Domestic Violence

Question: Present to the class the examination of Human Rights of Domestic Violence in LGBTIQ Globally. Answer: The aggressive behavior at home in the LGBTIQ people group is as significant as the hetero networks. The term LGBTIQ represents the networks of lesbian, gay, androgynous, transgender, intersex and addressing. There are various human rights for the abusive behavior at home casualties in the LGBTIQ people group. The human privileges of the casualties shield them from the abusers under both the common and criminal security orders. The human privileges of the casualties permit them the assurance independent of the degree of the personal connection with the abusers. The casualties are permitted to squeeze charges against the abusers if there should arise an occurrence of crimes. The casualties of the aggressive behavior at home in LGBTIQ are given comparable human rights as a person in the hetero networks. The casualties are permitted to take lawful activities against the police power, on the off chance that they are associated with any crime (McQueeney, 2016). There are various social wo rk speculations, for example, the sociopsychological hypothesis of same sex battering, women's activist speculations, combination hypothesis and friend bolster hypothesis which characterize the IPV in LGBTIQ people group and contrast them with that of the hetero networks. There are various people and associations working over the whole world who guide and bolster he survivors of abusive behavior at home in the LGBTIQ people group. Presentation There are various kinds of abusive behavior at home dependent on various variables, one of which is the sexual inclination of a person. The human rights for abusive behavior at home in LGBTIQ centers around these kinds of abusive behavior at home and segregation done against people dependent on their sexual inclination. The term LGBTIQ grows to lesbian, gay, swinger, transgender, intersex and addressing, which characterize the sexual inclination of the people and the human privileges of those people secure them against the aggressive behavior at home identified with these components (Coker, 2016). Human rights Associations and people in different nations over the globe are taking a few activities to give human rights to the LGBTIQ people group against aggressive behavior at home. As of late the leader of the US, Barak Obama approved two or three changes in the Violence Against Women Act, which gives various worldwide human rights to the LGBT people group (Jonson-Reid, 2016). These human rights permit people in the LGBT people group to get assurance against abusive behavior at home similarly as the others. The National Center for Lesbian Rights and The True Colors Fund have united in the United States to give human rights and teach individuals about the equivalent in the provincial LGBT people group the nation over (Meyer, 2014). The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has found a way to save the human privileges of the people in the LGBTIQ people group in all the UN part states (Reynolds, 2013). The Australian government acquainted abusive behavior at hom e leave with help the casualties of aggressive behavior at home in LGBTIQ people group. The casualties are given rights to take paid leaves to recover and accumulate themselves before returning to work. The worldwide LGBTI human rights gathering was facilitated in the nation of Uruguay from thirteenth to fifteenth July, 2016, in which included conversations of upgrading both operational and money related help for the human rights gave to the abusive behavior at home casualties in the LGBTI people group internationally. The city of Amsterdam in Europe is booked to have Europride in the long stretch of August, 2016. This occasion will incorporate gatherings with ARC-GS and its accomplices to examine and dissect the human rights gave to the aggressive behavior at home casualties in LGBTI people group in Europe alongside the confinements or shortages of those rights (Reynolds, 2013). Social work hypotheses A portion of the social work hypotheses for human rights are referenced in this area of the report. Hostile to severe hypothesis This hypothesis of social work permits the social specialists to be extremely mindful so as to evacuate the severe practices against the human privileges of the people in the social orders. The social specialists center around expelling the unfeeling use of overabundance of intensity on the people against their privileges. The social specialists in the LGBTIQ people group center around annihilating the force unevenness and persecution from the lives of aggressive behavior at home casualties alongside reestablishing their human rights (Dominelli, 2002). Social disgrace hypothesis This hypothesis of social work centers around the expulsion of social disgrace from the relating social orders. SO the social specialists in the LGBTIQ people group guarantee that the people in the comparing social orders are viewed as equivalent to the others and furnished with the comparative human rights against the aggressive behavior at home (Pryor, 2016). Hypothesis of minimization This hypothesis permits the social specialists in the LGBTIQ people group to guarantee that the survivors of aggressive behavior at home are permitted to utilize all the offices and rights gave to any other person in the comparing social orders. This hypothesis centers around the way that the people in the LGBTIQ people group ought to be permitted to get to all the offices according to their human rights (Gledhill, 2014). Job of social laborers and associations There are various social laborer working exclusively and as a component of different social working association, who offer help to the survivors of aggressive behavior at home in LGBTIQ. ILGA-Europe is an association which give a wide scope of help to the survivors of the abusive behavior at home and instruct them with respect to their privileges (Bacchus, 2016). IGLHRC (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) is another association, which instructs the possible casualties of abusive behavior at home with respect to the choices they have if there should arise an occurrence of a negative situation. USAID is another association, which is working on various approaches for getting the LGBTIQ issues to the standard. References Bacchus, L. J., Buller, A. M., Ferrari, G., Peters, T. J., Devries, K., Sethi, G., ... Feder, G. S. (2016). Event and effect of aggressive behavior at home and maltreatment in gay and androgynous men: a cross sectional review. Worldwide diary of STD AIDS, 0956462415622886.Coker, D. (2016). Aggressive behavior at home and Social Justice, A Structural Intersectional Framework for Teaching About Domestic Violence. Brutality against ladies, 1077801215625851.Dominelli, L., Campling, J. (2002). Hostile to harsh social work hypothesis and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.Gledhill, C. (2014). Queering state wrongdoing hypothesis: The state, common society and minimization. Basic Criminology, 22(1), 127-138.Jonson-Reid, M., Lauritsen, J. L., Edmond, T., Schneider, F. D. (2016). Open Policy and Prevention of Violence Against Women. Counteraction, Policy, and Public Health, 229.Meyer, H., Johnston, T. R. (2014). The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging gives basic preparing to maturing specialist co-ops. Diary of gerontological social work, 57(2-4), 407-412.Pryor, J. B., Bos, A. E. (Eds.). (2016). Social Psychological Perspectives on Stigma: Advances in Theory and Research. Routledge.Reynolds, A. (2013). Portrayal and rights: The effect of LGBT officials in similar viewpoint. American Political Science Review, 107(02), 259-274.

The causes and affects on bullied students in American high scools Research Paper

The causes and influences on harassed understudies in American high scools - Research Paper Example Then again, social elements ought to likewise not be neglected. Family issues, for example, absence of correspondence and family savagery, can deliver discouraged and rough young people that are inclined to being menaces. The nonattendance of school and educator inclusion, just as media factors, can likewise result to more extensive harassing rehearses. Tormenting, besides, impacts menaces, casualties, and observers. Menaces and casualties can both experience the ill effects of gloom, self-destructive goals, and school issues. Casualties likewise have higher truancy and wrongdoing issues than non-casualties. Onlookers likewise experience tension and defenselessness. These impacts can be reached out along the grown-up lives of these subgroups and effect their wellbeing and bliss over the long haul. It is significant for schools, instructors, and different partners to work together in settling tormenting conduct. They ought to comprehend its causes and find prompt and long haul arrange ments, in order to satisfactorily manage and forestalling harassing occurrence. Circumstances and end results of Bullying in American High Schools: The Bully, The Victim, and The Witnesses Bullying in American secondary schools has taken a bigger extent of the media and specialist consideration, particularly throughout the previous thirty years and after the Columbine disaster. In spite of this developing enthusiasm for examining and halting harassing, it unfortunately keeps on being a backbone for American schools, including its secondary schools. Gastic specifies concentrates from DeVoe and Kaffenberger and Dinkes et al. that expressed that from 2003 to 2004, more than one fourth of American state funded schools announced that harassing happened each week, where 21 percent of secondary school understudies experienced and saw tormenting (391). Tormenting is a disturbing wonder, since it underlies social and individual issues and further add to differing social and mental issues for menaces, casualties, and observers the same. This paper investigates the circumstances and end results of harassing in American secondary schools. It contends that harassing is a result of individual and social variables and that if schools and concerned partners will do nothing about it, this will add to outcomes of brutality, self destruction, and other wellbeing and prosperity issues. To characterize tormenting in this paper, harassing or provocation happens, when at least one understudies are â€Å"unfriendly or horrendous towards an understudy who can't protect him/herself very easily† (Roland 57). This can incorporate a wide scope of tormenting practices, for example, kicking, hitting, or pushing another understudy, or prodding and segregating casualties, either at school or on the web (Roland 57). Cyberbullying is an ongoing wonder that incorporates prodding individuals on the web or spreading bits of gossip about them in different informal communities. Harassing can likewise be ordered as aberrant, for example, being shunned or tormented on the web, or immediate, for example, being hit or kicked. Menaces are viewed as rash and truly forceful people, who think that its compensating to scare others, who can't protect themselves (Bradshaw, O'Brennan, and Sawyer 10). For what reason are there menaces? A portion of the reasons for harassing can be attached to the individual qualities of the domineering jerks. In 2011, Roland and Idsoe gave experimental proof that harassers scored high in â€Å"proactive aggressiveness,† which relates to the inclination to direct negative practices, so as to accomplish social prizes, for example, seeing trepidation and accommodation from casualties (qtd. in Roland 56). A few people conjecture that

