words) In this coursework, I have tried to discuss how Information Systems play an important role in the functioning of an organisation. An adequate Information System is a must requirement in todays technology-driven and competitive era. I studied about a system integrated in Marks and Spencer for improving its ordering system and thereby proving to be a reason for its return on investment. The Information system helps to control, coordinate, analyze, interrelate data and also supports in decision making. I have explained how application of an Information System can support organizational success and efficiency by increasing profits and providing services that are easily accessible to meet the needs of organisation in such a way that the organisation can keep up the standards and services smoothly. Marks and Spencer (172 words) Marks and Spencer is one of the leading retail organizations in UK which sell stylish, quality and great value clothing and home products , also quality food. They are one of the most popular brand among people not only in UK but globally. They have more than 600 stores in UK and constantly increasing many more around the world. It was founded when in 1884, Michael Marks opened a stall at Leeds Kirkgate Market. In 1901, its first registered store was located at Derby street , Manchester. By 1924 they started expanding and the head office moved from Manchester to London. Implementation of new policies and maintenance of services and value kept on adding to the success of Marks and Spencer. In 1998, it became the first retailer to earn a profit of  £1billion. The organisation commonly called as MS has always followed the principles of Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust since its founded. This is the reason why it has been successful, distinguished and popular among people. Need of the Information System: Integrated Customer Ordering Service (373 words) MS was facing several backlogs in order processing and complaints were increasing day by day. The company had invested a lot to move ahead in this competitive environment but was unable to overcome this problem. The need of the hour was to have an customer service ordering information system implemented which can accurately and assuredly keep away these problems which were an obstacle in the success of a great retail organisation. The retail market is immensely competitive and keep on upgrading their information system to meet the requirements of services. MS started using up-to-date information system in its ordering system which made it stand different from other rival organisations. On 19 April, 2005 Marks and Spencer signed an alliance with Amazon Services Europe. In this agreement, Amazon Services Europe will host and provide with synchronized information system to MS websites, telephone ordering systems and in store ordering systems. ICOS was launched in 2006 and was based on Microsoft Windows NT Server and Oracle 10g databases. It also comprises various intelligence tools using DOS applications and is called as Rumba Server in MS. This system enables ease of access of data and information across all stores and offices of the organisation. The system is efficient in dealing with the orders , vendors, manage information across the organisation, control the supply of incoming and outgoing products through a common database which gives solution to all problems related to above categories. The business process improvement team has not only developed this application but has also installed it in all stores where in store ordering is available. The information system had to meet challenges like connecting all stores to common database so that all product related information and management related information could be shared across. It was not easy to interrelate thousands of product data and ordering information on websites, in stores and in offices. The system application must be in a way that the data is easily accessible through all channels and can be used through company intranet without paying heed to its location. The system included taking orders, order processing, order dispatch, order location, stock control and order prices. This helped MS to expand their business systematically. Working and Benefits of Integrated Customer Ordering Services (849 words) ICOS is an information system application used by MS employees for various in store functions. This information system comprises data of all products like food, clothing, home ware etc. Each product of MS has a unique identification code called as UPC number which is used in ordering. In a situation where customer wants a certain product for e.g. a TV, and that product is either unavailable or is a special requirement that has to be made or is not displayed in the store, that is when this system plays its role. Order Taking: Every user or employee as its unique ID or access code and a password which makes this system highly secured and prevents it from unauthorized access. An employee assigned to take orders enters his ID and password to find out any information or to take any orders. When a customer orders certain product the agent enters its product code and the whole information from product details to availability and prices is displayed which can be conveyed to the customer. There is a tool bar which consists of different options available for the agent to save information from customer like name and address. This tool bar also has information about billing and lead-time of all products. Some products might not be displayed in the store while some can only be delivered like furniture. The system also proposes extension in delivery time to any date. As and when the agent enters customer name and details, a customer profile is created and a customer code is also generated and saved in his/her profile. The next step is payment. Once all required information from the customer is saved their is an option of payment on the tool bar. When that option is clicked several payment methods are made available on the screen like cash , visa card, credit card or cheque. The agent asks the customer and select the option that is told by the customer. Once all this information is submitted and payment is taken the customer is handed over with a printed receipt of product and money transaction details along with the unique customer code. Order Enquiry: If the customer wants to enquire about the order in future he/she just need to give his unique code to the employee. Once the code is entered on an option of enquiry on the tool bar the detailed information about the product is retrieved. This information states the status of dispatch or progress in order and also status notes entered by the