How Technology Has Change Our Lives Essay

Throughout the years technology is in constantly changing. It’s almost impossible just to think how different the technology was. I noticed how rapidly the technology change in our classrooms. For example, a video recorder or a side projector is almost obsolete now in days. We can now rely on most efficient technology. There are some good sides to this, for example we are no longer held captive by the prime-time schedules of a handful of networks. Now, with cable, internet and DVRs, we don’t have to wait for our favorite shows. Now we can go back and watch an entire seasons that we may have missed the first time around Social media has been for me the most important change; because, we depend on them as a way of communicate nowadays. Websites like twitter and Facebook have given birth to the new concept of social media marketing. From chat rooms, Messenger, Myspace and social dating has changed the way we are communicating, Instead of sending letters to respective destinations, it is very easy to send an email which will be received instantly. Along with these social sites, the way that people put themselves in the internet has now more impact in others than it did ten years ago. I think we underestimate the power of social media. Now days whatever you put on any social site is for the entire world, and is likely to be for a long time in the future. Family, friends, new bosses and co-workers, potential clients and business partners, prospective love interests they’re all checking you out. How you present yourself in the province of social media can change your life in ways you never thought possible for better and for worse. Read more:Â  Technology Changed Our Lives

Binary numeral system

In many different characters encoding systems one byte is used to represent a single alphanumeric character such as a letter, number or a symbol like One of the most common system is ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange, another common character encoding system is ANSI – American National Standards Institute, the two although aren't compatible with each there with ANSI being used in early Windows Applications and ASCII is used even in the resent with simple text editors such as Notepad. M sure you have probably come across UNICODE depending on how familiar you are with terminal, Unicode is an extended version of ASCII. Graphics are stored in two ways, either ‘bitmaps' or ‘vectors'. Bitmaps are made of colored squares called pixels; one pixel is equal to 1 byte. A Peculated image is a term used to describe images that are enlarged too much and pixels start to become visible.Vector images work a little different, as hey are made up of lin es drawn between plotted co-ordinates, these shapes can then be filled with blocks of a single color, vectors therefore can be enlarged without becoming peculated and their file size is often much reduced then bitmaps because there is less information to be stored. Human use numbers in groups of 10, which is called ‘denary' or base 10, computer store either 0 or ones so only two values, which is called binary or base 2. Numbers in binary look like this: 01011011=91 Depending if it is a O or a 1 the number is used so the top sample is. 28 64 32 16 8 4 10 (64+16+8+2+1=91) Another method computers use to encode numbers is in hexadecimal or base 1 6, this method is usually used to represent color values, very comment in programming or web development. It is uses number from O to 9 and letter from A to Foot represent 10 to 15. 123456789ABCDEF These are very often in image editing , the color white is represented as #PAYOFF, the â€Å"#† isn't part of the hexadecimal number i t is just used to identify that the number is an hexadecimal number. Encoding recap: Encoding is basically done by pairing numbers or letters with different harassers.ASCII simply converts the number â€Å"2† to its equivalent in ASCII let's say 16, and this is then converted to binary, but bare in mind that 16 in binary is 00010000 where as what it would do is convert â€Å"1† and â€Å"6† to binary. Same happens with letters and special characters. And this is pretty much how encoding works, it is used in order too make the computer understand your input and to help you then understand what the computer outputs since if you would see 010101101 all over the screen would be odd as humans aren't naturally good with numbers.