Company analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organization investigation - Essay Example For example, McDonalds takes part in a genuine preparing program for its supervisors. The preparation program is alluded to as Hamburger University where demonstrable skill is the base of its prosperity. The McDonalds plan to win envelops a system for its worldwide business. Through its key focal point of the components of individuals, item, spot, cost and advancement, the organization has had the option to catch the biggest number of clients in the inexpensive food industry. This has been in accordance with mix of money related order that has made it workable for the association to create and keep up upper hand. For there to be achievement in any business, Yuece (5) contended that there is a need to have inventive thoughts that empower an organization to build up the current items and administrations including presenting new items for the clients. This goes in accordance with the proceeded with statistical surveying particularly on customers’ necessities and inclinations. In light of this, McDonalds has had the option to ready to structure online administrations where clients can arrange on the web. This makes productivity and decrease of time wastage. Notwithstanding, the organization has been encountering terrible picture corresponding to undesirable nourishment propensities energized by the utilization of quick food sources that have been connected to heftiness and other awful dietary pattern complexities. This has prompted the organization being associated with a few claims and other lawful cases. For example, numerous cases have been delivered according to exchange mark issue. Furthermore, because of expanded rivalry, McDonalds has confronted firm rivalry from its rivals. This has been credited to what McKean (4) named as levelheadedness of customers. This is where clients become normal in utilization depending with the assortment of decisions that go in accordance with their necessities and inclinations. In this manner, if McDonald’s contenders offer what a few clients think best suits them, there are high possibilities that

Cases Of Corporal Punishment - Free Essay Example

Fourteen-year-old James Ingraham was held down and paddled twenty times, against his will, by three teachers, for allegedly not leaving the auditorium stage when directed. The punishment was so harsh, he required medical attention and missed eleven days of school. When taken to court, the court stated that cruel and unusual punishment does not apply to the corporal punishment of children in public schools (Wikipedia, 2018, n.p.). While many countries have banned corporal punishment completely, the United States has not. In 2017, a bill was brought about to Congress to ban all corporal punishment in schools but failed. Thirty-one states in America have banned corporal punishment in schools but it is still legal in homes in all fifty states. Corporal punishment should be banned in schools because it negatively affects learning, has adverse psychological effects and promotes violence. Corporal punishment is not only canning, flogging and branding a person but also spanking, whipping and paddling; any punishment meant to cause pain is considered corporal punishment. These types of punishments are still allowed in schools in nineteen of the fifty states in our country. Multiple cases have been brought to court due to the severity of some of these punishments, most have been thrown out. Students do not even get a chance for a hearing before receiving their punishment (Wikipedia, 2018). In 2014, Trey Clayton was paddled after sitting in the wrong seat in class. The principal administered three swats to the buttocks with such force that the student passed out, fell face first to the floor busting open his chin, fracturing five teeth and his jaw bone (Menon, 2017). Even though studies show that corporal punishment is not good for a childs mental health and physical health, it is still widely accepted in the United States (Taylor, et al., 2017). It is time we put an end to these kinds of punishments, punishments that do more harm than good. Corporal punishment causes students to think about school skeptically and relate school to punishment. Corporal punishment can cause many negative factors at a school level (Ali, et al., 2015). When students are corporally punished by teachers and/or principles, they feel that school is an unsafe place, deterring them from even going. When children do go to school, they are learning under the notion of fear, leading to a lack of mot ivation to learn (Nyarko, 2017) and less retention of knowledge. Fearful students are anxious students which tends to lead to a loss in concentration, loss of interest in studies, poor learning, poor performances on tests and worse overall academically (Ali, et al., 2015). Moreover, students do not participate enthusiastically in their studies and will not take risks even when being creative (Ali, et al., 2015). Students lose confidence, have lower self-esteem and have increased stress levels (Ali, et al.. 2015). Children in this type of situation tend to get into more trouble, leading to further punishment and continue in an unbreakable cycle. Save the Children and UNICEF state the more a child is punished, the more his performance will worsen (Ali, et al., 2015, p.183). Students need to have the opportunity to learn in a safe, peaceful, comfortable, inviting environment, relieved of undue stresses. Many parents argue that corporal punishment is okay though because it quickly rectifies the situation, allowing their child to return to class, missing minimal amounts of studies. There might be some truth to this, but students are often paddled too harshly causing a loss in school time for needed medical treatments. Also, corporal punishment habitually re sults in recurring behavior issues in students, leading to more missed class time. Graham-Berman states physical punishment can work momentarily to stop problematic behavior because children are afraid of being hit, but it doesnt work in the long term (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Â  A district in Florida offers other alternatives to spanking or suspension. Instead of swatting or paddling, students are sent to one of four off-school sites where students can complete their homework with a teacher and get behavioral support from a program created by a behavior specialist. School officials state that parents are turning more to this alternative method over spanking and the number of office referrals has cut way down. Students often return reformed and good students (Morones, 2013). Another reaction of corporal punishment is the negative psychological effects that go with it. Psychologically, corporal punishment has been proven to be the cause of many mental health problems. Children that receive corporal punishment often become anti-social (Smith, B.L., 2012), have feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, self-doubt, guilt, inferiority, anxiety, depression (Nyarko, 2017), lower self-esteem and depression. Commonly, children show symptoms of post-t raumatic stress that can be crippling to children in the formative years (Nyarko, 2017, p.121). Effects like these can and will take a toll on a childs creativity, psyche and personal development (Nyarko, 2017). With so many negative factors on the overall mental health of a child, it is hard to imagine why it is still used. Regardless of the hazard, corporal punishment continues to be exceedingly common in the United States. But parents that agree with corporal punishment argue that it works stating that it corrects the problem. Scholars say differently. Graham- Bermann says Physical punishment can work momentarily to stop problematic behavior because children are afraid of being hit, but it doesnt work in the long term and can make children more aggressive (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Many others say it is abusive, only lasts a short time and even predictive of future violence (Adelson, 2009, p.283). Nadine Block, executive director of the Center for Effective Discipline in Ohio says, over time, it does not work (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Gershoff and Graham-Bermann state that corporal punishment is not consistently effective (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Parents are wrong. It does not work. Alan Kazdin, Ph.D., a Yale University psychology professor, director of the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic and 2008 president of the American Psychological Association states You cannot punish out these behaviors that you do not want. There is no need for corporal punishment based on the research. We are not giving up an effective technique. We are saying this is a horrible thing that does not work. (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Arguably the most important negative fact, corporal punishment promotes violence. Repeatedly, parents get frustrated and immediately hit their child without considering other options (Smith, B.L., 2012). Many times, the parent strikes the child without explaining the why behind it, therefore, children do not quit or correct their behavior and the parent continues to heighten the punishment. Children become literal whipping posts (Godsoe, 2017). Elizabeth Gershoff, Ph.D., a leading researcher on physical punish ment at the University of Texas at Austin says Physical punishment doesnt work to get kids to comply, so parents think they have to keep escalating it. That is why it is so dangerous (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Another study states the unintentional escalation of corporal punishment accounts for the majority of substantiated cases of child physical abuse (Taylor, et al., 2017, p.652). A study published in 2011 conceded that homes, where physical punishment is used, is more likely to have violence. Mothers that are physically abused by their partners are more inclined to think that corporal punishment is necessary (Taylor, et al., 2017). Their children are more likely to use violence as an instrument for dealing with other children (Smith, B.L., 2012) and acting out negatively (Xing, 2017). In a resolution from 1975, against corporal punishment, the American Psychological Association stated that corporal punishment can instill hostility, rage and a sense of powerlessness without reducing the undesirable behavior. (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.) Multiple studies have concluded with the same results; adolescences that are corporally punished are more inclined to use violence (Nyarko, 2017), have hei ghtened aggression (Nyarko, 2017) (Smith, B.L., 2012) and to engage in violent behavior during adulthood (Cheruvalath, et al., 2015, p.128) (Nyarko, 2017). This violence may not become immediately visible but affects the perception of a child (Smith, B.L., 2012) in turn causing adult aggression (Nyarko, 2017) and a lifetime of delinquent behavior (Cheruvalath, et al., 2015). Americans that are for corporal punishment state that corporal punishment teaches consequences for actions, they want their child to know if they do wrong, there will be punishment and feel that without corporal punishment there is nothing left. But parents are choosing to look past the effectiveness of counseling, restrictions and taking away activities and physical items the kids enjoy because it is too much of an effort on their part. Adolescents today are extremely attached to their phones. Parents are too because their child is always at immediate reach. Taking a childs phone away is detrimental to the child but a parent does not want themselves to have any burden. Parents of younger children do not take away tablets and Xboxes, because then the parent must spend more time tending to the child. If more parents spent more time with their children to begin with, actions would not get so far out of control. There are other options, parents just choose to use corporal punishment arg uing that it does not hurt anything and that it is still an effective disciplinary tool (Smith, P., 2018, p.284). Gershoff says I can just about count on one hand the studies that have found anything positive about physical punishment and hundreds that have been negative. (Smith, B.L., 2012, n.p.). Additionally, she recommends being consistent with disciple and proactive by praising good behavior. Overall, corporal punishment has been proven to have more negative effects than positive ones when it comes to our children. From negatively effecting studies, causing psychological issues to turning into adult violence, corporal punishment is overall a poor punishment for adolescents and the pros do not outweigh the cons. Victor Vieth of the Gundersen Center for Effective Discipline in Wisconsin says We have 50 years of research saying corporal punishment is risky and associated with negative outcomes later in life. And we know there are alternative forms of discipline. (Smith, P., 2018, n.p.). Multiple different researches have stated that physical punishment can have severe risks, yet we are not listening (Smith, B.L., 2012). Despite all the studies and negative factors, the recommendation and practice of corporal punishment remains high in our country (Taylor, et al., 2017). Studies have shown that where you live, your ethnicity, your education level, your socioeconomic status, your religion and if your parents used corporal punishment, all have an influence on how you feel about corporal punishment. Generally, if your religion supports corporal punishment, the stronger you feel about your religion, the more you typically favor the use of corporal punishment (Taylor, et al., 2017). When corporal punishment is taken too far and the case ends up in court, its the discretion of the judge that decides the fate. Running back Adrian Peterson was convicted in 2014 for using a switch on his child and consequently lost his career. Another judge acquitted a father that choked his teenage daughter stating in her opinion children need to be punished (Godsoe, 2017). Studies have proved time and time again that corporal punishment is a terrible decision for our youth. Six months ago, after much research on how to deal with my childs strong personality, I reluctantly took spanking out of the equation and replaced it with encouragement and incentive to do things as ask. When she gets a bad attitude or refuses to do as told, we remove ourselves from the situation, we discuss it, we find a solution that works for both of us and move forward. The results have been astounding. Instead of having a crying, angry child that still will not do as she is told, I now have a child that understands, is happy and cooperative. Last week, she asked me to give her and her sister more chores, because I already do enough. I call that success.

