The Influence of Technology in Business Essay Example for Free

The Influence of Technology in Business Essay Technology has changed the way the world operates and conducts business. I remember walking into an office and being impressed at how cool the receptionist was by instant messaging the person I was there to see to let them know I had arrived instead of picking up the phone and ringing their office. She received an immediate reply to have me seated and said the he would be right with me. What was really happening is that he was on a phone call but was able to multitask more efficiently due to the instant messaging software, filling the need for instant gratification. That was well over ten years ago. Today, managers can hold global staff meetings and significantly cut costs with regard to travel and expense accounts while fulfilling the new trend of being â€Å"green†. Much of corporate America now has people in telecommuting programs, and the number of people involved is continually growing. Information sharing is faster and more convenient than ever before. You never have to leave your home or book a flight out to acquire information or survey a property or even meet clients thanks to teleconferencing where you can see the other person virtually face-to-face. While there are many advantages to the new virtual office up rise there are challenges as well. Many businesses find one of the biggest hurdles in setting up the virtual office is the responsibility of providing technical support. Whereas, technically proficient employees usually improve their skills while learning on their own, those that don’t understand computers can end up costing much more because of support costs. Interestingly, IT departments are behind the virtual workplace curve: As employees overall are increasingly distributed geographically (more than 90% work someplace other than headquarters), IT departments are increasingly centralized. Telecommuting is actually considerably rarer in IT departments than in the workforce at large, (Johnson, J. , 2009). This may be causing them to miss out on a revolution that the rest of the company may be experiencing. Another hurdle that companies must face is that they must evaluate virtual workers without directly supervising them. To do this successfully, the employee must be evaluated on the quality, quantity, and timeliness of the work as opposed to the hours involved, so it is imperative that the work be specific and measurable (Roman H. Kepczyk, 1999). The demand for the virtual office is on the rise and will continue to develop and progress as companies realize the significant savings impact it can have on their budget and the increase in productivity it has been shown to have. From the employee’s perspective it also saves them money by not having to commute and buy lunch, therefore, increasing their retained income. They are more engaged due to the lack of interruptions by colleagues such as those present in a brick and mortar office setting and typically, employees use less sick leave when working from home. Reduced stress levels and a more productive and balanced lifestyle contribute the employees level of job satisfaction. An employer can save around $5,000 on cubicle and office equipment for just one employee. Telecommuting is the same thing as operating a virtual office. An employee can work from home but still communicate effectively with managers and colleagues. Employees may create a sort of â€Å"social working network† to compensate for the â€Å"water cooler† action they may miss from having human contact at the office. Judy Duplisea, a regional vice president for the company CheckFree, lives in Canton while other members of her sales and client relationship staff live in Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, and New York. They work out of their houses, connected by computers, fax machines, and conference calls in a virtual office. My group is probably tighter now than any of the groups that I was working with in regular offices, Duplisea said. We go out of our way to stay in contact with each other. You can get real lonely if you dont (Cindy Krischer Goodman, 2010). The advances in technology and business will increase the rate of global expansion of companies in general. Not having to budget money for international travel or physically exhaust employees with the act of actually traveling but being able to conduc t business effectively in over seas markets is a huge benefit to any company’s the bottom line. While business relationships should still incorporate some kind of human one-on-one contact with their clients and colleagues, businesses can communicate more effectively and more often, globally and domestically, with the increasing technological advances available to them. Clients, colleagues, suppliers and the like, are more than just a telephone call away, they are a teleconference, an email, and quite recently as demonstrated in the last presidential campaign on CNN, a hologram away.

Phishing :: Computer Hacking Scams

Phishing The Oxford pocket dictionary defines phishing as the activity of defrauding an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company. This is what phishing is known for now in today’s internet driven world but it was not always the case. Phishing actually predates computers. Some people did it over the phone for years and they called it social engineering. So why would someone think of phishing some one? There is a simple reason: to exploit people. These people are commonly known as scam artists. What these phishers normally do is send out millions of scam emails posing as something or someone who they are not. Normally they hope for a few people who received the email to respond to them by clicking the fake website and provide them with financial and or personal information. Also, anyone who has an email address is at risk of being phished. People can increase their risk of being targeted if their email is posted on a forum or website. The people phishing can also get many more email addresses by using a spider. A spider is something that searches through many websites and saves an innumerable number of email addresses, every one it can find. So in a nut shell, phishing is very profitable for criminals because, they can attain millions of email addresses and potentially set them up for an attack at relatively no cost to themselves (Be al, 2006). There are some key factors and elements that one needs to help recognize if they are being phished. This scam often has three key elements or factors that will come about when someone is planning an attack. First, when checking your email and look to see who the email is sent from. It will often be from a legitimate company’s address. If the email address looks suspicious then be wary, but this is an easy obstacle for phishers to climb over. It is very quick and easy for someone to change the â€Å"from field† in most email clients to trick the person receiving the emails. Second, the email almost always will contain very similar images or logos that have been copied off of the real company’s website. Third, upon opening the email, it will have a link along with text saying you should click the following link to make sure the personal information is correct. When trying to determine if you are part of a phishing experiment, there are many little things you mig ht want to notice.