Fresin Fries Bussiness Plan

Company Summary What is Fresin Fries? Fresin Fries sells  gourmet fries in a cone  with a   choice of sauce. We use the concept of Belgian Fries, where the fries are all made from fresh potatoes and fried twice. Our outlet also provides excellent and friendly customer service to support the ambience of fun, energetic and youthful lifestyle. Youthful and fresh surroundings We will imitate  successful establishments, such as Jamba Juice and Starbucks, which represent the majority of our core target market, between 18 to 35 years of age. Our store will feature display cooking of our featured Belgian Fries from cutting to frying. Our customers will also be able to read our in-house brochures in regards to all knowledge about Belgian Fries and our featured sauces. Our store will be decorated with fast food setting, such as a bright counter and display menu on the wall. Quality food Each  store will  offer nothing but freshly fried Belgian fries, sandwiches and variety of unique blend sauces, all served with old-fashioned home-style care. Open everyday Our store is open everyday from 10 am to 9 pm. Variety, variety, variety A different selection of sauces will be featured every three months and we will also change our Italian soda flavors to accompany our fries. . 1 Company Ownership Fresin Fries is a privately held company. It will be registered as a Limited company, with ownership 25% – Guy Fry, 25% – Sam Sauce, 25% – Carl Cone, 25% – Harry Hip. Guy Fry and Sam Sauce have more than 10 years of experience in the food industry. Both are currently employed as Corporate Staff of Co mpany A. Sam Sauce holds an MBA degree from University V. A true entrepreneur by heart, his latest entrepreneurial project is a diamond store in the heart of Singapore. Guy Fry holds a BA degree in Graphic Design from the Academy of Arts. His projects are widely varied from product design to brand development of several reputable companies. Harry Hip holds a MS degree from Institute Y. He completed several projects and served as project manager for multi-national companies in Singapore. Carl Cone holds a BS degree from University Z, majoring in Management and Information Technology. Prior to his return to Singapore, he has held several management positions in a U. S. -based IT company. 2. 2 Start-up Summary The retail outlet will be rented at one of the target location shopping malls. Our preference is Space A, for the main reason of reaching larger traffic. Startup requirements will be financed through owner investments. [pic] [pic] [pic] |Start-up | | | | |Requirements | | | | | |Start-up Expenses | | |Kitchen and Fixtures |$21,600 | |Furniture and Interior |$16,500 | |Legal |$3,000 | |Rent |$15,000 | |Packaging and Stationary |$8,500 | |Contingencies |$4,200 | Total Start-up Expenses |$68,800 | | | | |Start-up Assets | | |Cash Required |$50,000 | |Other Current Assets |$0 | |Long-term Assets |$0 | |Total Assets |$50,000 | | | | |Total Requirements |$118,800 | 2. 3 Company Locations and Facilities Fresin Fries locations will range in size from 50 – 70 meter square and will seat from  15 –  25 guests. Our first location will be on the larger end of this range. The location will feature its own originality in merchandise display and other brand building attributes. We will equip the outlet with modern furniture and  aim for  cleanliness  and an  open feeling. We are currently looking at several possible sites in shopping malls along Orchard Road. The space selection will be chosen based upon the following criteria: †¢ Community size: minimum of 800,000 people within a radius of 8 kilometers. †¢ Tourist destination. †¢ Easy access. †¢ Large percentage  of teenagers in the community. All of these qualities are consistent with Fresin Fries' goal of providing a top quality fast food experience. We want â€Å"word-of-mouth† to be our best form of marketing, where our customers value our brand as something exciting and cannot wait to tell their friends and neighbors. Fresin Fries will directly compete with several fast food joints inside the chosen shopping mall,  including Tori-Q (yakitori specialist), Bee Che Hiang (chinese sausages), Bread Talk (one of the most successful bakery franchises), and Pizza Walker (locally owned pizza chain). Products We want to focus only on selling fries. Alcoholic drinks will not be sold in our outlet, as Fresin Fries promotes a healthy and positive Singaporean lifestyle. Instead, we will offer Italian Soda  to complement the fries. In promoting  the  Fresin Fries  lifestyle, we will offer various merchandise  with our logo and colors, from hats to t-shirts to potato cutters to our signature sauces, so that our customers can enjoy Fresin Fries at home. Our signature sauce is exclusively manufactured by Company Q. They can be also purchased at selected retailers. 3. 1 Product Description Fresin Fries primarily sells fries and our  unique dipping sauces. Main products sold are: Belgian fries, Italian sodas and corporate merchandise. Belgian-style fries are available in large (choose 2 dips), small (choose 1 dip), with addition of garlic Fresin (add S$0. 25). The dips for Belgian style fries can also be served with sandwiches; they  are available in more than 20 flavors: †¢ Pesto Mayo †¢ Satay Sauce †¢ Teriyaki Sauce †¢ Thai Chili Ketchup †¢ Creamy Wasabi Mayo †¢ Roasted Pepper Mayo †¢ Lava Cheese †¢ Black Pepper Sauce †¢ Curry Ketchup †¢ Barbecue †¢ Jalapeno Ketchup †¢ Caribbean Islands Traditional Sambal †¢ Korean BBQ †¢ Hot Chili Sauce †¢ Garlic Dip 3. 2 Competitive Comparison Fresin Fries has several advantages over its leading competitors: †¢ Unique â€Å"fusion† concept of dipping sauce. †¢ We expect a high degree of enthusiasm and offer a fun store with friendly staff , that reflects the company's youthful and energetic culture. †¢ Supporting merchandise items that support the company's brand building. †¢ Our fried potato is made 100% fresh, compared to most fast food outlets that use frozen fries. †¢ Our dipping sauce is also made fresh without preservatives. Our innovative packaging will be more entertaining than our competitors; a single cone with a cup reserved for dipping sauce. |Company | | | |2005 |2006 |2007 |2008 |2009 | | |Potential Customers |Growth | | | | | |CAGR | |Young Singaporeans |15% |5,000,000 |5,750,000 |6,612,500 |7,604,375 |8,745,031 |15. 00% | |Working Singaporeans |10% |3,000,000 |3,300,000 |3,630,000 |3,993,000 |4,392,300 |10. 0% | |Tourists |20% |3,800,000 |4,560,000 |5,472,000 |6,566,400 |7,879,680 |20. 00% | |Total |15. 52% |11,800,000|13,610,000|15,714,500|18,163,775|21,017,011|15. 52% | 4. 2 Target Market Segment Strategy Fresin Fries intends to cater to the bulk of teenagers and youngsters in Singap ore. We have chosen this group for several important reasons. It is our goal to be â€Å"the extraordinary fast food place† and we believe that the age group from 15 to 25 is the primary age where brand building efforts could take place. They are on limited or fixed incomes and seek a value/price relationship that will not stretch their budgets. Our secondary target is  between the ages of 25  and 37, which are a heavy lounge/restaurant user group. They are more flexible in budgets and seek more than a value/price relationship. Our lunch strategy is dual purposed. First, we are featuring fresh fries to fill Singapore's craving for fast food as most ideas of lunch is a quick bite not a heavy meal. Second, we want to keep the price point at lunch as fair as possible to keep us in competition with other fast food outlets. At S$4. 00 for a medium size fries, we are only slightly above the segment, but we offer much more excitement than the rest of the competition. 4. 2. 1 Market Needs Fresin Fries sees our targeted market group as having many â€Å"makan† (eating) Singaporean Dollar needs. A recent Consumer Trend and Analysis by Euromonitor identified the following needs among our target markets. Our core group: †¢ Wants variety and flavor in its food, preferably something fried †¢ Looks for speed of service †¢ Wants an entertaining and fun experience Insists upon a clean, friendly, and attractive environment †¢ Adopts a global lifestyle †¢ Is computer literate †¢ Enjoys eating out †¢ Has an active lifestyle †¢ Comes from various ethnic backgrounds According to a GAIN Report published in 2000, potatoes are  the second largest commodity of US exports to Singapore after fresh fruit, valuing almost USD $13 million per annum. This is caused by the increasing ly younger demographic and rising incomes throughout Singapore that have led to lifestyle changes that are influencing consumer purchases, food, and entertainment choices. Some changes taking place include a larger professional class with more working women,  which means greater disposable incomes. 4. 2. 2 Market Trends In the past, Singaporeans preferred Western chain restaurants. This was the time when KFC, McDonald's, Long John Silver's  and Pizza Hut were dominating most of the chains. But the trend seems to have shifted in the last decade, with the success of the locally grown brands, such as Bread Talk and Bee Che Hiang. Many of these local brands grew to become  giant franchises  that dominate the Southeast Asia region. For instance, Bread Talk controls 55% of Indonesia's bakery market. The key to success for these foreign chains was mainly due to the popularity of Singapore as tourist destination for these countries. Tourists are the strongest â€Å"buzzer. † Usually after  they went back from vacationing in Singapore, they told friends and families about new things in Singapore, including new shopping malls, new boutiques, new restaurants, and new fast food joints. The fascination of Asian tourists coming to Singapore has positioned the city itself as an aspiration to modern life in the region. Many local entrepreneurs camouflaged their retail stores as an international brand in accordance to what they sell. For instance, there is a local entrepreneur who created a Japanese name to sell yakitori (Japanese BBQ meat skewers), and there is a fashion boutique named after an old Italian movie. 