Do Carpenter Bees Sting

Carpenter bees can be aggressive, and nobody likes getting stung by a bee. But before you reach for a can of bug spray, you should know that its very unlikely youll be stung by one. Males Dont Sting Male carpenter bees, which are the ones with all the bluster, do not sting at all. Males dont even have a sting (or stinger, as most people tend to call it), so try as they might, they cant hurt you. All the male carpenter bee can do is bump into you. Females Do Female carpenter bees do have a sting and are capable of stinging you. A female will defend herself if she feels threatened, but shes not threatened that easily. If youre swatting at her with a newspaper or waving your hands frantically to scare her off, then yes, you might get stung. But stay calm and leave her alone, and shell do the same. Beneficial Pollinators Carpenter bees are beneficial pollinators that do more good than harm. They do occasionally nest in places people dont want them to live, such as decks or porches, so you may need to take control measures at times.

The Changing Face of Childrens Literature - 2610 Words

Children’s literature is always changing. It has evolved greatly over the generations. Children did not have their own stories in ancient times. Instead, they listened to oral storytellers who would recite stories I tended for adults to hear. Over time it became apparent that children needed there own stories. Moral stories and educational writing started to be written with children in mind. As printed books for children became more accessible, stories started to focus on entertaining children as well as educating them. Today, children’s literature has stories that are focused on children and offer real life views and vivid fantasy alike. Children’s literature has progressed from simply oral folktales to the child focused stories we see today. All literature started with storytelling. Our ancestors told stories for comfort, instruction, entertainment and to teach their culture and religion. Storytelling has been a huge part of cultures all around the world. In ancient times, there was no difference between childrens literature and adult literature. Children listened to the same stories that their parents listened to. Defining what children’s literature is seems like an easy task at first. However, it is really not as simple as it sounds. What is literature for children? If a book is written with children in mind is it still considered a childrens book if adults read it? Likewise, is a book intended for adults still and adults book of it is read and enjoyed byShow MoreRelatedIn Children’S Literature, It Is Not Easy Finding Books1229 Words   |  5 PagesIn children’s literature, it is not easy finding books with diversity, especially books involving a character or characters with a disability. It is very hard to find picture books that teach young children about special needs and disabilities. Studies have shown the number of books featuring characters with a disability has increased in the last couple years, but the resources are still limited. While the number and varieties of disabled characters portrayed in children’s literature have increasedRead MoreGender Roles Of Women s Literature1661 Words   |  7 Pages The way in which gender roles are portrayed in children’s literature significantly contributes to the development of our youth’s understanding of their own gender’s role and how they are perceived by society. It is important for children to understand gender roles because gender roles are an essential cog in the perpetual machine that develops our society, but these cogs have been replaced with newer, more up-to-date cogs over recent years, so to speak. As society has changed, so has the typicalRead MoreThe Value of Literature in Education1106 Words   |  5 Pagesthe giant textbooks and moving into books students can connect with. 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Analysis of Woolworth Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Financial Analysis of Woolworth. Answer: Introduction Now-a-days every investor perform the investment analysis before making an investment in the organization and it is important as failure to make such analysis will lead to undue risk and less return as required on the investment. Analysis or interpretation of the financial performance of any company requires reporting on the financial condition of the company in regards to profitability, liquidity, asset efficiency and other important market conditions that impacts investors decisions. Every investor wants that their investment provides them maximum returns with minimum risk but it must be noted that good returns are possible where there are some risk associated. In this particular report, financial performance of the Woolworth Limited has been evaluated in detail and this report has been provided to the directors of the company who want to make investment in the rapid growing Australian economy. For this purpose, ratio analysis has been performed for Woolworth Limited and in order to make the industry analysis, the competitor of Woolworth limited, The Reece Group. The main purpose of this financial performance report is to help the directors of the company in taking the wise decision regarding investment in the Woolworth Limited. Financial Performance of Woolworth Limited and comparison with Reece Limited Group In this segment of the assignment, various ratios have been calculated and their trends for year 2015 and 2016 have been noted to understand the increase or decrease in the performance during the year 2016. Profitability Analysis Profitability is the most important criteria for any investor to choose any company because if company profitability is in increasing trend than it will provide good returns and market price of investment will also increase providing required return on the investment. In this category, ratios like gross profit ratio and net profit margin ratio has been calculated to understand the profitability performance of the company (Sagner, 2010). Gross Profit Margin Ratio Gross profit margin refers to the revenue left after meeting all the expenses related to the cost of goods sold. Generally this profit is not the profit that has been hold for the equity share holders as there are other expenditures that need to be paid before arriving at the actual profit. All the ratio calculations are provided in the appendix section of this assignment. According to the calculation made the gross profit margin ratio the company has earned gross profit of 27.29% in year 2015 and it has been decreased to 26.85% in year 2016, reflecting the downfall of 1.60% in year 2016 (Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). The profitability position of Woolworth is acceptable but it is important to look over the change sin the trend and also requires to be compared with the competitor, The Reece Group. The cost of sales of Woolworth in year 2015 was 42,950 million dollars and reduced to 42,676.7 in year 2016. Same has also happened with the sale revenue of Woolworth Limited that causes the decrease in gross profit of the company in year 2016. Gross Profit margin ratio of Reece Limited in year 2015 was 32.98% and it got increased to 33.34% in year 2016 that shows an increase of 1.09% in the gross margin ratio in year 2016. So it can be said that profitability position of Reece Limited was better as compared to Woolworth or Vice Versa (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Net Profit Margin Net profit margin can is termed as the revenue left after meeting all the expenses related cost of sold, operating expenses, administrative expenses, selling and distribution expenses and other expenses. It is calculated as net profit before tax divided by the net revenue of the company in the same period (Sagner, 2010). In year 2015, the net profit of the Woolworth Limited was 5.61% which was reduced to 2.34 % in year 2016. This overall decrease in net profit ratio is about 58.24 % in year 2016 as compare to year 2015(Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). So it can be said that there is decreasing trend in the net profit ratio of the Woolworth Limited. It can be seen that there was increase in operating and administrative expenses despite of decrease in revenue in year 2016 when compared with figures of year 2015. The net profit ratio of Reece Limited was 11.43 % in year 2015 and has increased to 12.30 %in year 2016 that show the 7.60 % positive trend in net profit ratio. So it can be said that level of profitability of Woolworth is not acceptable for the investment purpose because both the profitability ratios shows decrease in profit and increase in expenditures that will lead to more negative trend in profitability of the company (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Liquidity Analysis Liquidity analysis means short term capability of the company to pay the liabilities of the company. Current ratio and quick ratio are two important ratio used to calculate the liquidity of the company (Sagner, 2010). Current ratio Current ratio measure the normal liquidity position of the organization as it tells level of current assets to pay off the current liabilities. The current ratio of Woolworth Limited was 0.84 times in year 2015 and it remained almost same in year 2016. Calculations show that there is overall 1.12 % increase in the current ratio in year 2016. It can be seen that company was not able to meet up all the current liability expenses in both the years (Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). Current ratio calculations in regards to Reece Limited show that company has current assets of 2.02 times in year 2015 and it has increased by 1.20 %in year 2016 to 2.04 times. So it can be said that overall liquidity position of Reece Limited in much better than the Woolworth Limited in both the years (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Quick Ratio Quick ratio is absolute measure of liquidity position of the company as it measures liquidity through ignoring the assets that are not easily convertible into cash. Quick ratio of Woolworth was 0.30 times in year 2015 and it has increased to 0.33 times in year 2016 resulting increase of 7.29%. The short term liquidity position of Woolworth limited was worth in both the years as company has only 30 % of real cash to pay the current liabilities (Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). On the other hand, the liquidity position of Reece Limited was very strong as company has quick assets of 1.04 times in year 2015 and 1.08 times in year 2016 (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Analyzing overall liquidity position of Woolworth in year 2015 as well in year 2016 it can be said that liquidity position of the company is not acceptable despite of increase in trend. It is because as per ideal current ratio the current assets of the company must be between 1.5 to 2 times the current liabilities but it is less the current liabilities. Asset Efficiency Analysis Asset efficiency means how efficiently the resources of the company are being used to earn the revenue (Bull, 2007). Inventory Turnover Ratio Inventory turnover ratio indicates the how many times the average inventory has been sold to earn the revenue. The inventory turnover ratio of Woolworth Limited was 8.82 times in year 2015 and 9.36 times in year 2016. It indicates inventory has been properly utilized by the company in year 2016 as compare to 2015 showing the increase in trend of 6.20 % (Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). On the other hand, Reece Limited has poor inventory turnover ratio in both the years that reflects that company was unable to utilize the inventory to earn the revenue (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Days Sales in Inventory This ratio provides inventory turnover ratio in days of year. More precisely it provides how many days company needed to turn all inventory into sales. In year 2016, Woolworth has taken 39.99 days to convert the entire inventory into sales whereas Reece Limited has taken 97.63 days to convert all inventories into sales (Annual report of Woolworth Limited, 2016). Overall analysis of asset efficiency it can be said that Woolworth has utilized its assets more precisely as compared to Reece Limited (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Long Term Solvency Analysis This analysis helps to check the capital structure of the company as well as it also check the leverage position of the company (Bull, 2007). Debt to Equity Debt to equity ratio shows the presence of overall long term debt as against the overall equity. Debt equity of Woolworth was 0.28 times in year 2015 and it further increased to 0.44 times in year 2016 that indicates company has become more leverage in year 2016 as compare to year 2015. On the other hand the debt equity ratio of Reece Limited was 0.17 times in year 2015 and it reduced to 0.12 in year 2016 reflecting payment of debt loan in year 2016. Debt to total assets This ratio provides level of debt as against the total assets. Overall analysis indicates that Woolworth contains satisfactory level of debt as against the total assets of the company. In year 2016 there is some increase in debt capital of the company. It can be said that long term solvency position of the company is acceptable despite of increase in debt capital in year 2016 because the level of debt was below 0.50 times of equity that indicates company is not highly leverage (Annual report of Reece Limited, 2016). Recommendations and conclusion On the basis of overall analysis I did not recommend to the company to invest in Woolworth Limited due to bad profitability position in year 2016 and poor liquidity position in both the years. References Annual report of Reece Limited 2016. [Online]. Available at: www.reecegroup.com.au/assets/Uploads/F2016-Reece-Limited-Annual-Report.pdf [Accessed on: 5 May 2017]. Annual report of Woolworth Limited 2016. [Online]. Available at: www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/investors/our-performance/reports/Reports [Accessed on: 5 May 2017]. Bull, R. 2007. Financial Ratios: How to use financial ratios to maximize value and success for your businesses. Elsevier. Sagner, J. 2010. Essentials of Working Capital Management. USA: John Wiley Sons.

