Today we watched a video of Gordon L. Jones lecturing on knowledge management. He suggested that knowledge management is neccesary in order to put a price on any modern businesses - if you cannot manage knowledge - how can you set a price on it?
He also talked about how we communicate with our instructor in this course through WebCT and file attachments.
Another claim he made was that telecomuting doesn't work - and it doesn't work because people don't know you when you're working from home. People get notticed when they're in the office, just by being around. By socializing. However, this idea is getting more and more obsolete. This can all be done by virtual means.
Knowledge management is used by many, many huge organizations today. But what is knowledge? And how does organizations know thigs - if they do? These were some of the questionsa that was raised during the lecture. In the US, the culture is about fiding out who knows what we need to know. It begins with the people, and that's where knowledge resigns!
Somebody has to make data into knowedlge. This comes with knowedge and experience - some of the things we're going through in this MBA course. However, knowledge tends to be messy, it is self-organizing, it seeks community and it travels via language.
The assigned chapter for this week was about ERP-systems, which I find extremely interesting, as I've been working in this field for two years. I read the first part of the chapter with great interest, and couldn't help noticing the average failure rate of 66%. This doesn't surprise me. What usually happens is that the company doesn't realize how much time and money they have to put into the implementation part of getting a new system. Having worked in support, sales and marketing in a large ERP business this makes a lot of sense to me.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Reflections Week Twelve: CRM
Today in class we talked about Customer Relationship Management in different settings, and how CRM has changed with the introduction of the internet and virtual communities.
My group, the Bugs, presented our group project about CRM in an vitual community, and how this would differ from real world CRM. Of course CRM in the real world and CRM in a virtual community is more or less the same thing, however, we do believe that there will be some differences. In a virtual world an advantage of CRM is, that every move by the potential customer can be tracked more easily. When every move is made online, this can potentilly be tracked and logged, as we already see it when for example Amazon comes up with new suggestions for you. In the beginning I though this was a little bit creepy, however, now I'm getting more used to it, and you see everywhere if you do online purchaces. Hence, I believe this to be one of the main advantages and differences between real worl CRM and virtual CRM, the ease of tracking and logging information about the costumers.
Another issue we discussed was how virtual CRM might be more honest in a sense, since the customer can kind of hide behind its avatar. This might mean that the customer might be more brave, or even do or say things that he or she would not do or say in real life, as the customer can appear somehow anynomous hiding behind the avatar.
I've personally spent a considerable amount of time working with CRM, as I've worked in B2B sales, selleing ERP and CRM systems to small and medium sized businesses. Doing that made me realize the importance of a CRM system, and we would log every conversation, every email, every fax, and every piece of information that went between us and the customers. Our system would automatically recognize email adresses in Outlook, and save the emails to the CRM system. In that way we would always have the latest info on the customer in the database, and if I was sick and one of my customers called in, one of my colleagues would be able to see exactly what I've been talking to that specific customer about. This tool was extremely handy, and I don't think that any large cooperation can really survive without it.
My group, the Bugs, presented our group project about CRM in an vitual community, and how this would differ from real world CRM. Of course CRM in the real world and CRM in a virtual community is more or less the same thing, however, we do believe that there will be some differences. In a virtual world an advantage of CRM is, that every move by the potential customer can be tracked more easily. When every move is made online, this can potentilly be tracked and logged, as we already see it when for example Amazon comes up with new suggestions for you. In the beginning I though this was a little bit creepy, however, now I'm getting more used to it, and you see everywhere if you do online purchaces. Hence, I believe this to be one of the main advantages and differences between real worl CRM and virtual CRM, the ease of tracking and logging information about the costumers.
Another issue we discussed was how virtual CRM might be more honest in a sense, since the customer can kind of hide behind its avatar. This might mean that the customer might be more brave, or even do or say things that he or she would not do or say in real life, as the customer can appear somehow anynomous hiding behind the avatar.