4. 3 Industry Analysis Despite the prolonged effects of the Asian Economic Crisis followed by political turmoil up to mid 2001, Singapore's food service industry witnessed growth over 2000/2001 at 4  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 5% in terms of units and transaction (Euromonitor). Much of this growth was contributed by the cafes/bars, fast food, and food retail sectors, whose wide appeal amongst a young population, for whom time is of a premium, led to high levels of growth. This growth is underpinned by market demand and lifestyle changes, such as seeing eating out as part of trendy lifestyle. Entry of major multi-national food service operators into major shopping destination in the late 1980s until the 1990s led to growth in competition in the marketplace, mainly from fast food chains. This stimulated the rise in the number of fast food units, both of international  and local chains, that started in the early 1990s. Although there was a  slowdown during the economic crisis in 1998,  the food service industry  recovered faster than others, particularly during 2000 and 2001. Recent bombing tragedies have also proven that  negative effects on this sector  are moderately short-term. Franchising became popular in the food service industry through the introduction and entry of multi-national food service brands, primarily U. S. -owned enterprises, such as KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonald's. Currently, there are many local chains that have also experienced growth by applying this system to their operations. 4. 3. 1 Trends in Food Service Retail According to government surveys, Singapore's spending on â€Å"eating out† is continuing to increase. Spending on cooked food as a percentage of total average food-spend reached 55% in 1998. The growth in spending in the food service sector arises from a number of factors: †¢ Increased affluence amongst Singaporeans, especially those under the age of 40 years. †¢ Increases in the number of expatriate residents, which has more than doubled since 1988. †¢ Increased convenience-seeking amongst younger Singaporeans who live in a hectic city today compared to the much slower pace of life that existed 20 years ago. When they want convenient cooked food, Singaporeans have long turned to the local hawker stalls, rather than prepared ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat processed convenience foods. As the numbers and variety of food service outlets has increased in Singapore, locals have adopted the convenient products of other food service outlets, especially the fast food outlets, as alternative sources of convenient cooked food. Younger middle and upper income group families and individuals are also frequent users of the full service restaurants, modern-style coffee shops and cafes that now exist all across Singapore. Over the past 5 years, there has been a general upgrading in the food service sector which has seen the establishment of more air conditioned food centers (food courts) that are considerably cleaner than the traditional hawker markets. At the same time, increased investment from foreign and local businesses in the sector has also produced an increase in the numbers of: †¢ Foreign chains, including chains such as Outback Steakhouse. †¢ Modern retail bakery/cafe outlets such as Bread Talk. †¢ Modern coffee shops such as Starbucks. 4. 3. 2 Competition and Buying Patterns The competition in this arena is the fiercest  in all  other metropolitan areas in SE Asia. Singapore is a compact city, but has a lot to offer. Usually there are a minimum of two of the same outlets within  a radius of less than 300 meters. For instance, Bread Talk opens one outlet inside the Ngee Ann City Shopping Centre and another just across the street inside the Far East Plaza Shopping Centre. It is quite common for retailers to implement this kind of strategy, due to the high volume of people strolling around the main area of Orchard Road. Another reason is because many retailers do not want to lose sales opportunity, as the competitors are offering substitutions and similar product categories. This phenomenon has made Singapore the best place to shop. If you just missed Haagen Dazs waffle at CK Tang Shopping Mall, there is another Haagen Dazs across the street at the new Paragon Shopping Centre. 4. 3. 3 Main Competitors Our main competitors in this segment are any food outlets within the 300 meter radius along the Orchard Road. In our location, there are Tori-Q, Pizza Walker, Starbucks, Bread Talk, and Rotiboy. Tori-Q Tori-Q is locally owned franchise who sells Japanese BBQ skewers. Established in 1998, Tori-Q had expanded its operation into neighboring countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Tori-Q is popular among local teenagers as it offers fast service to its customers. Commonly, Tori-Q outlets are rather small,  and can only serve a maximum of 6 guests. It is a choice for those who are in a hurry and would like to grab a quick lunch on the way. Pizza Walker Pizza Walker is a joint venture positioned as gourmet pizza joint in Singapore. Most of its retail outlets are decorated with welcoming ambience, such as flowers and see-through kitchens. Pizza Walker is a good place to hang out, and the place is always full during lunch hour. It has more than enough tables to serve a maximum of 55 guests. Its specialty is all-you-can-eat pizza! Starbucks Starbucks' strategy entering the lunch market had made some impact in Singapore. Usually, a lunch menu in Singapore consists of â€Å"fried and BBQ stuff† such as roast pork with rice or the Big Mac. Starbucks is one of the first food retailers that popularized â€Å"light and healthy† alternatives such as salad or lean sandwich as an options for Singapore's lunch accommodations. Bread Talk As the most successful franchiser in Singapore, Bread Talk is surely becoming a threat for most food retailers. Bread Talk not only rented most of the retail space along Orchard Road, but now they are doing delivery to offices and apartments nearby. Bread Talk outlets usually consist of a huge see-through kitchen, and bread trays ready for pick-up by customers, with three or four cashiers at front, to speed up the queue. Rumor has it that Bread Talk sold more than 35,000 breads each day in just one of their retail outlets. Rotiboy A Malaysian franchise. Rotiboy is quite popular in the region as it is now expanding into several cities in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. Rotiboy offers simplicity for quick lunch franchiser, and often considered alternatives for its long queueing rivals. 4. 3. 4 Foreign Vs. Local Franchising Around 40% of the franchises operating in Singapore are foreign. Home grown franchises are still in their maturing stages as they start to expand globally. Franchises from the U. S. account for 65% of foreign brands, with big players such as KFC, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, etc. Due to high capital investment, Singapore conglomerates tend to dominate the industry. Home grown franchises are more  often sought more by young entrepreneurs than  are their Western counterparts, as  they offer greater flexibility and lower franchise fees to operate. Unlike Western license holders, home grown franchises  are more efficient in the overall supply chain management as the basic raw ingredients are commonly found anywhere in the region. Strategy and Implementation Summary At first, we will open one outlet inside the New Paragon Shopping Centre. This will become our â€Å"market testing area,† and as we go further, Fresin Fries is planning to open another in nearby shopping malls. In attracting customers to try our fries, we will provide a see-through kitchen, so that people will see how we are committed to freshness in our products. The kitchen will also let out an aroma of our freshly fried fries into the surroundings area, so that people will come and try our products. 5. 1 Competitive Edge †¢ Our unique dipping sauces blend local taste and international into one fusion recipe for the signature sauce. Enthusiastic and friendly staff †¢ Supporting merchandise items that support company's brand building. †¢ Our  fries  are made of 100% fresh potatoes, unlike the frozen fries used by competitors. †¢ Innovative packaging will position us at the same level with foreign fast food franchises. 5. 2 Marketing Strategy Our strategy is based on serving our markets well. We will start our first outlet a s a â€Å"market tester† that could become a model of the expanding number of outlets in the future. Concentration will be on maintaining quality and establishing a strong identity in the local market. A combination of local media and local store marketing programs will be utilized at each location. Local store marketing is most effective, followed by print ad. As soon as a concentration of stores is established in a market, then broader media will be explored. We believe, however, that the best form of advertising is still â€Å"buzz. † By providing a fun and energetic environment, with unbeatable quality at an acceptable price in a clean and friendly outlet, we will be the talk of the town. Therefore, the execution of our concept is the most critical element of our plan. We will actively build our brand, through the selling of supporting materials, such as merchandise, promotional items and other marketing gimmicks similar to those of other fast food franchises. 5. 2. 1 Pricing Strategy Our pricing strategy is positioned as â€Å"generic†, meaning that S$4. 00 is the average consumer spending for a snack or light lunch in Singapore. Leveraging the volume of fries, Italian Soda, and signature style sauces to be sold, we are serving the majority of Singaporeans. 5. 2. 2 Brand Challenges Fresin Fries must establish a distinct brand to stand out from the other Western-style fast food competitors. Our logo is distinct as fresh, energetic and playful with color elements that are eye catching. †¢ Product names are geared toward the target market (teens), with items such as â€Å"Frenzy Fresin† and â€Å"Uber Fresin† which are fun and easy to remember. 