Legal Studies free essay sample

With the very nature and fluidity of Family Law, many attempts at definitive meanings are met with a high degree of confusion even by the most learned minds. Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations. This can includes the establishment of family and domestic relationships, the rules for creating a union, right up to their termination or dissolution, and the subsequent issues related to this, such as alimony, child support, property division, custody etc. When the bliss of a marriage turns cold, there are many couples out there, or even individuals who believe that their marriage is beyond help therefore result in divorce. In a case of divorce there are many stakeholders who can be affected by the breakdown of a marriage. Your spouse is a stakeholder in your marriage, because it is his or her marriage also. But there are other stakeholders in your marriage as well; people who have serious investments of their own in your marriage. We will write a custom essay sample on Legal Studies or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Children under the age of 18 depend on their parents in every significant way, but besides the minor children, there are other stakeholders: adult children, parents and siblings, in-laws, and shared friends are the most typical. Divorce, as a legal issue includes an array of stakeholders, including the general public, judges, and politicians. One major stakeholder in this case is Tony Abbott. On July 10, 2009, Tony Abbott, the Opposition families and Aboriginal affairs spokesperson called for a return to the fault-based system of divorce that was discarded in 1975, to be replaced by a no-fault system. Mr Abbotts plan would see additional grounds for divorce reintroduced, including adultery, cruelty, habitual drunkenness and imprisonment. This proposal has been confronted with mixed responses. (Author Unknown, Should Australia retain no fault-based divorce? , 2009) Some have welcomed what they see as an attempt to address some of the shortcomings of the Family Law Act. Others have been highly critical of what they see as a return to an adversarial and unsatisfactory system. Although Abbott had introduced this plan in high faith that it would reduce divorce numbers, many have disagreed with this reintroduction, claiming that the current law has met society’s expectations.

Muslims are betrayed in the media Essay Example

Muslims are betrayed in the media Essay Example Muslims are betrayed in the media Essay Muslims are betrayed in the media Essay Name Lecturer Course Date Muslims Are Betrayed In the Media Numerous studies indicate that the media has a profound impact on public opinion. The media generally receives news of various social, political and economic events in order to relay them to the average viewer, listener or reader. However, the influence the media has on the public can be both positive and negative. With respect to the Muslim community, the British media has exercised more of a betrayal approach than a positive portrayal. This can primarily be blamed on the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks. The word Muslim has also been drawn out of context in most of the media reports and news. Negative reflections of Muslims make the headlines without taking into consideration that the stereotype is extreme. Muslims in the UK continuously complain of the marginalization and demonization they suffer from the media. One of the major stories that made headlines involved to Muslim brothers that were arrested in an inhumane manner. The media had projected the story setting the basis on the fact that they were both Muslims. Allegations forwarded by the police claimed that the two were plotting a biological attack. The raid did not consider their fundamental rights as members of the British society. The portrayal of the media for the two brothers was not a new approach towards terrorism and Muslims. Many Muslims have fallen victim of Islamophobia. This is a renewed concept in the British society and the entire western world. Terrorism and other related evils are strongly associated with Muslims. However, this perception does not take into consideration that terrorists can be of other religions. The reality is that terrorism is driven by extremists and not religion. One story in The Telegraph displayed how a man killed his two daughters in honor of Islam. The article played key focus on the fact that Yaser was Muslim, and it did not take any other consideration of him as a criminal. Muslim honor killing is stated to be the approach taken by Yaser in order to kill his daughters (Duell 3). The motive was that is daughters were dating non-Muslims. Consequently, the Muslim religion has been demonized in the story. The main emphasis of the story is that the religion drives individuals towards heinous crimes like those of Yaser. However, the Islamic religion is centered on principles of peace, understanding and tolerance. In addition, the story was tracing the man back to New York where he was a cab driver. When Muslims are generalized in such stories, public perception is inclined towards the focal point of the headline. The impact is that the public perception changes to consider Muslims as murderers who act in honor of their religion. Another article by the Mail Online displays the story of a man who killed his three daughters. The article headline played keen emphasis on the fact that the man was Muslim. The story states that the man had done the act in honor of Islam (Daily Mail Reporter). It was an action undertaken because the daughters were getting married to the wrong men. Shaffia was the prime suspect in the killing basing on the evidence that was found in the car. He had also called his daughters prostitutes for marrying the men and bringing him shame. The article also states that the Shaffia is not remorseful for what he did. The article once again uses the word â€Å"Muslim† in the headline just like other articles that have Muslim articles. This therefore highlights the role of the Islamic religion in the crime. It also states that it is an honor killing. The first presumption people would have is that it is in honor of Islam. The reality is that the man felt that his daughters had brought shame to his house. Therefore, the Islamic religion is not the main motivation for his killing. However, by reading the article headline one might easily resolve that Islam drove the man to murder the three women. Britain has become the central zone for terrorism in recent years. The controversial and disputed military campaigns overseas have seen the country at a higher risk of terror attacks and extremists. The dangers of terrorism have risen to unprecedented proportions since 2007. In addition to these statistics, the number of attacks and attempted attacks has also been on the rise. With these numbers on the rise, police have also increased their approach towards terrorism. They have launched the global war on terrorism. This has resulted to an increase in the number of arrests on suspected terrorists. In addition, the government created laws to detain the terror suspects to six months without any charges. The Trend Report and European Union Terrorism Situation have reported that terror related arrests in increased in the United Kingdom. In 2007, 203 suspects were arrested. This was 30 percent up from the year 2006. However, the article revealing the arrest of the two brothers highlights that the arrests are primarily based on people from Islamic states, religion and origin. The shooting of one of the brothers is also considered an infringement of their human rights. Since the 7/7 attacks, Muslims have been targeted by the police on suspicions of terror attacks. The arrests are carried out on Muslims without conceivable evidence. United Kingdom media has been extremely biased on reporting such arrests and approaches towards Muslims. The story on the two brothers is evident of the level of media bias. Various stories on the arrest made it look like the police had caught the real criminals. The headlines were broadcasted on both print and digital media. Therefore, many people were reached by the information conformed by the media. The entire audience followed what the media had relayed to them. Ultimately, the media shaped the perception that the two brothers were responsible for the terror attack. The media in England use various approaches towards relaying information to the public. One of the ways in which Muslims are demonized is through the omission of some critical information that is useful to the pubic (Bryfonski 45). When some information is omitted, people lack a proper understanding of the issue at hand. People draw their own conclusions on the story. This has been a common occurrence on issues related to Muslims and the image of their religion. For instance, the two brothers who were arrested were indeed innocent. However, after the police established this, they stated their remorse for the approach they had taken. This aspect of the story was not a major headline for most media houses. Consequently, the public were not made aware of the new findings. This selective approach by the media has also increased the level of Islamophobia in the United Kingdom and the rest of the Western world. The media has been a catalyst of the souring relations between the public and those of the Islamic religion. Muslims have therefore become victims of some overzealous sections in media entities. The terrorist definition of Islam has also been imposed blindly on Islamic communities that live in the United Kingdom. Ultimately, British Muslims have become disenfranchised and silenced. Sections of the media have been on the forefront to encourage that the Muslims should be overtaken by fringe elements. They whip up passions through the iconography of angry and extremist Muslims. However, this section of Muslims discredits the rest of England’s Muslim population. The Muslim community categorically rejects terror and violence. This rejection is particularly focused on issues of national interest and politics. Muslim groups in the United Kingdom have unreservedly condemned the 7th July terror attack in the UK. Those in the UK have also voiced their discontent for the act of terror. However, the media has failed in its responsibility to convey this message. It has failed to offer sufficient prominence towards the overwhelming condemnation of Muslims. There is lack of balance on these issues of terror and reflection of the Muslim community (Lewis, 56). The tragedy created by the media has also affected the way Muslims view themselves. Constantly, the reports from the media show only one side of the Muslim community. People of this religion feel marginalized in society. The media has redefined how Muslims view themselves as citizens in Britain. Many Muslims have been forced to propitiate prejudice from other people. However, the media and public perception make this task quite difficult. The imagery and headlines that are emitted almost on a daily basis from the media is the major hindrance towards creating a positive perception of the Muslims in England. The word Muslim makes the most headlines with respect to acts of terror in UK media. The initial approach was undertaken after the 9/11 and July 7 attacks. The media has been using the word to relate with negative issues and terror. However, it is interesting to note that people from other religions rarely have their religious inclinations in the headlines when they are engaged in criminal activities. The story of the two fathers who killed their daughters in the Mail Online and The Telegraph are a revelation of how the media associates evil acts with Islam. In addition, they are portrayed as guilty criminals even before undergoing trial in court. In 2006, the Sun Newspaper published an exclusive story about some criminal Muslim group in the UK. The report described in graphic detail the formation of a â€Å"Muslim hate mob† (Duell 4). The mob was stated to be involved in the vandalism of a house in Windsor. It was also perceived as a vendetta to stop British soldiers arriving from the Afghan war from renting the house. The newspaper formed the opinion that the Muslims were on a hate mission against British soldiers in the Afghan war. However, it was later established that Muslims were not involved in the crime. Evidence in the crime established that there was no Muslim involvement. These stories have been used by the media creating a sense of suspicion among the citizens. Many people relay on the media as their main source of information. Public perception is shaped by the information they receive from the media. With such stories, hostilities are bound to be created between the public and the Muslim community. The Sun created a sensational assertion that Muslims were responsible for the vandalism. With the wide readership it enjoys, there is little doubt that people become suspicious of the Muslims community. The story portrayed Muslims as the main source of trouble. Islamophobia denotes irrational fear, prejudice or hatred of Muslims (Bryfonski, 32). The concept has been growing in recent years especially in the Western world. In the UK it has increased since the 7/7 (July 7) attacks. Islamophobia has been blamed largely on the media in the United Kingdom. According to research majority of the people in the UK blame the media for Islamophobia. Islamophobia has become so dominant that it is slowly receiving acceptance in the society. However, this does not look into the fact that it is an infringement of human rights. Muslims are adversely affected as they have been discriminated in the social, political and economic aspects. However, the media in the UK is slowly hanging its approach towards the Muslim community. The realization that it is responsible for the increased Islamophobia has made the media reconsider its approach towards Islamic issues. Reports from media houses are also becoming positive and highlighting the plight of the Muslim community. Media houses are also establishing policies that will set an equal ground for all citizens in the UK. Action is also taken against media houses that portray negative images. For instance, the Sun was forced to retract its story on the â€Å"Muslim mob† by the Press Complaints Commission. In conclusion, the media is resourceful towards shaping and influencing public opinion. The stories that are relayed to the public are important. However, they should not be biased or target a particular section of society. The media in the UK is partly to blame for the negative perception of the Muslims. However, this can be remedied if the government and relevant authorities establish policies that will regulate the media. In addition, these laws must be applied and implemented with respect to the laws of the country. It is also the role of the public to question some aspects of media reports in order to make them accountable.