Pttls Level 3 Assessment 4

HABC LEVEL 3 PTLLS Assessment 4 By Andrew Townsend 28 December 2011 HABC LEVEL 3 PTLLS Assessment 4 Townsend 1 Explain the three main types of assessments used and fully explain how you conduct, or could conduct, an initial assessment of learners. The three main types of assessment are Initial, Formative and Summative Assessments. Each form of assessment is equally important each serving a differing purpose and each used in differing ways. The Initial assessment is the means in which to gather information about the learners and to not only assess their ability to complete the course that they are taking part in, but to enable the teacher to plan the structure of the sessions required. It also assists the Teacher to decide the pace and pitch of the sessions as well as the choice of resources to use to gain the best out of the Learner. The method most commonly used is the Pre-course Application Form / Questionnaire. This enables the teacher to assess the learner’s standard of written English and understanding. It also enables them to asses previous academic experience, in terms of qualifications already attained and will also tell the teacher when the learner was last in an educational environment. The Application form / Questionnaire can also be backed up by a telephone call. This would enable the teacher to assess the learner’s spoken communication skills. The information collected during the initial assessment should allow the learner to: †¢Be placed on an appropriate pre-vocational or vocational learning programme which matches their skills, knowledge and abilities. Work towards a level of qualification which is appropriate to their level of skills, knowledge and ability. †¢Be placed in work in an appropriate occupational area, where this is relevant to the learning programme. †¢Have all their learning and support needs identified, to enable a comprehensive individual learning plan to be designed. (Department for Education and Employment Good Practice Series †˜Initial Assessment of Learning and Support Needs and Planning Learning to Meet Needs May 2001 p10). ‘The formative assessment is a continuous method of assessment that is conducted throughout the course of tuition. (Morley and Wordsworth. PTLLS made easier. Nov 2010 p92). As a session progresses, the teacher must be able to assess that the learners have understood what they have been taught at each stage. Without continual assessment there is no way of judging whether the learners are able to move on to the next stage. The assessments can be conducted using various means such as oral question and answers, multiple choice questions or group tasks or exercises. The assessments used will enable the teacher to make an informed decision whether or not to carry on, or to re-teach and confirm as required. Often the size of the group will govern the methods that the teacher adopts to carry out formative assessment. The use of question and answers often takes time, particularly if asking each and every learner either one or two questions. In this situation it would be easier and more productive to introduce multi-choice questioning in the form of a game. For example issue each learner with a set of cards labelled A, B C and D. When a question is asked each student can HABC LEVEL 3 PTLLS Assessment 4 Townsend 2 then respond accordingly with what they consider to be the correct answer. This enables the teacher to examine all students at the same time, as well as being able to correct, if necessary the learners that have given the wrong answer. In the practical scenario formative assessment enables the learner to practice what they have learned without the pressure of a formal examination and if errors are made, then they can be rectified during the session. If several of the learners are making the same error, it enables the teacher to re-teach as required. ‘A summative assessment is a final confirmation assessment that is conducted at the end of the session or course. This type of assessment assesses all aspects of the teaching and normally, for a theory session, takes the form of a written examination. ’ (Morley and Wordsworth. PTLLS made easier. Nov 2010 p93). This enables the teacher to ask questions about the entire course in a logical order and being a written examination, once it is marked, it can be graded then filed and stored as a record of the learners progression. When used following a practical session the formative assessment would take the form of the learner carrying out the newly taught skill from beginning to end, under examination conditions without interference from the teacher. I would use a pre-course application form in order to conduct an initial assessment of learners. A well thought out and written application form would enable me to gain vital information about the learner and plan the course of study to best utilise their potential. The application form would enable me to collect the following vital information about the learner: Career preferences and suitability. Qualifications and achievements. Aptitude and potential. Prior learning and experience. Basic skill needs. Key skill needs. Learning difficulties. Interests. Learning style. Job role. Personal effectiveness. Personal circumstances which may affect learning. (Department for Education and Employment Good Practice Series ‘Initial Assessment of Learning and Support Needs and Planning Learning to Meet Needs May 2001 p39). Explain how you utilise assessment methods. Prior to any course of study I would send out a pre-course application form to all learners in order to gain as much information as possible to enable me to plan the course of study accordingly. The responses received would enable me to ensure that the learning was set at the right level for each learner to gain as much as possible from the learning and enable them to reach their individual learning goals. HABC LEVEL 3 PTLLS Assessment 4 Townsend 3 As the training progressed I would utilise formative assessment throughout the learning process. E. g. Having taught a practical element of the course, such as CPR, it is very important to make sure that the learner is able to carry out the procedures correctly. It enables me as the teacher to see whether the teaching method used is working or whether changes may be required. I would also employ formative assessment in the form of Questions and Answers or maybe even games to not only help me assess the effectiveness of the teaching, but to help me as the teacher to further embed learners functional skills. E. g. In First Aid there are several basic formulae/ratios that require to be learnt to enable the learner to carry out life saving procedures, such as 30:2 (the number of compressions to rescue breaths required to successfully carry out CPR. These various formulae also lend themselves very well to the use of multiple-choice questions. At the conclusion of a three day First Aid at work course a formal summative assessment is compulsory in the form of multiple-choice examination papers and practical examinations. This allows the learner to prove that they have reached the standard required, which in turn enables them to be certificated as qualified in First Aid. Summative assessment also enables the teacher/training organisation to keep records of the learners’ achievements for further reference, particularly if the learner wishes to progress further. Explain the importance and the requirement of keeping records, including those relating to assessment. Record keeping forms a crucial part of teaching; the majority of records that would be kept are summative assessments. These are often paper examinations, or audio/ video recordings. Other forms of records that are required to be kept are teaching logs, application forms and funding documentation. Records can either be paper-based or data-based; both forms require an adequate storage facility that is secure and monitored. There are several reasons why records need to be kept, such as a requirement from a college, OFQUAL or an awarding organisation, such as HSE. Records show standardisation, meeting of criteria and form a vital part of the audit chain. OFQUAL, colleges and awarding organisations employ quality assurance officers to check training provider’s records. There is normally a stipulation that they are kept for three years. The other benefit of record keeping is that you have something to reference should a past learner enquire about a previous course of tuition. They may have lost their certificate and require a duplicate copy for their records. (Morley and Wordsworth. PTLLS made easier. Nov 2010 p97).