5. 2. 3 Marketing Programs We will deploy three different marketing tactics to in crease customer awareness of Fresin Fries. Our most important tactic will be â€Å"word-of-mouth† and in-store marketing. This will be by far the cheapest and most effective of our marketing programs  because of  the high traffic in targeted shopping locations. The second tactic will be local store marketing. These will be low-budget plans that will provide community support and awareness of our facility. The last marketing effort will be utilizing local media. Although, this will be the most costly, this tactic will be used sparingly as a supplement where necessary. †¢ In-Store Marketing o In-store brochures containing our concept and philosophy. o Wall posters. o Design concept. o In-store viewing of making fries process from cutting to frying. o Standing signage inside malls’ lobby/aisle. o Outdoor signage (if possible). o Grand opening promotion. o Party catering. o Merchandising items. †¢ Local Store Marketing o Brochures. Free occasional t-shirts at local stores events. †¢ Local Media o Direct mail piece – containing brochures sent to surrounding addresses. o Web page – containing company philosophy, history and news. o Local magazines that target our core customers, such as Free! Magazine. o Newspaper campaign – placing several large ads t hroughout the month to explain our concept to the local area. 5. 2. 4 Positioning Statement Our main focus in marketing will be to increase customer awareness in the surrounding community. We will direct all of our tactics and programs toward the goal of explaining who we are and what we are all about. We will price our products fairly, keep our standards high, and execute the concept so that â€Å"word-of-mouth† will be our main marketing force. 5. 3 Sales Strategy The sales strategy is to build and open new locations in order to increase revenue. However, this plan will be implemented when the one â€Å"market tester† outlet showed potential growth. As each individual location will continue to build its local customer base over the first three years of operation, the goal of each store is  S$104,250 in annual sales, with the original flagship store expected to earn almost S$200,000 per year. . 3. 1 Sales Forecast We anticipate the highest peak on the months of November and December in our sales forecast, due to the holiday seasons. In November, there is Ramadan, and for non-muslim Malaysians and Indonesians, it means vacation time. Approximately 1. 5 million  Indonesians visit Singapore each year, mostly for shopping and dining. Then in December, we anticipate m ore tourists coming into Singapore; this explains the jumped of sales in these last two months of the year. [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] Sales Forecast | | |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Unit Sales | | | | |Belgian Fries |49,464 |98,928 |197,856 | |Italian Soda |27,692 |55,384 |110,768 | |Merchandising |3,889 |7,778 |15,556 | |Signature Packaged Sauces |3,356 |6,712 |13,425 | |Total Unit Sales |84,401 |168,802 |337,605 | | | | | | |Unit Prices |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Belgian Fries |$4. 00 |$4. 00 |$4. 00 | |Italian Soda |$1. 50 |$1. 50 |$1. 50 | |Merchandising |$8. 50 |$8. 50 |$8. 50 | |Signature Packaged Sauces |$2. 00 |$2. 00 |$2. 0 | | | | | | |Sales | | | | |Belgian Fries |$197,856 |$395,712 |$791,424 | |Italian Soda |$41,538 |$83,076 |$166,152 | |Merchandising |$33,057 |$66,114 |$132,228 | |Signature Packaged Sauces |$6,712 |$13,425 |$26,849 | |Total Sales |$279,163 |$558,327 |$1,116,654 | | | | | | |Direct Unit Costs |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Belgian Fries |$0. 80 |$0. 80 |$0. 80 | |Italian So da |$0. 15 |$0. 15 |$0. 15 | |Merchandising |$3. 83 |$3. 83 |$3. 83 | |Signature Packaged Sauces |$1. 00 |$1. 00 |$1. 0 | | | | | | |Direct Cost of Sales | | | | |Belgian Fries |$39,571 |$79,142 |$158,285 | |Italian Soda |$4,154 |$8,308 |$16,615 | |Merchandising |$14,876 |$29,751 |$59,503 | |Signature Packaged Sauces |$3,356 |$6,712 |$13,425 | |Subtotal Direct Cost of Sales |$61,957 |$123,914 |$247,827 | 5. 4 Strategic Alliances Our business requires a long relationship with raw suppliers as well as partner vendors. In Chinese, this relationship is called â€Å"guanxi,† meaning business bonding. We already have a long and good standing relationship with  Company V  in our previous ventures. For Company Y, Mr. Joe Shmo, the managing director,  is a prominent figure in the society and we hope to strengthen further our business relationship with him and  the company. 5. 5 Milestones During the initial set up of the company, the 4 founders (Guy Fry, Harry Hip, Sam Sauce, and Carl Cone) will conduct the planning and implementation in building the brand and the construction of our first outlet. The planning and construction will take approximately 8 months, in addition to the revision and refinement process that will take the rest of the 12 month period before our opening in early 2005. [pic] [pic] [pic] Milestones | | | | | | | | |Milestone |Start Date |End Date |Budget |Manager |Department | |Presentation materials for all |1/12/2004 |3/12/2004 |TBD |Carl Cone |Business | |stakeholders | | | | |Development | |Follow up with suppliers |1/21/2004 |3/22/2004 |$100 |Sam Sau ce |Business | | | | | | |Development | |Follow up with developers |1/21/2004 |9/8/2004 |$50 |Sam Sauce |Business | | | | | | |Development | |Printing materials |2/13/2004 |4/10/2004 |$8,000 |Guy Fry |Marketing | |Marketing communication program |2/21/2004 |6/23/2004 |TBD |Sam Sauce |Marketing | |Constructions |5/22/2004 |12/3/2004 |TBD |Harry Hip |Business | | | | | | |Development | |In store signage, POP |5/23/2004 |10/11/2004 |TBD |Guy Fry |Marketing | |Grand opening materials |6/2/2004 |10/13/2004 |TBD |Guy Fry |Marketing | |Hiring staff |7/14/2004 |8/12/2004 |$900 |Harry Hip |Human Resources | |Open second location |7/1/2005 |7/1/2005 |$10,000 |Carl Cone |Business | | | | | | |Development | |Open 3rd and 4th locations |1/1/2006 |6/1/2006 |$15,000 |Carl Cone |Business | | | | | | |Development | |Open 5th, 6th, and 7th locations|1/1/2007 |12/31/2007 |$20,000 |Carl Cone |Business | | | | | |Development | |Training staff |9/12/2004 |12/10/2004 |$1,000 |Harry Hip |Human Resources | |Totals | | |$55,050 | | | Web Plan Summary The website will, of course, show visitors everything about Belgian food culture, including the history of french fries over time. To make the website interactive, Fresin Fries will offer gift cards and promotions via the Internet, so our visitors can print the promotional coupon in PDF format and bring it when they visit Fresin Fries. Visitors can also download Fresin Fries' theme song as ring tones, or order potato cutters for delivery. Besides the traditional formats of customer service hotline and in-store form, customers can now write their comments and suggestions  on our website, which will be directed to one of our staff. So, the website itself will act as the medium between our company and our audience. In the future, our website will show information on franchising/licensing our brand name. 6. 1 Website Marketing Strategy We will leverage the visibility of our shopping mall's website by getting them to include a link to ours. We will also post  banners on an official Singapore tourism website. 6. 2 Development Requirements To adequately serve our audience, the front end strategy of our website should be parallel with our corporate color. The front end design of our website will be entirely trusted  to Mr. Guy Fry. The diversity of founders' background in our company has enabled a cost efficient development in our venture. As Mr. Harry Hip and Mr. Carl Cone are experts in Information Technology, the back end of our website will be developed by  these gentlemen. Management Summary The initial management team depends on the founders themselves, with little back-up. As we grow, we will take on additional help in certain key areas. Part of our basic philosophy will be able to run our executive management as a â€Å"knowledge sharing† fellowship. We will not add additional overhead until absolutely necessary. This will mean that the initial staff support team will have to work extra. By doing this, we will keep our overhead as low as possible, allowing us to adequately staff our outlets. This will also allow us and future business partners to recoup investments as quickly as possible and enjoy a higher return. At present time, Fresin Fries is being owned by its 4 founders. Others that have helped on the development of this business venture will be offered an opportunity to grow together with the company at the appropriate time, and when the time comes, the 4 founders’ share will be consolidated as one entity. 7. 1 Management Team Fresin Fries is currently the creative idea of its four founders. As the company is small in nature, it only requires a simple organizational structure. Implementation of this organization form calls for all four individuals to make all major management decisions in addition to monitoring all other business activities. As we expand into multiple locations, each location will have a primary site manager. 7. 2 Organizational Structure Future organizational structure will include a director of store operations when the store locations exceed four units. We hope that this individual will come out of the ranks of our stores’ management. This will provide a supervisory level between the executive level and the store management level. Current plan is to have our accounting and payroll functions done by an in-house bookkeeping. Mr. David Lu will be responsible for accounting and business development of Fresin Fries, helped by Mr. Harry Hip, acting Head of Human Resources Division. Possible positions might be added at a later date include marketing manager, purchasing manager, controller, human resources, R&D and administrative support team. 7. 