See instruction Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

See instruction - Term Paper Example The company expects less first year total revenue with the opportunity to increase revenue of second year exponentially because of Valentines Day sales (excluded in the first year due to April opening). The area will have nearly 1400 residents at the time of opening the Castleberry Hill. Studies indicate that a population of 9,000 is necessary to support a traditional retail florist and therefore it is important to point out that Shades of Blue will not be a usual retail florist. In the first three years of Shades of Blue’s development, the company will not depend on retail traffic, but will instead use advanced technology and smart marketing programs to target repeat buyers in more than 1,500 targeted businesses in Atlanta office buildings. The company’s business is to provide flower delivery services to customers who want to gift their loved ones with fresh flowers. Shades of Blue will target men who are more accustomed to spending money on loved ones. Shades of Blue is scheduled to open in April. The total space for the shop will be approximately 800 sq. feet. The shop will be located alongside the main street with one-fourth of the space would be allocated for retail use, and remaining space would be used for workspace and storage. At this time, there are no other planned florists in the Castleberry Hill that can act as a competitor. Free parking is available for the shoppers who visit the shop. However, majority of Shades of Blue’s revenue will be generated from routinely delivered floral arrangements outside of the Castleberry Hill area. Shades of Blue will be open for six days (Monday – Saturday), and will remain close on Sunday and on other public holidays. Hours of operation will be 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday - Friday, and from noon - 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hours might get extended during the holidays. The vision statement of the company informs the customers about the business of

Drug Patch Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Drug Patch Design - Research Paper Example NASA approached me to design this patch. The design I came up with in my mind was of a patch that could be worn by all astronauts and which would last at least for 60 hours so that less umber of patches would be needed. In my present project I will be studying and analyzing the rates of diffusivity in different skins while altering parametes such as diffusivity (D), thickness of membrane (L) and concentration of Scopolamine drug (Cp). The next layer would be the reservoir layer where a certain diluted concentration of the drug would be present. It must be remembered that the concentration is extremely important since even a slightly higher concentration would have serious deleterious effects (Parrott,p1).The layers beneath this would all be permeable such that they allow the drug to slowly diffuse out of the reservoir layer and travel up to the skin. Once the drug reaches the skin it would diffuse into the skin and enter the blood. Therefore a person wearing this patch would have a constant dose of a diluted form of the drug which would help one in overcoming motion sickness and perform duties efficiently. The patch I designed was tested a few times and recorded the values of skin thickness, diffusion rate, time and range of flux. While running the test simulations I studied 3 different test diffusivities and 3 different membrane thickness along with 7 different concentrations. All the tests run under the different test parameters helped me construct the graphs from where I obtained important conclusions. Looking at the graphs we can see that with time both concentration as well as flux gradually reduce and come to a zero. My patch that I finalized worked with all skins and concentrations. The main scope of the test stimulations was to come up with a patch design that would be beneficial for astronauts. Firstly it must meet the time criteria i.e. it should last for several hours. Secondly the concentration should be just right. If the drug