I've personally spent a considerable amount of time working with CRM, as I've worked in B2B sales, selleing ERP and CRM systems to small and medium sized businesses. Doing that made me realize the importance of a CRM system, and we would log every conversation, every email, every fax, and every piece of information that went between us and the customers. Our system would automatically recognize email adresses in Outlook, and save the emails to the CRM system. In that way we would always have the latest info on the customer in the database, and if I was sick and one of my customers called in, one of my colleagues would be able to see exactly what I've been talking to that specific customer about. This tool was extremely handy, and I don't think that any large cooperation can really survive without it.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Reflections Week Eleven
This week we talked about supply chain management (SCM) and the pros and cons of this kind of system. In class we had to discus pros and cons of supply chain management. It is pretty easy to come up with pros, however, discussing the cons was more difficult.
What are potential cons?
First off all, SCM requires a huge investment in technology and the know how on how to apply it. If you do the investment, without having the know how or the time or money to invest in training, the investment might as well be a total waste of money.
Also, SCM could result in a loss of jobs, as more of the supply chain is automated. However, I do believe this could also be considered a good thing, depending on the perspective you take. It is probably the managements objective to actually cut down jobs and thereby be more cost efficient, however, if you're the one to loose your job there is no doubt that this would be considerend a con - a bad thing about the use of supply chain management.
The last consequence we came up with, was too much infomation sharing. TodayWalmart has acces to its suppliers systems, and somehow Walmart basically takeover their suppliers businesses and eventully almost run their suppliers business...
Thinking about good thing about CRM is a lot easier. The pros are among other things: Increased efficiency, decreased costs, shorter lag times, decreased pollution, more effective CRM etc.
What are potential cons?
First off all, SCM requires a huge investment in technology and the know how on how to apply it. If you do the investment, without having the know how or the time or money to invest in training, the investment might as well be a total waste of money.
Also, SCM could result in a loss of jobs, as more of the supply chain is automated. However, I do believe this could also be considered a good thing, depending on the perspective you take. It is probably the managements objective to actually cut down jobs and thereby be more cost efficient, however, if you're the one to loose your job there is no doubt that this would be considerend a con - a bad thing about the use of supply chain management.
The last consequence we came up with, was too much infomation sharing. TodayWalmart has acces to its suppliers systems, and somehow Walmart basically takeover their suppliers businesses and eventully almost run their suppliers business...
Thinking about good thing about CRM is a lot easier. The pros are among other things: Increased efficiency, decreased costs, shorter lag times, decreased pollution, more effective CRM etc.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Reflections Week Ten
This week we talked about Networks, Telecommunications and Wireless Computing. We talked about the different networks that exits - such as Locan Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN), and the differences between these.
There are two primary types of network architecture: Peer to peer and client/server network. A peer to peer network is any network without a central filer server and in which all computers in te network have acces to the public files located on all other work stations. A client/server network is a model for application in which the bulk of the back-end processing takes place om a server, while the front-end processing is handled by the clients.
VoIP (voice over IP) is a technology that transmits voice calls over lomg distance telephone lines. I use Skype a lot when I live so far away from my friends and family, it is really conveniant and free. Also, the quality is similar to traditional phonelines, and today 10% of all phone calls made in the US are made with the help of VoIP.
Network transmission media refers to the various types of media used to carry the signal between computers. Two types of media is wire media (like twisted-pair wiring, coxial cable and fiber-optic cable) and wireless media, that are natural parts of the earths environment that can be used as physical path to carry electrical signals.
There are two primary types of network architecture: Peer to peer and client/server network. A peer to peer network is any network without a central filer server and in which all computers in te network have acces to the public files located on all other work stations. A client/server network is a model for application in which the bulk of the back-end processing takes place om a server, while the front-end processing is handled by the clients.
VoIP (voice over IP) is a technology that transmits voice calls over lomg distance telephone lines. I use Skype a lot when I live so far away from my friends and family, it is really conveniant and free. Also, the quality is similar to traditional phonelines, and today 10% of all phone calls made in the US are made with the help of VoIP.