3 Personnel Plan Our initial employees will  include two  cashiers, two cooks and two bus boys per location, with one of each on the premises during open hours. This is considered an ideal personnel number for a food outlet the size of our own. Each employee will work for 38-40 hours per week. In the long run, as we expand our product category and retail outlets, we will employ more people in the middle management to ensure the focus of our work, including site managers. [pic] |Personnel Plan | | |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Site Managers |$0 |$60,000 |$96,000 | |Cashiers |$36,000 |$80,000 |$144,400 | |Cook |$28,800 |$66,000 |$115,200 | |Busboy |$23,400 |$56,000 |$94,000 | |Total People 12 |26 |40 | | | | | | |Total Payroll |$88,200 |$262,000 |$449,600 | Financial Plan The company is now privately held by Harry Hip, Guy Fry, Carl Cone, and Sam Sauce. Future shares will be offered after two consecutive years of operating in Singapore. 8. 1 Projections 8. 2 Start-up Funding Currently, the company is owned by the original 4 founders, who each will contribute $200,000 for the same amount of share, 25%. This will more than cover start-up requirements, and provide the business with a cash cushion to use for expansion over the first thre e years. [pic] Start-up Funding | |Start-up Expenses to Fund |$68,800 | |Start-up Assets to Fund |$50,000 | |Total Funding Required |$118,800 | | | | |Assets | | |Non-cash Assets from Start-up |$30,000 | |Cash Requirements from Start-up |$50,000 | |Additional Cash Raised |$681,200 | |Cash Balance on Starting Date |$731,200 | |Total Assets |$761,200 | | | | | | | |Liabilities and Capital | | | | | |Liabilities | | |Current Borrowing |$0 | |Long-term Liabilities |$0 | |Accounts Payable (Outstanding Bills) |$0 | |Other Current Liabilities (interest-free) |$0 | |Total Liabilities |$0 | | | | |Capital | | | | | |Planned Investment | | |Eric Yam |$200,000 | |Martin Ng |$200,000 | |David Lu |$200,000 | |Sagita Suwandi |$200,000 | |Additional Investment Requirement |$0 | |Total Planned Investment |$800,000 | | | | |Loss at Start-up (Start-up Expenses) |($68,800) | |Total Capital |$731,200 | | | | | | | |Total Capital and Liabilities |$731,200 | | | | |Total Funding |$800,000 | 8. 3 Break-even Analysis Our break-even analysis shows that we need unit sales over 9,700 per month to break even. We do not expect to begin turning a profit until year three. [pic] [pic] [pic] |Break-even Analysis | | | | |Monthly Units Break-even |9,706 | |Monthly Revenue Break-even |$32,104 | | | | |Assumptions: | | Average Per-Unit Revenue |$3. 31 | |Average Per-Unit Variable Cost |$0. 73 | |Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost |$24,979 | 8. 4 Projected Profit and Loss As the Profit and Loss shows,  Fresin Fries will run at a loss f or the first two years, using up some of the cash reserves initially invested by the founders. As sales increase, we will expand into new locations to aggressively spread brand recognition. This increase in visibility will allow us to take up less expensive locations off of Orchard Road, while maintaining our flagship operation, the first store, in a  prime spot. [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] Pro Forma Profit and Loss | | |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Sales |$279,163 |$558,327 |$1,116,654 | |Direct Cost of Sales |$61,957 |$123,914 |$247,827 | |Other Costs of Sales |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Total Cost of Sales |$61,957 |$123,914 |$247,827 | | | | | | |Gross Margin |$217,207 |$434,413 |$868,826 | |Gross Margin % |77. 81% |77. 81% |77. 81% | | | | | | | | | | | |Expenses | | | | |Payroll $88,200 |$262,000 |$449,600 | |Marketing/Promotion |$10,000 |$10,000 |$10,000 | |Depreciation |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Rent |$174,000 |$248,000 |$298,000 | |Utilities |$2,550 |$5,000 |$8,000 | |New locatio n setup |$25,000 |$50,000 |$50,000 | | | | | | |Total Operating Expenses |$299,750 |$575,000 |$815,600 | | | | | | |Profit Before Interest and Taxes |($82,543) |($140,587) |$53,226 | |EBITDA |($82,543) |($140,587) |$53,226 | |Interest Expense |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Taxes Incurred |$0 |$0 |$0 | | | | | | |Net Profit |($82,543) |($140,587) |$53,226 | |Net Profit/Sales |-29. 57% |-25. 18% |4. 77% | 8. 5 Projected Cash Flow The following chart and table show the Projected Cash Flow for Fresin Fries. [pic] [pic] [pic] |Pro Forma Cash Flow | | |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Cash Received | | | | | | | | | |Cash from Operations | | | | |Cash Sales |$279,163 |$558,327 |$1,116,654 |Subtotal Cash from Operations |$279,163 |$558,327 |$1,116,654 | | | | | | |Additional Cash Received | | | | |Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received |$0 |$0 |$0 | |New Current Borrowing |$0 |$0 |$0 | |New Other Liabilities (interest-free) |$0 |$0 |$0 | |New Long-term Liabilities |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Sales of Other Current Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Sales of Long-term Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |New Investment Received |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Subtotal Cash Received |$279,163 |$558,327 |$1,116,654 | | | | | | |Expenditures |2005 |2006 |2007 | | | | | | |Expenditures from Operations | | | | |Cash Spending |$88,200 |$262,000 |$449,600 | |Bill Payments |$244,265 |$430,245 |$599,286 | |Subtotal Spent on Operations |$332,465 |$692,245 |$1,048,886 | | | | | | |Additional Cash Spe nt | | | | |Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Paid Out |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Other Liabilities Principal Repayment |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Purchase Other Current Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Purchase Long-term Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 |Dividends |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Subtotal Cash Spent |$332,465 |$692,245 |$1,048,886 | | | | | | |Net Cash Flow |($53,301) |($133,918) |$67,767 | |Cash Balance |$677,899 |$543,981 |$611,748 | 8. 6 Projected Balance Sheet Fresin's projected company balance sheet follows. We expect to run at a loss for the first two years, decreasing our net worth slightly. As the operation becomes more profitable in the third year, our net worth rises again. [pic] Pro Forma Balance Sheet | | |2005 |2006 |2007 | |Assets | | | | | | | | | |Current Assets | | | | |Cash |$677,899 |$543,981 |$611,748 | |Other Current Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Total Current Assets |$677,899 |$543,981 |$611,748 | | | | | | |Long-te rm Assets | | | | |Long-term Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Accumulated Depreciation |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Total Long-term Assets |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Total Assets |$677,899 |$543,981 |$611,748 | | | | | | |Liabilities and Capital |2005 |2006 |2007 | | | | | | |Current Liabilities | | | | |Accounts Payable |$29,242 |$35,911 |$50,452 | |Current Borrowing |$0 |$0 |$0 | Other Current Liabilities |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Subtotal Current Liabilities |$29,242 |$35,911 |$50,452 | | | | | | |Long-term Liabilities |$0 |$0 |$0 | |Total Liabilities |$29,242 |$35,911 |$50,452 | | | | | | |Paid-in Capital |$800,000 |$800,000 |$800,000 | |Retained Earnings |($68,800) |($151,343) |($291,930) | |Earnings |($82,543) |($140,587) |$53,226 | |Total Capital |$648,657 |$508,070 |$561,296 | |Total Liabilities and Capital |$677,899 |$543,981 |$611,748 | | | | | | |Net Worth |$648,657 |$508,070 |$561,296 | . 7 Business Ratios The following table outlines some of the more important ratios from the  Fast Food Restaurants and Stands  in dustry. The final column, Industry Profile, details specific ratios based on the industry as it is classified by the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code 5812. [pic] |Ratio Analysis | | |2005 |2006 |2007 |Industry Profile | |Sales Growth |0. 00% |100. 00% |100. 00% |8. 7% | | | | | | | |Percent of Total Assets | | | | | |Other Current Assets |0. 00% |0. 00% |0. 00% |37. 31% | |Total Current Assets |100. 00% |100. 00% |100. 00% |45. 97% | |Long-term Assets |0. 00% |0. 00% |0. 00% |54. 03% | |Total Assets |100. 00% |100. 0% |100. 00% |100. 00% | | | | | | | |Current Liabilities |4. 31% |6. 60% |8. 25% |17. 94% | |Long-term Liabilities |0. 00% |0. 00% |0. 00% |22. 26% | |Total Liabilities |4. 31% |6. 60% |8. 25% |40. 20% | |Net Worth |95. 69% |93. 40% |91. 75% |59. 0% | | | | | | | |Percent of Sales | | | | | |Sales |100. 00% |100. 00% |100. 00% |100. 00% | |Gross Margin |77. 81% |77. 81% |77. 81% |59. 05% | |Selling, General & Administrative Expenses |107. 37% |102. 99% |73. 0 4% |39. 24% | |Advertising Expenses |0. 00% |0. 00% |0. 00% |1. 96% | |Profit Before Interest and Taxes |-29. 57% |-25. 8% |4. 77% |1. 92% | | | | | | | |Main Ratios | | | | | |Current |23. 18 |15. 15 |12. 13 |1. 04 | |Quick |23. 18 |15. 15 |12. 13 |0. 66 | |Total Debt to Total Assets |4. 31% |6. 60% |8. 25% |50. 2% | |Pre-tax Return on Net Worth |-12. 73% |-27. 67% |9. 48% |6. 90% | |Pre-tax Return on Assets |-12. 18% |-25. 84% |8. 70% |13. 87% | | | | | | | |Additional Ratios |2005 |2006 |2007 | | |Net Profit Margin |-29. 57% |-25. 18% |4. 77% |n. a | |Return on Equity |-12. 73% |-27. 7% |9. 48% |n. a | | | | | | | |Activity Ratios | | | | | |Accounts Payable Turnover |9. 35 |12. 17 |12. 17 |n. a | |Payment Days |27 |27 |26 |n. a | |Total Asset Turnover |0. 41 |1. 03 |1. 83 |n. | | | | | | | |Debt Ratios | | | | | |Debt to Net Worth |0. 05 |0. 07 |0. 09 |n. a | |Current Liab. to Liab. |1. 00 |1. 00 |1. 00 |n. a | | | | | | | |Liquidity Ratios | | | | | |Net Working Capital |$648,6 57 |$508,070 |$561,296 |n. a | |Interest Coverage |0. 00 |0. 00 |0. 00 |n. | | | | | | | |Additional Ratios | | | | | |Assets to Sales |2. 43 |0. 97 |0. 55 |n. a | |Current Debt/Total Assets |4% |7% |8% |n. a | |Acid Test |23. 18 |15. 15 |12. 13 |n. a | |Sales/Net Worth |0. 43 |1. 10 |1. 99 |n. a | |Dividend Payout |0. 00 |0. 00