RR communications Essay Example for Free

RR communications Essay At RR communications, it is obvious there is a problem that needs to be handled if they are to avoid losing customers. The problem lies with the decentralized operations where each business unit has a mandate to operate independently. The business units have the power to make and implement new projects and make decisions without having to involve the whole firm. This has led to many problems such as customers complaining of having receipts for each of the four products offered by the company and would prefer having one receipt for all their transactions. Due to the division among departments, the company has been unable to meet reporting requirements for the Sarbanes Oxley Act. It has proved obvious that a shared IT service, which is standardized among all the units, is needed to ensure everything goes well. The first problem we see at RR Communications is that there is a definite lack of centralized and concise IT governance. Currently all of the separate functions of the company have their own individual leadership with no central leadership. For this reason, each of the sections takes actions and makes decisions based only on how it affects their own particular departments. There is no coordination to ensure that the act of one area does not negatively affect the rest of the firm. This in turn has led to a significant lack of uniformity across the organization, which is hurting customer relations. There are unified databases and each section maintains their own set of records; this is causing great frustration among their customers who continually have issues when dealing with more than one area. Much of the division of departments has been caused by a lack of central leadership. The CEO of the firm has failed to unify the department or assert any control over the individual IT vice presidents. Even though they reported to him, each had acted entirely independently. This continuous failure of leadership has caused the department heads to develop a sense of isolation and self-survival. Even though a new executive VP of IT has been appointed to bring unity to the firm, there has been severe resistance as each department feels it will suffer. The lack of centralized management for so long has caused significant discord between the departments that will take considerable effort to overcome. In addition, this company attitude has filtered down from the VPs to the middle and lower management creating an overall atmosphere that is dangerously disjointed. Even the suggestion of bringing together the database systems and management has caused a near  mutinous uprising and rejection of leadership. The current managerial atmosphere has been around so long, the attitude of individualism has been deeply imbedded in the corporate culture. While, individual thinking is useful to foster innovation and creativity, when the entire organization acts to satisfy only its individual requirements, the firm overall will suffer. Unless this attitude can be overcome, any attempt at bringing unity to the company will fail. From the technical standpoint, RR Communications is suffering from a severely fractured information management system. Every section of the company maintains its own individual customer databases, which are in incompatible formats. If a customer maintains relationships with more then one division, they get bills from each individual area. Customer issues often fail to get resolved because the departments do not communicate or share information. This is causing problems with diminished customer satisfaction. In addition, without a centralized database, full customer information and statistics are impractical to collect. In addition to suffering by not being able to collect detailed records, the company is facing regulatory issues by not being able to provide complete information on the company’s activities, and significant resources are being wasted to assemble simple reports. Currently management and associates at RR Communications believe that a collective solution is impossible, and any attempt to do so will cause them to suffer. While it may be true that the initial implementation of such a system will require a significant collective effort, the end result will be well worth it. It is also clear that much of the perspective of management is extremely short sided; projects are selected only based on a very narrow and limited benefit view with no regard for their long-term viability. As more and more systems have been patched together to fulfill immediate gaps, the overall collection of programs has become a cumbersome, inefficient, and unmanageable mess. A truly efficient system would be one that is all-encompassing and communicates across all facets of the organization to deliver a unified and fully integrated information system that can add real value to the firm. One other major issue at RR Communications is the proliferation of rouge projects completed without oversight or regard for how they will affect the firm. In a large company every project should be examined to determine how it could provide value to the organization before being launched. At RR  Communication projects are being launched that benefit only select areas and may in fact be causing a significant negative impact to the rest of the firm. The company currently does not have a steering or operating committee to oversee and exert control over these projects. Without any form of centralized control and governance, these rouge projects will continue to sabotage the effectiveness of the organization. Lack of common information and enterprise IT strategy has caused several problems for the business and the IT departments of RR communications. Customer service has suffered and customer dissatisfaction has grown. Lack of common information has made it difficult for management to monitor the businesses as a whole. Business units are unable to exchange information and remain unaware of the other divisions’ work. There is little sense of how the divisions work together to meet the company’s overall goals. The accounting problems make it difficult to present shareholders with accurate financial information, and the system is not cost-effective in any case. Furthermore, each division working at individual level to attain its success makes them rigid and unable to adapt to changing requirements; under these circumstances even the implementation of new technology will be extremely difficult. The organization cannot operate efficiently as a whole or at division levels, and the costs are bound to keep increasing. Analysis: As many annoyed customers can probably agree, being transferred from one department of the company to another over and over again to resolve a simple issue is one of the main reasons many companies lose customers. This is certainly an issue at RR Communications. The main cause of the problem seems to be the division of the different business units. This lack of unity is caused by a faulty commission system that rewards individual performance over company profit. The fact that the four CIOs refuse to work together and resort to sabotaging the efforts of the others, serves to show that they are more interested in their own selfish financial goals. While the president of the company may have been a visionary and brilliant entrepreneur, he lacked the managerial skills to recognize the need to have a unified commission system which would foster participation in a common goal, and thus a common  commission which is interdependent on all four business units would be most beneficial to the company. Unifying IT Resources The most important problem for RR Communications to correct is a significant deficiency of successful information management, reflected by the confused state of their customer information databases. Currently customer data is disbursed in separate databases for each section of the company, so that data from one department is not available to another. Thus, customers are forced to maintain relationships with multiple departments and receive billing from each. This separation means that valuable information resources are not being effectively utilized, hurting the firm’s productivity and efficiency. To improve the state of information capital at RR Communications, a complete overhaul of the current systems will be necessary, from both an IT and business standpoint. Information represents a vital asset to any company. This can be in the form of customer accounts, sales records, research development, financial statements, etc. However, in order to realize full benefits, the same information must be readily accessible by all individual units, so that the company can leverage it in the most efficient manner. The first step to correct the issues at RR Communications is to create a unified data architecture that combines all information resources into a central database that is accessible to all sections of the firm. By providing a centralized database clients will be better served by allowing complete access to customer records throughout the company. This will also improve reporting abilities, lower administrative costs, and greatly increase the value of information resources. To achieve the greatest benefit to the company, RR Communications could consolidate its data from multiple silos into a unified enterprise data warehouse (EDW) (Smaltz, 2011). This architecture provides multiple benefits including a single location for all information storage reducing the amount of duplicated efforts. This also greatly improves the integrity of data by providing a ‘single version of the truth’ (Smaltz, 2011). When data is spread throughout multiple databases, invariable some of it will differ. For example, a customer’s address may have been changed in one department but not another. These differences can prove costly to a company. A centralized EDW means that only one record should exist for each customer and reduce  data discrepancies. Having such a centralized system would also satisfy customer needs in a more efficient manner and would help to cross-sell products, which in turn would result in higher profits and more profit for the company. By allowing customers to have a single point of contact, and sharing information by standardizing software and databases across the organization, information will flow more freely and readily available thus giving the employees the ability to communicate in real time with accurate data and maximizing customer contact to increase profits. Having a decentralized IT function is not conductive to achieve an enterprise vision because by keeping the separate business units separated, it keeps pertinent information out of reach of other business units, and thus allows missed opportunities to maximize profit. Also, the lack of communication among the units creates chaos and disorganization in the organization and gives precedence to individual goals above company goals, which in turn will end up hurting the overall enterprise vision and may even spell the end of the enterprise altogether. Finally, having a decentralized IT function creates customer frustration such as in the case of getting several bills for different products. This frustration may cause the company lost customers and lost profits. Information Stewardship Information Management Policy The difficulty in implementing this solution is the current state of the databases scattered about the firm; many are in incompatible formats, so that significant effort will need to be invested to bring together all of this data into a single, shared IT service system accessible to all. In addition, not all data is equally valuable to each unit. Efficiency necessitates allowing employees access to the information that is most pertinent without inundating the various departments with extraneous details. For this reason, whatever IT solution is implemented must be able to adapt dynamically to the storage and retrieval needs of each department. Another challenge to creating a centralized system is the role of information stewardship. Information stewardship involves the ownership and control of information to reduce discrepancies and redundancies. To maintain the consistency and accuracy of data, information stewards need to be appointed. â€Å"Information stewards are businesspeople. They should be responsible for determining the meaning of information ‘chunks’ and their  business rules and contextual use. They should be responsible for the accuracy, timeliness, consistency, validity, completeness, and redundancy of information† (McKeen Smith, 2009, p. 76). A serious challenge to the consolidation of data at RR Communication will be consolidating all of the disparate information from around the firm into a single enterprise data warehouse. It is very likely that there will be duplicate information, conflicting records, incompatible data formats, and other inconsistencies that will not lend themselves to easy integration. However, the reduction in duplicate and conflicting information will be vital to the success of RR Communication. Duplicate data means an increase in administrative work and overhead, a nd conflicting and inconsistent information means the company is not performing at optimum levels. The reduction of duplicate data, or data deduplication â€Å"can improve the performance of virtual systems, reduce network traffic and cut the costs associated with data protection. In addition, deduplication allows backup data to be replicated more efficiently to other sites for disaster recovery† (Symantec, 2011). Duplication increases the amount of data a corporate network must process, reducing efficiency and increasing costs. Storage costs increase as the same information may be stored and backed up across multiple databases, again wasting resources. Finally, duplication of data significantly increases the amount of labor required to utilize it in any useful manner. Clearly, RR Communication will need a significant amount of data deduplication to create a useful, consolidated enterprise data warehouse. To facilitate the proper stewardship of information, an information management policy needs to be created that addresses these issues in a way that prevents such confusion and disarray. An information management policy will dictate the rules and guidelines for how information is handled, who is responsible for maintaining and updating it, and outline the policies and practices to do so (McKeen Smith, 2009). To begin to unravel the data mess at RR Communications they should define an encompassing information management policy that will effectively address the issues of what information is retained, who is responsible for updating it, how it is to be maintained, and who should have access to it. Critical to the success of this policy will be the involvement of management from all functional areas of the company. Each should be given the opportunity to contribute to the policy,  and each individual needs should be addressed. In addition, the problem with this solution will be gaining acceptance from the different functional areas of the business. There will obviously be conflicts of ideas and differences of opinion in how the policy should be created and enforced. To improve the effectiveness of the policy it needs to be thoroughly enforced from top management down. This means to gain compliance, RR Communications’ CEO needs to set the example and pressure all levels of management below to do the same. Another strategy to encourage the support