Network transmission media refers to the various types of media used to carry the signal between computers. Two types of media is wire media (like twisted-pair wiring, coxial cable and fiber-optic cable) and wireless media, that are natural parts of the earths environment that can be used as physical path to carry electrical signals.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Reflections Week Nine: The Harrah Case Study
This weeks online lecture was a question aboout what would happen if the casino Harrah failed to scrub and clean its CRM data. Here's my response:
If Harrah's fails to clean or scrub its CRM data, it will without doubt influence the way their customer representatives are able to customize the service to its casino guests. Moreover, since this type of customization is its key competitive advantage, this might be disastrous to the casino and the way it conducts its business, which again could have big consequences. Customers might not get the actual value of the Total Rewards program if they are registered more than once in the database. Also, if there is to be double registrations Harrash would not collect the correct data on its customers, and therefore not be able to suggest the correct offers to its guests, or market itself in the best possible way. This being said, I do not believe that any company is ever able to keep its database clean and flawless. I know from personal experience how difficult this is. I used to work for a company that developed and sold ERP and CRM systems to small and medium sized business, and for CRM purposes we of course used our own ERP system. However, even though this was our own software and we had more than fifty developers continuously working on the software and 100 supporters supporting the software, we would have many double registrations in our CRM database. I worked in sales for a period of time, and the implications of the many double registrations were that it often took a lot if time to look up customers in the database when they called in. The result of this was of course increased waiting time and bad service, which was hard to explain taking into consideration that this software was our own. Also, it made it harder to convince people to buy the software since it obviously wasn’t working very well! However, usually incomplete and inaccurate information are due to human error.
If Harrah's fails to clean or scrub its CRM data, it will without doubt influence the way their customer representatives are able to customize the service to its casino guests. Moreover, since this type of customization is its key competitive advantage, this might be disastrous to the casino and the way it conducts its business, which again could have big consequences. Customers might not get the actual value of the Total Rewards program if they are registered more than once in the database. Also, if there is to be double registrations Harrash would not collect the correct data on its customers, and therefore not be able to suggest the correct offers to its guests, or market itself in the best possible way. This being said, I do not believe that any company is ever able to keep its database clean and flawless. I know from personal experience how difficult this is. I used to work for a company that developed and sold ERP and CRM systems to small and medium sized business, and for CRM purposes we of course used our own ERP system. However, even though this was our own software and we had more than fifty developers continuously working on the software and 100 supporters supporting the software, we would have many double registrations in our CRM database. I worked in sales for a period of time, and the implications of the many double registrations were that it often took a lot if time to look up customers in the database when they called in. The result of this was of course increased waiting time and bad service, which was hard to explain taking into consideration that this software was our own. Also, it made it harder to convince people to buy the software since it obviously wasn’t working very well! However, usually incomplete and inaccurate information are due to human error.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Reflections Week Eight
This week we did the midterm, so I guess there isn't so much to do reflections on.
However, from Europe I'm not used to these multiple choice kind of exams. I think learning stuff by heart is stupid. Being able to reflect on issues and analyze issues are much more important. I think you should change the format of these exams. I will have forgotten what I've learned by heart in a few weeks anyways.
However, from Europe I'm not used to these multiple choice kind of exams. I think learning stuff by heart is stupid. Being able to reflect on issues and analyze issues are much more important. I think you should change the format of these exams. I will have forgotten what I've learned by heart in a few weeks anyways.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Reflections Week Seven
This week I had prepared for the midterm, but because the computers in class were running slow, we had to postpon the midterm undtill next week. I had study hard for this midterm, and I know I won't have time to study again next week. I really hope I will be able to remember most of the stuff I studied for, othervise I'm afraid this will hurt my final result. I just really wanted to get it over with...
Instead of doing the midterm we went through chapter 5 in the book about IT Architectures. I do remember most of this from the 1100 class I took some years ago, I especially remember looking at the different parts from inside the computer. Also, I personally think this chapter is extremely helpful to all of us since we at some point go and shop for computers, and knowing the difference betwen RAM, CPU and memory is really helpfull. We also learned about input and output devices, and the difference between hardware and software. Since I've been working in the IT industry doing marketing for a big software company, none of this was vary new to me. However, it is always good to get updated!
Instead of doing the midterm we went through chapter 5 in the book about IT Architectures. I do remember most of this from the 1100 class I took some years ago, I especially remember looking at the different parts from inside the computer. Also, I personally think this chapter is extremely helpful to all of us since we at some point go and shop for computers, and knowing the difference betwen RAM, CPU and memory is really helpfull. We also learned about input and output devices, and the difference between hardware and software. Since I've been working in the IT industry doing marketing for a big software company, none of this was vary new to me. However, it is always good to get updated!
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