My Personal Capital Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My Personal Capital - Essay Example Reading has helped me in so many ways. My good reading habits help me easily understand and consequently recall what has bean read. Having gone through a number of projects involving research, I could ably help the team go through a company’s records and database to be able to arrive at an honest description of its historical data, present financial position as well as its potentials for growth. Writing skills, on the other hand, which benefits a writer professionally and personally, is one of a few other technical capabilities that I possess (Nordquist 2008). It being one of my passions, my ability to write effective essays, reports and other forms of correspondence vis-Ã  -vis grammar and composition will undoubtedly help the team come up with a very good written output. My knowledge in the use of software for word processing, spreadsheets and other financial applications, could significantly help the team come up with an honest, comprehensive and workable business plan for the company. Likewise, my experience in communicating, handling and utilizing e-mail as a method for seeking advice from mentors, could make the writing job easier. My modest technical know-how in troubleshooting simple problems on computer systems and application may also be of great help to the team. Moreover, my background in the preparation of financial reports, such as income statements and balance sheets and cash flow statements will make computing for the company’s financial less difficult.

LAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

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To What Extent Do Middle Eastern States Have the Capacity to Develop Essay

To What Extent Do Middle Eastern States Have the Capacity to Develop Civilian Nuclear Power Programs And Would This Development Encourage Regional Cooperation - Essay Example This report stresses that the International Atomic Energy Agency is the organization accorded the mandate to monitor countries utilising nuclear energy. In an article written in the New York Times, it is stated that a thin line exists between civilian and military nuclear programs. Thus, in the light of this knowledge, this paper seeks to examine the extent to which, Middle Eastern nations have the capacity to develop nuclear power programs. By examining their capacity, the paper will in turn evaluate whether regional cooperation can be encouraged by this development. This paper makes a conclusion that the Middle East countries are seeking ways to finance their programs through various means such as public-private partnerships. Management of fuel has been a hindrance in most civilian nuclear power programs in the Middle East because most countries have not created regulatory measures on fuel acquisition, storage of used fuel or even its disposal. The Middle East as a region lacks the local manpower for its nuclear power programs. Their reliance on outsourced human resource is cannot be sustained. In terms of international cooperation, countries in the Middle East are doing well based on the agreements they are signatories to. The development of civilian nuclear power programs in the Middle East will encourage regional cooperation through sharing of nuclear experiences and technology as countries in the Middle East are at various levels of their programs.

Parallel imports are good for welfare, not bad for welfare Essay

Parallel imports are good for welfare, not bad for welfare - Essay Example In the United States annual retail sales of the unauthorized imports, or "gray market" goods, may have approached $10 billion during the 1980s. Governments around the world have struggled with the question whether the exclusive distributor ought to be able to block such parallel importation. (Takamatsu 57) The unauthorized importers have maintained that because their activity encourages price competition and benefits the consumer, it should be freely permitted. Allowing foreign manufacturers to establish exclusive distributorships and prevent all intrabrand competition, they point out, would be inconsistent with the principles of free enterprise in a market economy and would be inconsistent with the interests of consumers. As one gray market retailer pointed out: As a result of this importation of merchandise at lower prices, we sell at lower prices. The price differential to the consumer is between 10 and 40 percent with an average of probably 20 to 25 percent. This savings to the consumer also occurs on merchandise purchased from foreign brand distributors because most of the subsidiaries of foreign manufacturers have been forced to lower their U.S. ... The authorized distributors respond that irrespective of any benefit to the consumer, parallel importation unfairly injures enterprises which have made significant expenditures in generating goodwill, only to have the resultant returns siphoned off to others. The U.S. distributors may, for example, have spent large sums of money preparing to introduce a new product to the North American market, and gone to great effort and expense to build up consumer awareness, as well as to develop effective distribution channels. In 1983 the grey market hit us with full force as up to 30% of our sales were lost to the diverters. We experienced two layoffs and our advertising and promotion efforts were severely curtailed. . . . The impact of the grey market greatly impacted our bottom line as we suffered a catastrophic loss. And even established international brand names require careful attention to local regulatory standards, consumer tastes, income levels, language, and a host of other factors. Typically it is the U.S. distributor's responsibility to monitor and respond to these variables, to preserve and improve a product's image in the public mind. Parallel importers' "free ride" on the goodwill generated by such activities should be prohibited, the distributors maintain. But the parallel importers argue that the goodwill on which they trade ordinarily belongs to the manufacturer, not the distributor. The typical consumer decides to buy a "Nikon" camera, for example, not because of the reputation of the Nikon distributor, but because the customer recognizes the manufacturer's name as signifying a particular standard of quality. And gray market sales, the importers urge, cannot constitute free riding on this goodwill of the foreign manufacturer, since the products

Petterson Mound Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Petterson Mound - Term Paper Example C. (Davis & Treganza 1959: 5). A mound, which is known as an ancient Indian habitation site, appeared on the early map of San Francisco Bay area at location Ala-328. However, archeologists usually fail to establish whether the map location represents site Ala-328 or Ala-329 (Davis & Treganza 1959: 6). The Patterson Mound No. 1 is located on a piece of land owned by Mr. William Patterson, in Alameda County, due south of Alvarado town. The size of Mound is approximately 350 feet along the north-south axis, and it is ovoid in shape (Davis & Treganza 1959: 4). It has a known depth of 13 feet near its center. This piece of land extends from a flat alluvial plain, which is six feet above the sea level, and reaches a height of 15 and half feet above the sea-level (Davis & Treganza 1959: 4). The previous height above the sea-level has been significantly reduced due to the intensive cultivation, rodent activity, root crops and farm machinery. Patterson Mound covers an area that is slightly di fferent from other sites along the shore of San Francisco because of its relatively low content of soft-shelled clams (oyster), which is believed to be as a result of marshy slough (Davis & Treganza 1959: 4). ... Several burials and artifacts such as eye bone needle, thatching needle, fiber-strippers, antler digging tool, antler haft, pitted cobble, pecking stone, abrading stone, mussel shell spoon, whale bone object, sharpened elk ulna, drilled canine tibia, backed clay, scrapers and choppers were excavated from the site since 1935 (Davis & Treganza 1959: 27, 38). For instance, about 1000 artifacts and 169 burials have been recovered, with only about 20 percent of the site having been excavated (Davis & Treganza 1959: 12). Moreover, about 2000 artifacts and 260 burials had been recovered, by 1958, with only 25 percent of the site having been dug. Research Question This research method aims at establishing the correlation between material remains such as shells, stones, bones, and other preserved remains, and human migrations, culture growth and change, environmental impacts on cultural growth, and other aspects of human activities around San Francisco Bay area at location Ala-328. Data Requi red for Analysis Measurements: it is necessary to quantify different parameters of artifacts such as length, width, height, density, mass, and weight, including texture and color to collect valid information about burials and artifacts (Ferguson 2010: 12). Additionally, measurements within the Patterson Mound area are also significant, and it include calculating areas of separated fields, strata heights in accordance to the sea level (HASL) and relating HASL to retrieved artifacts. Association: This information is of significance in understanding cultural interactions within a given archeological site because it related the excavated artifacts to its environment (Ferguson 2010: 12). It also involves the classification of artifacts into different groups based on their