of the divisional presidents for the shared customer service is by creating awareness that the free information flow would be beneficial for all and would simplify business processes, thus allowing then to increase their bottom line, and thus their bonuses. Finding opportunities to demonstrate small success would help show the support being given to the divisions. To aid in compliance, a large corporate training program should be initiated to ensure the policy is well known by all associates. Gaining compliance by all of the business areas will be the most difficult part of this solution; the ingrained attitude of self-preservation that exists at RR Communication will be difficult to overcome. However, change is not impossible, but only by dedication of management. The initial implementation period will be the most difficult, and if enforcement waivers the policy may fail. Creating Useful Information from Raw Data One characteristic of an enterprise system is ensuring seamless integration of a company’s information among all divisions, including financial and accounting Markus, M.L., Tanis, C. (n.d.). Hence, to achieve a successful enterprise system, a company must have its IT systems centralized to ensure information runs smoothly and is relevant among all divisions, especially the financial and accounting information. Considering the accounting problems brought up at the final meeting, the company obviously needs to implement a centralized IT function. Moreover, it will be far more expensive to have an enterprise system with a decentralized IT function, which is contrary to the aim of achieving an enterprise system. While a centralized information management system will indeed offer benefits at RR Communication, if there is no way to utilize and interpret that data, it is useless; this is analogous to being data rich and information poor. Just  because a company has loads of data does not mean that is fully informed. A company such as RR Communication collects vast quantities of data, but having the resources to convert that into useful information can be an extreme challenge. At RR Communication, they are facing a double-sided problem; they have neither a collective data warehouse, nor do they have any effective information management. Once the problem of centralization has been addressed, information management can be. One potential way to improve the use of massive amounts of data is using a metadata repository. A metadata repository functions much like the card catalog of a library; while it does not specifically contain the information, it provides an index of what is available, including the relevant points on what it contains, as well as a pointer to locate the information (Moss Brodie, 2002). This index provides an extremely valuable resource tool to quickly locate pertinent information. In addition, the metadata repository should be designed with the ability to hook into other systems that are developed to provide information to mother systems as necessary. Establishing this framework now will offer increased benefits as more systems are built off the central repository. Addressing Corporate Culture As seen in RR Communications, lack of common information and enterprise IM strategy can cause several problems to the business and the IT department. RR Communications has encountered serious customer service problems, due to lack of common information and enterprise strategy. In addition, lack of common information makes it hard for the overall management to monitor the businesses. Business units are unable to exchange information, and none is aware of the other divisions’ work. The company is not in a position to strengthen its brand since no divisions work together. To remedy this, a unification of the firm needs to take place from more than just an IT standpoint. The disjointed nature of the firm’s information assets reflects a deeper separation of the personnel at RR Communications. Departments work for their own ends with naught but passing concern for their effects on the company as a whole. This lack of cohesion manifests itself in the behavior of the CIOs, divi sional managers, and even the employees, and has resulted in the severe fragmentation of corporate culture. The fragmented IT systems are only a symptom of a much larger problem. Before addressing the IT  problems at RR Communications, the underlying culture of the business needs to be transformed. This begins at the very top, with the president of the company and the highest leaders; they need to be the first to set the example, and it is clear their current attitudes have set the company on the disastrous course it is on. Removing the CIO team which has hampered the company’s efforts at unification up until now was a good step, but serious considerations now need to be taken to prevent things from getting worse. Other associates could easily see firing the CIOs as a usurping of departmental sovereignty; however, they need to use this as an opportunity to show that the company can be brought together without sacrificing any of their needs. To capitalize on this opportunity the president and vice president should bring together the next level of management into a council of members to set the direction and culture of the firm in a way that promotes unity and mutual respect. This council should be responsible for creating and fostering an atmosphere that shows the benefits of the firm functioning as one. They need to prove to the management and associates that their departments will have a say in decisions, and their needs will not be overlooked. To improve the odds of acceptance, the council should be selected from leaders that have proven themselves as examples of good leadership and who are respected in the firm. Key to the success of this council will be keeping everyone on equal footing and ensuring that no one area is given preference over another, especially in the beginning. It is obvious that certain departments will have greater needs then others, and sometimes priority will need to be given to one area; however, if this behavior is present from the outset they will receive much resistance from the firm, as this will reinforce existing fears. Once a unity of the firm has been established, people will be more flexible to accept changes after they see the benefits. It will be up to the president and vice president as leaders to maintain these policies and be the example. As demonstrated in previous cases, the president has been lax in demonstrating himself as a leader and this could prove damaging to any such plans to unify the firm. Leadership must begin at the top, and the success or failure of a company often reflects the abilities of its leadership. Implementation Challenges The advantages of a shared IT system eliminate some of the above-mentioned  problems. A single centralized and standardized IT operating system will enhance quick decisions across all the departments, since all units will be looking at the same data. Furthermore, with a shared service, customers will not have to visit different databases for the same company; rather, all their queries and purchases can be done from one site that will serve them with all that they need from the company. Another advantage will be easy monitoring of the divisional units—their individual performances as well as their contributions to the whole company. Another advantage for the company will be the ability to monitor financial operations, since all operations will be reflected on one database centrally (Amces, 2010). To implement the shared service strategy, it will be important to seek support of the divisional presidents, considering they will be in charge of the units, which are the moneymaking branches. Their willingness to participate in the construction of the shared service will benefit the whole company. The first step to the implementation of this strategy will require assurances that it will benefit the whole company far more than the current system that is facing opposition from not only the customers but also other stakeholders such as the suppliers. In turn, since employees’ remuneration is awarded on performance, improved performance for the whole firm will be an added advantage. Since the divisional heads are used to being in control, it is important to remind them that having a shared service will not mean the imposition of decisions from above. Rather, the shared service will make the operations of the whole organization work in harmony for the purpose of easy monitoring customer convenience. They should be included as part of the implementation team, so they can offer input on what they may not want to change. For instance, many are worried they will have to do away with specific projects. Ensuring them that these projects will continue after implementation of the shared service would increase their support, as would helping them understand that the new, shared system will enhance the harmony and efficiency of whole organization; eventually they will come to see that their roles will remain mostly the same. Another way to improve the odds of success to a centralized data structure is by appointing a team to oversee the maintenance of the data warehouse fr om an enterprise level. Ideally the members of this team should be comprised of analysts from the important functional areas of the company. This can help gain buy-in from the company  due to the fact that the members of this team have already proven themselves to be knowledgeable and capable in their previous environments (Smaltz, 2011). In addition the benefit of incorporating these individuals is that individual departments will feel that they have representation in the new system, and that their interests are protected. This will increase the potential for global acceptance in the program. Another way to increase compliance with the new systems is to implement an incentive program that would drive associates to achieve the best results. Incentive programs drive people to reach specific targets by offering them tangible rewards beyond their current compensation. At RR Communications, an incentive program could be implemented to increase compliance and adoption of a new centralized system. For example, the company could offer monetary bonuses to departments that lower their operating costs using the new system the most. Another more abstract idea would be to have a small bonus program for departments that offer ideas to enhance the productivity of the system. Many of the departments have complained that a shared system would cause them to be overlooked; however, offering this type of inventive would both encourage them to make enhancements of the system while simultaneously demonstrating that their opinions count. Positive reinforcement, such as an inventive program, help gain the compliance of the workforce in a much more efficient way then punishment or negative reinforcement. There are governance mechanisms and metrics that can be used to encourage the implementation and use of a shared enterprise data system. The governance that needs to be put in place is the alignment of divisional units with the IT department. The metrics must be aligned with transparency to ensure that IT is in congruence with business operations. The governance mechanism should involve all departments focusing on regulatory issues, risk alleviation and opportunity enhancement. The metrics used should be concerned with making divisional data fit into an enterprise system. These metrics will identify areas of weakness and avenues of improvement. To quote an analogy, â€Å"Rome wasn’t built in a day;† and it will take significant time and effort to remedy all the problems at RR Communications. Close governance and metrics will aid in any improvement plan. Recommendation: It is evident that RR Communications need an intervention in its customer  service center. The lack of a centralized customer care center is making it hard to provide unified services to customers. More so, a lot of time is wasted by customers who have to be referred to different department for billing. Customers are forced to have several accounts with the company for each division since each division is held with its independent operations including billing (Smith McKeen, 2007). This makes it hard for customer care provision. Considering consumer service is very crucial for any business, RR Communications need a centralized customer service center. A centralized service center will have many benefits to the whole organization such as cost reduction, time saving, good management of customers’ data or information, and customer satisfaction. I recommend a centralized customer service center for RR communications for its advantages as predetermined below. The divisional IT service means having separate audits for every division. Having each division with an individual audit is expensive for the company since several auditors will be needed. Eliminating the divisions will save some costs that would otherwise be used for the services of the auditors at every division. With a single it department, data can be fed there and only one audit team will be required for the whole company. This also means reduced time for audits since with divisions audits have to be put together after each department has completed its audit (Smith McKeen, 2007). Coordination among the auditors will be efficient since information is collected from one point where all information concerning company accounts is stored. Therefore, having a centralized service center will enhance such operations across the whole organization. In addition, with a centralized customer service center as well as IT, it will ensure information is collected at one point making it easy to access information concerning any department from any point within the company without having to refer to the division in charge. Hence, for the auditors, complying with the set Sarbanes Oxley act will be easy since information about customer billing and accounts of the whole firm will be centralized ensuring accuracy. Having the customer service centralized enhances business operations and processes, ensuring best practices such as timely audits are realized. With data consolidated in one central place, information can be exploited to breed new opportunities for the company. When data is at one place for all the divisions, it is easier to have a broader picture  concerning how the divisions can create a new opportunities. Exploiting these opportunities jointly among the divisions is better than going individually. Moreover, security can be more enhanced with a shared service center since monitoring will be done by one entity. This will further reduce costs associated with having each division taking responsibility of storing and maintaining its own data. Considering that RR communications is currently having several softwares, consolidating information together for the whole company is hard. Smooth flow of information across departments to ensure easy sharing is vital; not only for the whole com pany, but for divisions too, considering information consolidation is a fundamental instrument for doing business. Consolidating the IT services to one centralized structure will require removing of service center hardware from each division to one central department that will mitigate risks and have a common structural design as well as policies that are easily reviewable for updating. A common security procedure will reduce risks associated with information breech. Through the