manufacturing department. This information can further be stated to the customer. If required a receipt of the order confirmation can also be provided to the customer. Order Upgrading or Editing: This option on the tool bar enables an agent to add or cancel certain products from the order. This option is also used to edit customer details like address or shipping date or further payments. When an alteration or amendment is to be made, the agent enters the customer code and the information related to the order pops up on the screen. This states if a particular order can be cancelled or not e.g. certain product is a special manufacture order already in process. Special Offers: Many times there are special offers available with certain products like buy one get 25% off on other. All these offers are already saved in this information system and is updated from time to time. Not that there are so many employees working in MS and all employees need to be informed, so a hasslefree alternate is that ICOS already comprises these schemes and offers. There is an option of diary where these details are stored. As the agent enters his code to acquires access , he/ she can review the promotions and sales for the whole day and also take a printout if required. Order Reports: The orders taken throughout the day are stored in the system and can be retrieved as a whole or product category wise. If an agent or manager wants to know what all is sold or how many orders were taken throughout the day, they need to enter their ID and click on reports. The data is immediately available. If they just want to get report of the number of TVs sold they can get separate report as well. In this way the whole day report or report till a particular time can be seen in a summarized manner. Order Display Availability: If an agent in one store wants to know the availability or display of a product in any other MS store he/she can just use the tool bar for display search or update search. This possible because as mentioned earlier all store are networked and data of all products in all stores are available to each store. ICOS helps MS employees to provide hassle free information to the customers and also helps taking quick orders leading to save time both of employee and customer. It also plays a very important role in uplifting customer loyalty. Evaluation Technique (171 words) In this competitive market, it is very important to maintain exceptionally good production and customer services. Implementation of ICOS enhanced competitive advantage to the organisation, thereby maintaining its position. Competitive market requires different and creative ideas to keep up the organisation status. Constant improvement and subsistence enables an organisation to continue with an uplifting business in the market over a longer period of time. According to the changes in market and needs of consumers it is very important for an organisation to keep changing strategies and technologies. Competitive advantage is based on potency to cope up with the rapidly changing market. MS acquired unique skills to overpower its competitors by implementing ICOS. It evaluated the value of competitive advantage. Therefore, it decided to acquire the ordering system which changed and organised its working so much that other competitors couldnt. MS worked on the competitive advantage to combat and sustain in the uncertain market. Competitive advantage empowered MS to grow its profits and give high customer services, thereby conserving the bond . Critical Assessment (281 words) ICOS proved to be boon to the organisations. It replaced the old fashion of ordering through fax or telephone across the units which involved manually entering data. The old process was highly time consuming as well as error prone. The new ordering system entered as an effectual way of providing high customer service, more number of customers handling, quicker response to customer queries, faster processing of orders, and above all having competitive advantage. Integrated Customer Ordering System as set up information flow across all MS outlets and offices to give quality services. MS understood its competitive advantage and focussed on exclusive strategy to sustain in the corporate market. Their sales and advancements have achieved higher levels among competitors. Customers are satisfied by the quick order process, be it in the store or home delivery. Marks and Spencers evaluated utilisation of maximum resources and importance of competitive advantage. Implementation of ICOS helped everybody right from employer to employee to customers. The sharing of data across all units of MS made the work so easily accessible that it could manage very effectively and efficiently. MS has now focussed on development and research for expansion which has come into practice because their information system has made them free from most of the hassles. Now they can tactfully just look forward towards expanding of business. The investments turned out to raise huge profits leading to increase in productivity and also reducing costs. ICOS has proved to be and information system which has given new heights to the company and an ultimate transformation to quality. The investment raised huge profits from this system and it was a transformation to the organisational working and approach. Conclusion (157 words) With the fast growing competition in the corporate market it was very essential for MS to adopt an information system which can handle its data and order processing. All organisations are heading towards acquiring information systems to ease up their work and management. MS required a system which is distinctive and can keep up pace in changing and challenging environment of the competitive market. ICOS provided MS with an altogether different status in the market by upraising profits and giving high returns on investments. It has transformed the organisation and helped in higher productivity, customer loyalty and synchronised working. I could complete my detailed research on this information system by the help of MS manager, Central London where I had worked for 6 months. Its my personal opinion that the ICOS is so efficient and it makes ordering so simple that I almost had to do nothing apart from interacting with the customer or storage unit. References http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/ourhistory http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/operating-financial/financial-review.aspx http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/investors/press_releases/company/19042005_MarksSpencerandAmazonServicesEuropeannounceEcommerceagreement http://homebusiness.about.com/od/growing/a/comp_advantage.htm

Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Edgar Allan Poe Structure Structuralism

Edgar Allan Poe Though an innumerable amount of interpretations of any given text might be drawn from a variety of perspectives, a structuralist analysis of two of Poe’s works help place their symbols within a theme related to myth and heroism. Peter Barry attempts to define structuralism succinctly by narrowing it down as â€Å"the belief that things cannot be understood in isolation—they have to be seen in the context of the larger structures they are part of†; he goes on to add that â€Å"meaning is always an attribute of things, in the literal sense that meanings are ATTRIBUTED to the things by the human mind, not contained within them† (39). One might attempt to further narrow this idea (ironically) by quoting the famous line, â€Å"Everything is relative,† which is to say, all reality is contingent upon the perceiver. The context in which that reality is being perceived becomes the point of interest, so that, in regard to literature, â€Å"there is a constant movement away from the interpretation of the individual literary work and a parallel drive towards understanding the larger, abstract structures which contain them† (Barry, 40). The question becomes not what, but how. It is interesting, then, to further define the crux of this theory in search of what conclusion a modern structuralist reading of a pre-structuralist author, namely Edgar Allan Poe, might yield. Structuralism itself is defined as â€Å"modern† but through its own origins â€Å"following the widely discussed applications of structural analysis to mythology by the anthropologist Claude Là ¨vi-Strauss† can be attributed to relatively recent intellectual movements, which then reflect back on the writings of Poe, perhaps evidencing inspiration for the theory in the firs... ...l and follows its progression panel by panel. Works Cited Baldick, Chris. â€Å"Structuralism.† OXFORD CONCISE DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TERMS. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 245-246. Barry, Peter. â€Å"Structuralism.† BEGINNING THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY AND CULTURAL THEORY. 2nd edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. 39-60. Coogan, Peter M. â€Å"The Secret Origin of the Superhero: The Origin and Evolution of the Superhero Genre in America.† AMERICAN QUARTERLY. Vol 55, Iss. 4. College Park, December 2003. 801 Poe, Edgar Allan. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart.† RETELLINGS: A THEMATIC Literature Anthology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 404-407; â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado.† Classroom handout (SUNY Potsdam, Fall 2005, LITR 300, Dr. McNutt). 463-467.

Soviet Union :: essays research papers

There are many events worthy of our recognition but some will be remembered for many years to come. Fifty years from now, every person in the world should remember the year in which the Soviet Empire collapsed. The Soviet Union was one of the most dangerous and most feared of all the countries in the world during the time it existed. The Soviet Union was the largest country in the world because of all the republics it had within it. The collapse of the Soviet Union will always be remembered because it was a country that was very dangerous. It was like that because just about all of the men that ruled and controlled the Soviet Union were heavy drinkers and they would not be at their best judgment when doing things and because of that they could cause a lot of damage, conflict, and war to many other countries. The end of the Soviet Union will be remembered also because it had such a great impact on all its republics. The Soviet Union was not a horrible place though as it helped all the poor countries stay strong since they were united as one union. Instead of being a whole bunch of third world countries, their unity in communism did work at keeping the people safe. For example Yugoslavia was around as on nation back then because of communism but once the collapse of communism Yugoslavia broke apart. Why many people feared the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic, or CCCP, USSR spelled in Russian, was because the fact that a lot of missiles would frequently disappear from the missile silos that belonged to the Soviet Union, and because of this it shows that the Soviet Union wasn't to safe of a country to live in and that the people there weren't easily trusted so other countries near the borders of the Union could be in great danger. I think that the Soviet Union was a great republic and that if it did still exist now it would or at least

Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Q & A :: essays research papers

What is your first impressions of the following characters: Frida Kahlo I find her to be disabled from multiple injuries from a few harsh accidents that shouldn’t of happened to anyone, that she got her artist vision & abilities in her first accident involving a bus crashing & then being plasted from her chest down to her calves, then she was basically as soon as only when her right leg was plasted. She was in love with Diego Rivera & married him twice, & then found out that she couldn’t have kids, had gang green on her foot from smoking & drinking a lot, & then she died in peace being with the one she loved the most, being able to do what she loves wants & can, in think of her a brave, considerate, & strong person. Diego Rivera He can paint like a real artist, but he has no sense in love or the meaning of being in a relationship neither for marriage, until it was really, to late to have been able to do the things he could have & wanted to with Frida Kahlo. I want to know what side he is playing for, the best of him or for the worst of him. In the movie â€Å"Frida† how was Frida Kahlo portrayed: As a woman? She was treated like a lady at times & at other times she got treated like a player of the game & man she can be mistaken as a man by looks & personality. As an artist? She was respected for her work, but the fact that she didn’t seem like or acted like an artist, & using canvases that is what she ‘lacked’ in respect, & for a while no-one really seemed to care, but then she met Diego Rivera. As Diego’s wife? No-one believed that she should be married & in love with him for no reason though they all know the reasons why but they just didn’t understand. Their relationship was complicated, cheating upon each other, until they departed because Diego slept with Frida’s sister, then eventually they re-married, though they felt strong about each other though they couldn’t she it til near the end when it was to late. How do think Frida felt about America? That the country lived on striving for power & money that they only wanted it their way or other wise you would either lose your job or, everything else. Fact & point she very much disliked America.