Overcoming Barriers to Adopting and Implementing Computerized Essay

Overcoming Barriers to Adopting and Implementing Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in U.S. Hospitals - Essay Example The central point of the study â€Å"Overcoming Barriers to Adopting and Implementing Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in U.S. Hospitals† by Poon et al. (2004) is that implementing a Computerized Physician Order Entry system (CPOE) is not easy because the costs are high, there is opposition from various quarters of the hospital, and there may be issues with vendors. Also institutions that do not give importance to quality care and patient safety may not even plan for a CPOE. The main finding of this study is that hospitals can overcome problems during the implementation of the CPOE by having strong leaders who can administer the CPOE, realigning the approach of improving patient safety through technology, and developing strong relationships with a vendor committed to meeting the needs of the hospital and providing a customized CPOE system to the hospital. Besides, hospitals implementing the CPOE without much support and motivation from the senior management are likel y to have various problems during implementation such as physician’s reluctance to use the system, lack of training for the users of the CPOE, and poor involvement in development. Currently, different CPOE vendors use different data processes for transmitting information, and these processes may have high development costs. Consequently, vendors are likely to pass on the costs to the customers, who in turn make it difficult for the smaller hospitals to afford and implement a CPOE System. Instead, if standard data protocols such as Health Level 7 (HL7 – An interational heatlh informatics standard for interoperability) were utilized in the CPOE, then vendors would not only find it easy to incorporate HL7 or other data protocols in their system, but also lower the costs of the CPOE system; in 2009 it was found that 30% of the healthcare budget was spent on redundancies including poor technologies (Doolan, 2009). Prior Research The Poon et al. research study finds three co nsiderations that hospitals should use when planning for implementation of the CPOE system. One consideration is the number of deaths from medication error is about 98000 per year; most of these errors are preventable. Leapfrog Group (a healthcare organization involved with patient safety, healthcare technologies and financing) has considered CPOE as one of the patient goals. The current CPOE adoption rate is about 5 to 10% (Poon et al., 2004). Poon has found that previous studies have described some of the challenges that may be applicable during implementation, but have not come up with solutions. This study tries to go further by providing solutions to these challenges. A need for CPOE was strongly felt when the death rate from medical error (in hospitals in New York) was about 98000 per annum a decade back; a good portion of these errors were preventable (Kohn, 1999, p. 1). By incorporating CPOE in the healthcare system, the chances of reducing the medical errors are about 55 %. ( Doolan et al., 2004). However, as of 2004, it was found that only 10 to 15% of the hospitals in the U.S. actually use CPOE systems, and many of the hospitals are unaware of the manner of addressing challenges that can arise during the implementation of the CPOE should be addressed (Ash, 2004). To understand in greater detail regarding CPOE’s implementation, in-depth interviews were organized with the management of about 26 hospitals in the US that were in various stages of the CPOE implementation. After organizing the interview, three barriers were identified. These included resistance to the CPOE implementation from certain quarters of the hospital, high costs of implementation, and lack of vendor or product maturity. Research Question The research question in Poon et al. (2004) is â€Å"What are the different barriers to the implementation of the CPOE system in the hospital and how can these problems is addressed?† The research aimed at finding ways to identify and tackle

Iran And Weapons Of Mass Destruction Essay Example for Free

Iran And Weapons Of Mass Destruction Essay Iran is a signatory to the international treaties that prohibits production and keeping of weapons of mass destruction. These treaties are; the chemical weapons convection, the biological weapons convention and the nuclear Non-Profiliferation Treaty (NPT). Despite its ratification of these treaties, Iran is currently believed to be possessing weapons of mass destruction. After the Iraq-Iran war in early 1980s, Ayatollah Khomeini resolved to pursue nuclear research after he lost about 100,000 soldiers and civilians due to chemical weapons attacks by the Iraqis. Controversy has surrounded the Iranian nuclear weapons program for decades now. While the country maintains that its uranium enrichment program is solely meant for peaceful purposes and the current international atomic energy agency director general, Yukiya Amano claiming that there are no evidence in IAEA reports that Iran has plans to develop weapons of mass destruction, the United States through its congressional research paper believes that Iran had long finished developing nuclear weapons in 2003. The world is equally divided over the Iranian nuclear weapon program. Only a few European countries are siding with the United States and countries like Russia do not believe in the allegations that Iran has or has plans to develop nuclear weapons. Most countries from the East like China, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, the Arab League as well as Gulf Cooperation Council, have expressed their full support for Iran to pursue what they call a peaceful nuclear energy. But what are the implications of a nuclear energy in the hands of Iranians? The Iranian nuclear program has earned many foes and allies in almost equal measure. One of the greatest critics of the Iranian nuclear energy is the United States. The strain relationship between the countries dates back to three centuries when the Islamic revolution in Iran swept the US strong ally Shah out of power. When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power after the revolution, he driven the country’s foreign policy away from the United States and the two countries have ever since been polar opposites in virtually every foreign policies. Diplomatic relations between the two nations was broken in early 1980 and the Swiss government took over representation of American interest the following year. While in the United States, the Pakistani government assumed representation of Iranian affairs. However, the Iranian government has its own representative to the UN in New York City. In 1981, following the Algiers declaration, the US-Iran Claims Tribunal (situated at The Hague, Netherlands) was formed to resolved issues between the nationals of the two countries. However, this engagement has always remain and dealt with legal matters only . The Iranian nuclear program has only worked over the years to strain the diplomatic relations further. American government by executive orders made by its president and also by the congressional legislation bars any form of trade with Iran. These sanctions were imposed because of Iran’s continued pursuance of its nuclear program and its noncompliance with the IAEA demands. Iran is further accused of sponsoring terrorists and terror activities as well as of having poor human rights record. However, the American government has always maintained that these sanctions only target the Iranian government engagement with the US and not the citizens of Iran. The US therefore permits certain trades that would help the nationals of Iran. Such engagement as relief donations by the American nationals and NGOs, export of medical and agricultural products from US to Iran and import of foodstuff from Iran are permitted. The American government has at times lifted the trade sanctions especially in times of humanitarian crises like was the case in 2003 during the Ban earthquake. Obstacles to diplomatic relations between the countries however, still remain unresolved. The United States is mainly concerned with the Iranian authorities’ lack of compliance with the IAEA and accused their counterparts of pursuing a risky ambition that would threaten peace in the world. The US fears over the Iran’s nuclear is connected with their allegations that Iran has been sponsoring terror activities. Iran has always objected to the peace deal favoring the Israel and has been accused of undermining the Middle East peace process through its continued arming of militia and terror groups like Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Hamas. The risks a nuclear Iran would subject the world to through its continued association with militia and terror groups is one of the reason sanctions are being imposed not only by the US government but also by the European union and the United Nations security council. The Iran nuclear program would not be a threat to Israel but also the world at large. Analysis of the frosty relations between Iran and Israel would shed more light on how the world would be threatened by Iran as a nuclear power. Iran is the second largest country with a Jewish population in the Middle East after Israel and some notable figures in Israel are known to have originated from Iran. The two countries had had good relations when Iran was ruled by the Shah, but after the Islamic revolution of Iran, Israel and the Iran’s ruling clergy have had hostile ties with Iran refusing to recognize Israel. However, even during the hostile relationship, Israel helped United States sell arms to Iran as part of the infamous Iran-Contra scandal. In recent times, the United States has been very much vocal against the Iranian nuclear program. Israel on the other hand has always been ready to disarm the Iranians of their missiles and other weapons considered destructive. They have even considered tactically deploying their nuclear weapons to clear off the Iranian nuclear facilities. Although Israel has never officially confirmed the number of its nuclear weapons, it is whispered in the international security circles that the country has about 200-400 weapons of mass destruction and is the only country possessing a nuclear weapons in the Middle East. And it is not lost to many that Israel had bombed the Iraqi facility believed to have been part of its nuclear programs. The perennial conflict between Israel and Palestinians has not help matters either. The Palestinians continued migration to south Lebanon led the formation of militant groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestine Islamic Jihad among others. Although these groups have been considered terrorists groupings by many countries, Iran disagrees. It has not only offered these groups material support in terms of weapons but regard the groups as organizations fighting for a justified cause and publicly offer them moral support. These groups especially the Hezbollah regard the Iran spiritual leader as their ultimate authority and the groups themselves have confirmed that all political decisions concerning their affairs are referred and made in Iran. For example, the Iran spiritual leader himself is said to have favored the Hezbollah’s participation in the Lebanese politics. In light of these revelations, it would be appropriate to say that Iran is sponsoring suicide bombers at least indirect to fight the Israelis. The Iranians and the leaders have always denounced Israel and more often pronounce death of Israel in different forms. The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on record claiming that Israel ought to be wiped off from the face of the earth and even questioned why the holocaust did not perform it once and for all. We may argued that the Iranian president does not wield so much power and that the spiritual leader who at some point sought ceasefire and normalized relations with the Israelis, is the real source of power. But the ruling clergy is up to no good if his agitations to have Hezbollah become a full political outfit which was objected to by the United States is anything to go by. Looking back at the recent events in Lebanon where Israel suffered a humiliating defeat in the hands of Hezbollah, the influence of Iran and its militant group, Hezbollah in the Middle East was just given a shot in the arm. We may argue that Iran never started its nuclear weapons program with Israel in mind. But going by the unrelenting anti-Israel rhetoric by its leaders, it would be quite in order to say that Iran’s number one enemy right now is Israel and given opportunity would go ahead and wipe out the entire nation. Only nuclear weapons would put it at par with Israel and make it achieve the mass destruction they would love to see. Again, sorting out Israel as its number one enemy, Iran is simply creating more enemies. With the United States leading the pack of countries associating and supporting Israel, Iranians would declare war with any nation oppose to their policies against Israel. Diplomacy and Alternatives President Bush’s efforts to halt the Iranians’ uranium enrichment program had been focused on building a strong international coalition that would impose tough sanctions against Iran intended to punish and isolate until it abandons its plans to develop nuclear weapons program. The country on the other hand, maintains its nuclear program is intended for peaceful uses. When president Obama came into power, the first thing he announced regarding his foreign policy was to negotiate with Iran and talk it out of its nuclear weapons program. So far nothing tangible is coming from the Iranian side. The major problem in this whole process is that Iranian leaders are simply not willing to talk and even as Washington tries to pursue diplomacy, Tehran is determined on carrying on with its program. The Obama administration should not just explore this option without understanding their Iranian counterparts. From the developments so far, it seems Tehran is not about to make a compromise on its program. But where does this leave Obama with his pledge for a more engagement with Tehran? Besides diplomacy, are there other options left for Washington? The present world security situation is quite disturbing. The world and more specifically the United States national security is currently threatened either directly or indirectly by the developments in Iran and this should inform president Obama to realize that shunning any further contact with Iran is a luxury American cannot afford. But then the issue is complicated with the popularly-driven opposition that may be demoralized if American approaches the matter with high-handedness. A continued engagement with Tehran therefore would call for clear understanding of the nature of Iran politics and policies. My first and last option has always been engagement and engagement. The America should keep this door of dialogue wide open. However, it would be careless of us if we are only concerned with the nuclear issue. Apart from addressing the other security concerns such as Afghanistan and Iraq which Iran is threatening, the Obama administration should embark on holding the regime accountable for human rights violations. Iran has always had a problem adhering to international standards of justice. Although the word is quite commonly used by the Iranian leaders it lacks any respect at all among the Iranian officials. I have a strong belief that raising the human rights issue would make the Tehran regime think twice about using brutality and repression against its people. Failure to address the human rights issue, Americans would be creating an impression among the people of Iran that it is a cynical superpower out to cut deals at their own expense. All said, we must understand that dialogue was never an end in itself but a means to halt Iran’s nuclear plans and to check its regional policies. We should hope that dialogue bare fruits and we must believe in our secretary of states Hillary Clinton and her undersecretary Bill Burns as skilful diplomats. However, my greatest concern is that the Tehran regime is not willing to reach a compromise with Washington. In essence, the problem in Iran is in their present leaders rather than the country’s nuclear ambitions. This does not means that we overthrow the current regime through the pro-active democracy utterances of the president Bush and his administration. We should believe in the Iranian as being capable of shaping their destiny. And therefore, Americans should refrain from using policies that would jeopardize the current momentum of opposition movements in the country. This would call for a skillful and careful â€Å"engagement† that would broaden the dialogue beyond just nukes and treading away from military confrontation. I believe Ahmadinejad and the spiritual leader would most welcome a US military strike; it may offer them a lifeline to crush popular dissent and right internal political rifts. Finally, obama may be thinking of tougher sanctions going by the statement made by his secretary of states Hillary Clinton in late May. The problem with trade sanctions is that they have been there for almost 30 years now but nothing much has changed and I have a belief that Iran is used to it now. If they refused the carrot and stick of President Bush, what tells us now that Iran would play ball? Our option must be a change in approach in our engagement. Conclusion For over two decades of dialogue, diplomacy and sanctions have achieved a little impact in the Iran’s nuclear plans. They have delayed such a program, made its operations and nuclear programs more covert and have continuously highlighted the risks Iran is posing to itself and the world. Such policies however, have never stopped Iran from acquiring long-range missiles, the technology as well as production facilities for making nuclear weapons. The United States therefore needs to change tact in its dealing with the Tehran regime and in containing its nuclear weapons ambitions.