Analysis Of Where I m Calling From - 1011 Words

Thesis Statement: In Narration and Interiority in Raymond Carver s Where I m Calling From, Claudine Verley analyzes the narration in the short story and used it to deduce the character traits of the story s protagonist. Verley states that the setting in â€Å"Where I’m Calling From† shows that Carver also struggled to overcome a drinking problem. In the short story, there is no personal detail of the narrator. The narrator’s name remains a mystery, except for the fact that he is separated from his wife while at the same time he is not interested in his girlfriend (Verley 91). Verley thinks that Carver decided not to share any details of the narrator because he wants to escape his identity rather than reinforce it. Also, since there is no equivalent life-force in the narrator’s existence, this shows that he remains alone at the end, and thus making the claim that alcoholism is essentially inexplicable (Verley 91). There is an implicit comparison between the narrator and J.P and the narrator is constantly reminded of his personal adventures through Joe Penny’s narration (Verley 91). Joe Penny is a man in his thirties and he is also an alcoholic. In the story, the nar rator empathizes with Joe Penny because he is just like him. Joe Penny possesses an element that is in common with the narrator, an element that is beyond their alcoholism and presence at the rehabilitation facility. Joe Penny was dropped off at a rehabilitation center by his father-in-law and he tells aShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Where I m Calling From By Raymond Carver2284 Words   |  10 PagesArtapong Intapatana September 16, 2014 English Literature: Critical Thinking and Composition Prof. Jennifer Smith Where I’m Calling From Analysis â€Å"Where I’m Calling From† by Raymond Carver is a short story about a man’s struggle with Alcoholism, and his encounters at a drying-out facility or treatment center. 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