same procedures and practices, the company can reduce file systems redundancy within the organization and enhance efficient document retention as well as reduce costs. Another reason to have one service center is to match the technical capacity of the company with its vision. At the current divisional independence, the divisions exploit their own visions that are not in congruence with the organization’s vision and mission. Considering the company’s vision is to have a consistent brand across all the divisions, it is necessary to have cross-shared services across all divisions to achieve this vision. The vision can be achieved through cross- sales of all the company services to its customers, as opposed to each department having its selling strategy. Having a shared sales service will serve to reduce the costs incurred when divisions do it individually hence creating a better chance for profit across all departments. Having a central service center will ensure that the overall vision of the company is followed since the central service center will be inclined towards the vision of the whole company. This way, each division can have a chance of benefiting form other divisions, hence the company as a whole (Smith McKeen, 2007). Having a single service center will allow easy outsourcing for the organization. Currently, businesses are outsourcing majority of their operations to other professional companies for reductions  of costs. With independent divisions and IT strategies for each individual division, outsourcing will be quite complicated. Having a central service center to oversee all requests will enhance efficiency as well as value. More so, through the consolidation of IT services and information at one common place will reduce security risks associated with outsourcing services. This will further ensure reliability and security of information. A consolidation of information and IT services will enhance cross-services for customers such as billing (McKeen Smith, 2011). The company divisions at current circumstance hold their information secret from each other, making it a competition within the divisions that raise the problem of billing where customers have to be referred to other divisions for other services. With the consolidated information, customers will only need to visit one department from which other information concerning other divisions can be met. This will improve the perception of their whole company as a brand and the standing of the company can be improved as well as customer satisfaction. There is need for the company to realize that in the current world information is one of the drivers of businesses, which all businesses need to survive. Having each division with its own information center reduces the chances of the company improving in the future since the harmonious climate needed among the divisions for this achievement is minimal. Having stipulated the advantages bound to arise or reasons why a central service center should be achieved, it is important to consider how RR can be able to implement this recommendation with ease and least resistance from the divisions. This is the first most likely problem to arise during implementation. Hence, the first step should be generating support form all divisions, which has been quite hard up to now especially from the managers who are self centered and concerned with their earnings that depend on their performance. The managers also have a negative attitude towards merging of information and data among the divisions through one central service. A three-point strategy can be used to gain their support. It includes financial strategy, mitigation of risks associated and compliance to regulation. Financial point can emphasize the advantages the shared service is bound to raise, which will for the benefit of all the divisions and organization as a whole. Risk mitigation will arise from security of information through monitoring by one entity in a standardized  way, while regulatory will be concerned with abiding to set accounting rules of the Sarbanes Oxley act which the company has been having problems with (Schwartz, 2007). The next step would be to lay out the vision of the company and show why it cannot be achieved with division of operations among the divisions. This will impart some reasoning among the leaders, and support fore all divisions should be ensured. The main aim is to make everybody in the divisions aware of the role they will play and their stake to ensure thee is compliance and acceptance of the strategy to build a one services center (McKeen Smith, 2011). One of the problems that could arise after implementation of a shared service center is ease of adoption. Some employees who have been used to the old system will require to be trained how to work harmoniously with a single service center. Many will be required to handle more information concerning not only their divisions, but also other divisions. Hence, there will be need to have them trained to provide a central service to the customers. Another problem would arise for the culture set by the independent divisions prior to the implementation of a single service center. The current culture is of rivalry among the divisions considering they have been competing among themselves. Killing the culture will be a little hard. To deal with the problem the company will have to sta rt early through brining people together and coming up with tasks that can be incorporated in all divisions that allows all members to interact. The shared tasks will enhance cooperation among the different divisions. Conclusion RR is having problems because of lack of a common service center. All divisions are held with their own operations that aim at achieving divisional goals at the expense of corporate goals. The company is lacking a strong unified brand to sell to customers since all divisions are accounted for independently. This has made it obvious that a shared service will be the best for solving these issues. RR needs to put in place an alignment of their IT services with the business units. Transparency must be encouraged and joint responsibilities of IT ad businesses to achieve shared service center (smith McKeen, 2007). The company should also have a common enterprise vision for their systems. All the departments should be included with emphasis on joint business opportunities and risk mitigation. The top  management should be in forefront to creating an atmosphere of improvement continuously with a key focus on customer service to ensure the shared service center is successful. References McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2009). IT Strategy; Issues and Practices (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2011). IT Strategy; International edition (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Moss, L., Brodie, M. (2002, July). Data Rich, but Information Poor? Retrieved October 26, 2011, from Information Management: http://www.information-management.com/issues/20020701/5341-1.html Schwartz, K/D. (2007). IT Governance Definition and Solutions. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/111700/IT_Governance_Definition_and_Solutions#what Smaltz, D. H. (2011, July/August). Are You Leveraging Your Data or Is Your Data Leveraging You? HIT Exchange , pp. 8-9. Smith, H. A., McKeen, J. D. (2007). Shared Services at RR Communications. Queens School of Business. Symantec. (2011, May 2). Deduplication and Efficient Data Storage. Retrieved October 26, 2011, from PR Newswire 1. List the advantages A single customer service center will yield both financial and human resource savings for RR Communications by eliminating the allocation of duplicated resources to the multiple divisional and regional customer service centers. With valuable resources freed from these multiple customer service centers, the company will be able to allocate more resources to its value added activities and improve operational efficiency. RR Communications run four divisions, each with a distinct but a complimentary product. They are internet, mobile, landline, and cable TV service. There is a deregulation in the telecommunications industry and its becoming a norm for competitors to offer multiple services like RR Communications. RR Communications’ customers  have been complaining about double billing because the four divisions have no working collaboration and thus, no way of knowing when the other division may already have sent the bill. A single customer service center will consolidate the da ta of the customers of all divisions and by addressing the problem of inaccurate billing, it will potential save the loss of dissatisfied customers to the competitors. A single service center will also yield growth opportunities by marketing the company’s other services to customers that they may not already have and offer discount incentives on the purchase of multiple products. A single customer service center will allow comparison among the company’s divisions in terms of product quality, customer satisfaction, and retention rates so that more resources could be allocated to troubled areas. A single customer service center will also make it easy to gather data about the company’s divisions and store them in standard formats for management analysis. By having access to all the relevant information about the customers, the customer service center will be better able to address customers’ questions and market company’s products which would not have been possible with separate customer service centers. It will also be convenient for the customers to call only one place for all their questions and thus, will increas e goodwill for RR Communications. 1. Is it possible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function? The answer to this question really depends on what the meaning or intention is behind the idea of an enterprise vision. If this simply means of having certain departments existing and able to complete their tasks and accomplish their goals, basically that the enterprise is functioning, than the answer is certainly. As demonstrated in the case study, there were multiple divisions for IT that were each doing their own thing, and while it wasnt pretty, compatible or optimal, everything did, technically, work allowing each department to function. As soon as the vision of an enterprise expands to a desire to work more efficiently, unify tools and platforms, have stronger compatibility or be one company a decentralized IT function becomes a massive hindrance. Turning to the case study again, each department was replicating the efforts of the other departments by finding their own software/data vendors, creating unique database systems and having their own support staff. This not only made it difficult for clients who  needed assistance, but meant there was excessive spending, and an inability for multiple departments to come together to function as a a single entity within the enterprise. 2. What business and IT problems can be caused by lack of common information and an enterprise IM strategy? There are numerous business and IT problems that can arise from the lack of common strategy. In terms of IT there can be duplication of efforts, systems and tools leading to not only multiple expenditures to yield the same results, but this may mean there is no strong outline of how systems are set up or designed, there may be no map detailing the hardware and software in place, which makes it far more difficult to not only run inventory, but ensure that new expenditures are needed and not (again) duplicating tools that have already been purchased or implemented. When different software and hardware solutions are used across departments, this also leads to difficulties in compatibility. When the organization wants to implement something new, it would be difficult if not impossible to determine if it can be integrated into the existing tools, or this may result in unanticipated technical errors arising from compatibility issues. Business problems stem primarily from an inability of data to be effectively shared across groups, thus limiting the ability of various departments to work together. Not only could this cause rifts to form between various groups, but it also means that there could be issues with data consistency. This is especially troubling for client data, as a change in one department may not be updated elsewhere due to data being stored in different databases, the inability for data to be updated across databases, and even opens up the potential for technical errors causing data that is normally consistent to suddenly become dispar ate from similar data elsewhere. Additionally, when the business requires technical assistance it is likely to be difficult to find the correct person with the knowledge needed to resolve a particular issue if that department is using specialized systems that are not consistent across the organization. 3. What governance mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure common customer data and a shared customer service center? What metrics might be useful (think service level agreements, etc.)? Common customer data will require a standardized database, as well as regular auditing procedures to ensure that data is only being modified/updated by those individuals who are supposed to have access, as well as verifying  accuracy for these modifications. Customer service really depends on the objectives of the company. I worked on an inbound phone line at a call center for 3 years while this was technically brokerage service, arguably it was a cutomer service center. Training had to be farily comprehensive so we could assist clients with almost any issues they had, and on top of that reps have to know what departments specialize in certain topics in case they need help figuring out what happened or resolving a complicated problem. On top of that, there is regular review and QA of random c alls to ensure representatives are giving correct informaton and assisting the client based on the standards and expectations set by the organization. Call reviews are measured on a scale where there are certain objective actions that are required on every call, then measured more subjective terms such as professionalism. I work with a tremendous amount of shared customer data, and everything is monitored, recorded and subject to audit procedures. There is always the abilty to find out who did what, when, and every phone call is recorded and maintained for a period of time. This of course protects the client as much as it helps protect the firm. As far as data is concerned, I dont know if there are specific service level agreements in place, but I do know that there is regular testing of what is referred to as host fallback where all the primary systems are taken down for a period of time, then brought back up. While this is frustrating for reps and clients who need access to the data, the very small number of times I experienced an unscheduled outage the backup systems performed well, all reps knew how best to work within the confines of the backup system, and the discussion with clients about why certain things could not be done went far more smoothly than if regular testing was not performed. The case study this week describes the classic example of an organization which is heavily decentralized into distinct lines of business (each with its own IT group) that realizes their need for a flexible and responsible IT function, a common view of the customer, and the elimination of redundant systems