Reading and Writing Strategies Essay

|Strategy |Activity |Assessment | |Prior Knowledge: To make connection to what one already |Make a word web of information that has |Create a concept map showing key ideas. | |know. Lay a foundation which new facts, ideas and |been discussed. | | |concepts can be develop. | |Assess prior knowledge by asking | | |Share information. |questions. | | |Create a T-Chart with what students would | | | |like to know about the subject and what I | | | |now know. | | |Prediction: Predicting involves thinking ahead and |Ask question about each picture to elicit |Write prediction in reading logs. | |anticipating information and event that take place. |response that require them to make | | | |inferences. |Students complete a prediction sheet as a| | | |formative assessment. Students share what| | | |they learned. | |Summarizing: Process of identifying and writing the main |Writing in journal as to how they think |Write a short summary of the material. | |ideas that unite ideas into a coherent whole. |the story will end or what will take place| | | |at a certain point in the material. |Read a passage from the material and | | | |write a summary. | | |Give an oral summary of their version of | | | |what take place. | | | | | | |Generate Question: The practice of asking what, when, |Students look at the title and write |Create a short answer for discussion | |where, why, what will happen, how and who question. |question as to what, when and where. |question. | | | | | | |Ask question before reading, during |Asks questions that would likely | | |reading and after reading. |encourage a response that is focused, | | |â€Å"Engage class in pre discussion Students |detailed and interesting. | | |will make predictions about the text by | | | |asking effective before reading questions |Rubric can be used to evaluate the | | |to improve reading comprehension† |quality of the questions created by the | | |((Teacher vision, n. d). |student. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Fluency: The ability to read text smoothly, accurately |Readers’ Theater |Running Records | |and with expression. |Students read |Retelling the main idea and supporting | | |aloud from a script |details, the sequence of events, | | |and bring the |characters, setting and plot. | | |characters and | | | |action to life. | | | | | | | |Tape assisted | | | |reading | | | |The students listen | | | |to a recording of a | | | |story or text and | | | |reads along. | | | | | | | |Partner Reading | | | |Read aloud with a | | | |partner and partner | | | |give feedback. | | |Word-Attack Strategies: Help students to decode, | |Read list of sight words and check for | |pronounce and understands unfamiliar words. |Sound Out the Word |pronunciation and decoding. Give students| | |Start with the first letter, |one minute to read list of words. | | |and say each letter- | | | |Sound out loud. | | | | | | | |Blend the sounds | | | |together and try to say |Look for base words and blend the | | |The word. |beginning or ending sounds to sound out | | | |words. | | |Look for Chunks in the Word | | | | | | | |Look for familiar letter chunks. They may | | | |be sound/symbols, prefixes, suffixes, | | | |endings, whole words, or base words. | | | | | | | |Read each chunk by | | | |Itself. Then blend the chunks together and| | | | | | | |Sound out the word. | | |Visualize: Students will learn to visualize the details|Analyze what they read. |Select a picture and relate the details | |of a text. They will use other sensory images like | |of the picture. | |dramatizing and drawing to help them better understand |Drawing during reading. | | |what they are reading. | | | | | | | Writing Strategies |Strategy |Activity |Assessment | |Prewriting: The stage where students begin the |Brainstorm ideas |Use a graphic organizer to plan writing. | |writing process by creating ideas for |Choose a topic | | |writing. |Plan and organize information | | | |Create an outline | | |Drafting: The stage where students put their |Write a draft |Put their ideas on paper | |ideas in writing. |Students put their ideas in writing and correct| | | |later. | | |Revising: Draft is reread and improvements are |Add information when needed |The teacher provides feedback according to the | |made. |Delete unnecessary information |rubric. | | |Organize paragraphs | | |Proofreading: Students read and make |Students reread their papers for errors. |The teacher provides feedback according to the | |corrections. | |rubric. | | |Partner up with another student and proofread | | | |each other paper using a red pen and circle | | | |errors. | | | | | | |Final Draft: Student final paper before |. |Consult teacher for feedback. | |publishing. Consult teacher for feedback. |Have another student read and one listen for | | | |main idea and supporting details. |Compare writing against writing rubric. | |Sequence: The order in which events happen. |Rewrite an event how they happen. | | |Writers help their reader understand what | |Students relate three things that happen at | |happens in story. | |school. List the events out of order. Have | | | |students write the events in order using first,| | | |next and last. | | | | | | | |Student writes a paragraph explaining their | | | |morning routines by using time-order words. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Publishing: Students share their writing with |Students design a book cover and create their |Make a final coy using best handwriting. | |others or the class. |own original book. Use text and pictures to | | | |establish their ideas. |Publish student’s paper by display it outside | | | |of the classroom for others to read. | Reference TeacherVision: http://www. teachervision. fen. com/lesson-plan/reading- comprehension/48697. html#ixzz1mGdBZfRx Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balance Approach. Fifth ed. Allyn & Bacon.