An Adoption Of Ebusiness In Thai SMEs

An Adoption Of Ebusiness In Thai SMEs Chapter 1: Dissertation Introduction Background to research In order to increase business opportunities, many large companies invested in information systems (IS). Because the high return from investment have seen in many cases. Also, Porter (2001) claims that the e-business which one kind of information systems can term as the way to management business by applying the Internet to support business activities. However, in small and medium sized enterprises have only small amount of evidences to prove those benefits (Levy, Powell Yetton, 2002). However, presently the internet was changed the way of running business, the small and medium enterprise (SME) have higher opportunities to survive in various markets (Levy Powell, 2005). Consequently, these researches are inspired this research to explore how to improve SME in Thailand which is one of the most significant business sectors in the country. Therefore, the idea of improving Thai business by integrating an e-business into SMEs has been studied. Furthermore, there are some amount of resear ch for developing e-commerce in Thailand but rarely seen for e-business. In my opinion, e-business could change and improve the way of running business better than ever due to it supports the coordination between suppliers and partners, operation performance, and also included e-commerce (Beynon-Davies, 2004). Aims and objectives Research objectives To discover which kind of small and medium companies should integrate e-business and what are the critical success factors in adopting it. This research also aims to develop the road map of e-business integration for the case study company. Research questions How to adopt e-business to Thai SMEs? Why only some companies should integrate e-business? What are the characteristics that specify the appropriation? How e-business can improve the company performance? What are the critical success factors? What are the main barriers for these kinds of small size business? Do suppliers or customers of the company agree with integrating e-business? Do they have significant influent to change? What are the case study tell us about the literature? How the business can apply in the future? Area of Focus Structure Chapter 2: Literature Analysis and Dissertation Questions Value chain Dynamics of SMEs to information systems Important of e-business E-business integration Thailand SMEs Critical susses factors Chapter 3: Context and Methodology After the previous chapter critical analysed various relevant academic literatures. This chapter illustrates the qualitative research methodology applied in this dissertation in order to analyse and design the roadmap for adopting e-business system in SuperBag Company. In this context and methodology part is combined with three main sections: paradigm and research methodology, research design, and research ethic. The chapter explains the process of research planning in the same logical with the research onion in figure 3.1 (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2008 cited in Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009, p.108). By the reason that this model possible to show the approach of management research clearly. Figure 3.1: The research onion (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009, p.108) As can be seen in figure 3.1 the research onion divided to two colours in order to distinguished the layer of thinking method. In the first two layers are philosophies and approaches which can be thought of as paradigm and research methodology. The next three levels are strategies, choices, and time horizontals. These three layers are concerning on research design process (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In the innermost layer, data collection and data analysis are discussed in the next chapter. Paradigm and Research Methodology This research has the purpose to investigate the critical success factors in applying e-business in Thailand SMEs. Consequently, to get the richness of information and enhance the validity of the outcome, the research will utilise interpretive philosophy (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In addition, the philosophy results in inductive approach. To begin with first layer, this qualitative research applied an interpretivist philosophy. Referred to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) explain that interpretivism suitable for the research topic that has some particular interests and difficult to understand such as human being. For this reason, to comprehend the case study is aligning with interpretivism that supports to view the situation in-depth. Additionally, Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) suggest three views to clarify the research philosophies including with ontology, epistemology and axiology. In interpretivism, ontology represents the nature of reality as subjective that varies to change. Next, epistemology explains that the details of subject contexts are important to the research implication. Lastly in interpretivism paradigm, axiology shows a value-laden and research is part of the research that might lead to biased outcome (Blackmon and Maylor, 2005). In conclusion, interpretivism is appropriate with this research as this philosophy demonstrates the richness of data and subjective as well as high validity (Harwood, 2010). Moreover, as Greener (2008, p.17) stated, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an interpretivist researcher aims to see the world throught the eyes of the people being studied, allowing them multiple perspectives of reality, rather than the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“one realityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? of positivismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. This statement supports the idea that interpretivism is ultimate for business research which supports to generate the framework from the many participants views. In the second layer is inductive approach was used in this research as parallel way of interpretivism. This approach is more appropriate to deal with a small sample size. As it spotlights attention to the contexts of subject. In addition, a number of researches support inductive approach is closer understanding of social word than deductive approach (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Research Design This sub section explains three layers of research onion; strategies, choices, and time horizontals. Firstly, as the dissertation topic analysed SuperBag Company, the research design was fixed as a case study. As well as the Research Philosophy and approach those were devised to find the most appropriate paradigm to produce the reliable outcome. The strategy used in the research is a single case study. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) state that this strategy can be explained descriptive, explanatory and exploratory research types. However, this research is concerned as exploratory more than others because it discovered new knowledge for the case. More details about the case study company are described in the chapter 4. Secondly, reference to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) reveal that while using case study strategy, both qualitative and quantitative should be collected. This technique called as triangulation and it is possible to reduce the bias decision from the point of researchers view. Therefore, this research used mixed-method design in order to increase the research reliability. The qualitative data were collected by using semi-structured interviews and the quantitative data were gathered from internal and external company data resources. Thirdly, the time horizon that was used in this paper is cross-sectional study. Main reason of selecting the cross-sectional study instead of longitudinal study is the research question (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). The research question is about to develop the implementation plan in the particular time, so that cross-sectional study would be more suitable than longitudinal time horizontal. Moreover, as Greener (2008) point out, when the research faced with time limited same as this dissertation case, cross-sectional study would be more preferable too. Ethic Consideration The ethic is one of the main concerns in producing this research. As Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) have indicates that ethically research should be performed since the authority to access the participants, gathering process, analysis, and the way to present research data. For example, the voice record are started after the interviewees were consent to do. Moreover, researcher used the natural tone while interviewing in order to reduce the interviewees stress. In addition, interview time was selected by the interviewees to provide the most convenience time for them. Furthermore, both interviewees and companys name are anonymous due to the privacy concern. Hence, instead of its read name, this case study company referred as SuperBag. Chapter 4: Data Collection and Data Analysis As mentioned in previous section, this chapter explains in the innermost of the research onion that is techniques and procedures of the research. Those discussed in this chapter are highlighted as (1) case description, (2) sampling method, (3) Data collection; secondary data and primary data, and (4) data analysing technique. Case Description This dissertation focuses on SuperBag Company as a case study. This company was selected for examination since it is a Small and Medium Enterprises in Thailand. Thai SMEs is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. SuperBag Company is a filter bags manufacture. The company was established since 1983 and it is a first expert manufacture of filter bags in Thailand. As the first company and its size and profit are increasing continuously that made SuperBag is the leader of this market. Recently, the firm has a client base of over 100 companies including Thailand and some neighbour countries. Additional, the numbers of customers are constant growing. However, SuperBag has not converted to big company yet. The company was owner and formed by an enthusiastic entrepreneur. In addition, SuperBag operated as family business which has 40 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 50 employees. Also, the main communication ways are using the traditional ways such as fax and telephone The company provides a full range of associated filter products and accessories. The main product is filter bags which are using for dust control in various industries such as food processing, pharmaceuticals, and mining quarrying cement. SuperBag offers an assortment of services included; designing suitable bags, onsite fitting, producing made to order products, maintenance, and advice for problem solving. Majority of the products SuperBag manufactured are mainly sold in Thailand. On the other hands, SuperBag imports raw material from many countries included; Germany, Taiwan, Korea, and China. The materials from different country of origin are significantly affected to the product quality and profit margin. The aims and visions of SuperBag are promised to high standard filter bags, fast service, made to order by specialist, concern the customer relationship, in order to achieve the highest customers satisfaction. (SuperBag, 2010) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“most management and organisational researchers suggest that you are more likely to gain access where you are able to use existing contactsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Buchanan et al. 1988; Easterby-Smith et al. 2008; Johnson 1975 cited in Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009, p.176) Sampling Method After the sample case was explained, this section describes the sampling technique that was applied to this research. According to the research question that what to know how to adopt e-business to Thai SMEs which are a numerous number of this kind of enterprise in Thailand. Therefore, the entire population cannot be collected and analysed, the sample case is necessary. Additionally, an alternative of probability, this dissertation decided to use non-probability sampling technique. As Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) indicate that non-probability sampling techniques are allowed to choose the sample purposively. With this reasons the research question could be answered from rich information that usually gains from small sample size. Finally, when combined various supported reasons and the opportunity to access the SuperBag Company data, made this research applied a non-probability with purposively selected SuperBag Company as a case study to simplify the general idea of how to ado pt e-business in Thai SMEs. Data Collection Data were collected from two major types included secondary data and primary data. Firstly, secondary data which are the existing data could be collect from either external or internal company database. Referred to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) internal data are data that can be obtained from the firm. External data could be conducted from many sources such as internet, library, and some publishing media (Harwood, 2010). Another data source is primary data which is data that first collect in the research. As mentioned in sampling method that the research will use a single case study, which will be the good source of primary data. Secondary data As McQuarrie (1996) suggested that before planning to spend time and money to collect data, the researchers should look for secondary data first. Even though the secondary data were gathered for different purposes, they were ready to be used. Moreover, secondary data can be the firm internal data such as investment plan, company annual report. Also, wide ranges of existing knowledge are provided, in this dissertation was focused in four areas consisted; information systems (IS) and information technology (IT), e-business adoption, Thai SMEs, and business strategy. There are a choice of sources to review such as public and university library, and opened online sectors. These secondary data were valuable to the research if they are related, reliability and validity (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009). Primary data This type of case study suits when the case provides authorities to access their data (Yin, 2003). The information was gathered from two interviewers that are the owner and the successor of the company. Furthermore, the interview will use face to face and virtual face techniques. In detailed, these qualitative interviews will be prepared as semi-structured interviews. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009), the semi-structured interviews useful when new aspect from the interviewers are very significant to the research outcome. Because new questions can be added or omitted depends on the conversation. Moreover, the conversions would be recorded by audio-recorders and paper notes. Data Analysis Technique Data Analysis All records will be transcribed into word files and then get through the data cleaning process. Next, these data will be answered the research questions. Nevertheless, the process of data collection and analysis will be repeated until all questions were answered. Resources Although, various secondary data can be found in opened online sector such as Webcat and TDnet, some of useful information has to pay for. Moreover, this research was prepared by individually, so the researcher has to pay for all cost which happens during this project. The free online articles and journals which involve in the topic will be used in this research that can find from intranet at Library of University such as TDnet, Webcat. Time management and location Location Location could have significant impact to the data that was collected, so this research will conduct the information as virtual face and face to face. For virtual face means the interviewee and interviewer can see each other and have real time communication (Skype, 2010). In this research will use the software called Skype. Also, international call will be used in emergency situation. An Adoption Of Ebusiness In Thai SMEs An Adoption Of Ebusiness In Thai SMEs Chapter 1: Dissertation Introduction Background to research In order to increase business opportunities, many large companies invested in information systems (IS). Because the high return from investment have seen in many cases. Also, Porter (2001) claims that the e-business which one kind of information systems can term as the way to management business by applying the Internet to support business activities. However, in small and medium sized enterprises have only small amount of evidences to prove those benefits (Levy, Powell Yetton, 2002). However, presently the internet was changed the way of running business, the small and medium enterprise (SME) have higher opportunities to survive in various markets (Levy Powell, 2005). Consequently, these researches are inspired this research to explore how to improve SME in Thailand which is one of the most significant business sectors in the country. Therefore, the idea of improving Thai business by integrating an e-business into SMEs has been studied. Furthermore, there are some amount of resear ch for developing e-commerce in Thailand but rarely seen for e-business. In my opinion, e-business could change and improve the way of running business better than ever due to it supports the coordination between suppliers and partners, operation performance, and also included e-commerce (Beynon-Davies, 2004). Aims and objectives Research objectives To discover which kind of small and medium companies should integrate e-business and what are the critical success factors in adopting it. This research also aims to develop the road map of e-business integration for the case study company. Research questions How to adopt e-business to Thai SMEs? Why only some companies should integrate e-business? What are the characteristics that specify the appropriation? How e-business can improve the company performance? What are the critical success factors? What are the main barriers for these kinds of small size business? Do suppliers or customers of the company agree with integrating e-business? Do they have significant influent to change? What are the case study tell us about the literature? How the business can apply in the future? Area of Focus Structure Chapter 2: Literature Analysis and Dissertation Questions Value chain Dynamics of SMEs to information systems Important of e-business E-business integration Thailand SMEs Critical susses factors Chapter 3: Context and Methodology After the previous chapter critical analysed various relevant academic literatures. This chapter illustrates the qualitative research methodology applied in this dissertation in order to analyse and design the roadmap for adopting e-business system in SuperBag Company. In this context and methodology part is combined with three main sections: paradigm and research methodology, research design, and research ethic. The chapter explains the process of research planning in the same logical with the research onion in figure 3.1 (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2008 cited in Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009, p.108). By the reason that this model possible to show the approach of management research clearly. Figure 3.1: The research onion (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009, p.108) As can be seen in figure 3.1 the research onion divided to two colours in order to distinguished the layer of thinking method. In the first two layers are philosophies and approaches which can be thought of as paradigm and research methodology. The next three levels are strategies, choices, and time horizontals. These three layers are concerning on research design process (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In the innermost layer, data collection and data analysis are discussed in the next chapter. Paradigm and Research Methodology This research has the purpose to investigate the critical success factors in applying e-business in Thailand SMEs. Consequently, to get the richness of information and enhance the validity of the outcome, the research will utilise interpretive philosophy (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In addition, the philosophy results in inductive approach. To begin with first layer, this qualitative research applied an interpretivist philosophy. Referred to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) explain that interpretivism suitable for the research topic that has some particular interests and difficult to understand such as human being. For this reason, to comprehend the case study is aligning with interpretivism that supports to view the situation in-depth. Additionally, Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) suggest three views to clarify the research philosophies including with ontology, epistemology and axiology. In interpretivism, ontology represents the nature of reality as subjective that varies to change. Next, epistemology explains that the details of subject contexts are important to the research implication. Lastly in interpretivism paradigm, axiology shows a value-laden and research is part of the research that might lead to biased outcome (Blackmon and Maylor, 2005). In conclusion, interpretivism is appropriate with this research as this philosophy demonstrates the richness of data and subjective as well as high validity (Harwood, 2010). Moreover, as Greener (2008, p.17) stated, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an interpretivist researcher aims to see the world throught the eyes of the people being studied, allowing them multiple perspectives of reality, rather than the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“one realityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? of positivismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. This statement supports the idea that interpretivism is ultimate for business research which supports to generate the framework from the many participants views. In the second layer is inductive approach was used in this research as parallel way of interpretivism. This approach is more appropriate to deal with a small sample size. As it spotlights attention to the contexts of subject. In addition, a number of researches support inductive approach is closer understanding of social word than deductive approach (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Research Design This sub section explains three layers of research onion; strategies, choices, and time horizontals. Firstly, as the dissertation topic analysed SuperBag Company, the research design was fixed as a case study. As well as the Research Philosophy and approach those were devised to find the most appropriate paradigm to produce the reliable outcome. The strategy used in the research is a single case study. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) state that this strategy can be explained descriptive, explanatory and exploratory research types. However, this research is concerned as exploratory more than others because it discovered new knowledge for the case. More details about the case study company are described in the chapter 4. Secondly, reference to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) reveal that while using case study strategy, both qualitative and quantitative should be collected. This technique called as triangulation and it is possible to reduce the bias decision from the point of researchers view. Therefore, this research used mixed-method design in order to increase the research reliability. The qualitative data were collected by using semi-structured interviews and the quantitative data were gathered from internal and external company data resources. Thirdly, the time horizon that was used in this paper is cross-sectional study. Main reason of selecting the cross-sectional study instead of longitudinal study is the research question (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). The research question is about to develop the implementation plan in the particular time, so that cross-sectional study would be more suitable than longitudinal time horizontal. Moreover, as Greener (2008) point out, when the research faced with time limited same as this dissertation case, cross-sectional study would be more preferable too. Ethic Consideration The ethic is one of the main concerns in producing this research. As Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) have indicates that ethically research should be performed since the authority to access the participants, gathering process, analysis, and the way to present research data. For example, the voice record are started after the interviewees were consent to do. Moreover, researcher used the natural tone while interviewing in order to reduce the interviewees stress. In addition, interview time was selected by the interviewees to provide the most convenience time for them. Furthermore, both interviewees and companys name are anonymous due to the privacy concern. Hence, instead of its read name, this case study company referred as SuperBag. Chapter 4: Data Collection and Data Analysis As mentioned in previous section, this chapter explains in the innermost of the research onion that is techniques and procedures of the research. Those discussed in this chapter are highlighted as (1) case description, (2) sampling method, (3) Data collection; secondary data and primary data, and (4) data analysing technique. Case Description This dissertation focuses on SuperBag Company as a case study. This company was selected for examination since it is a Small and Medium Enterprises in Thailand. Thai SMEs is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. SuperBag Company is a filter bags manufacture. The company was established since 1983 and it is a first expert manufacture of filter bags in Thailand. As the first company and its size and profit are increasing continuously that made SuperBag is the leader of this market. Recently, the firm has a client base of over 100 companies including Thailand and some neighbour countries. Additional, the numbers of customers are constant growing. However, SuperBag has not converted to big company yet. The company was owner and formed by an enthusiastic entrepreneur. In addition, SuperBag operated as family business which has 40 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 50 employees. Also, the main communication ways are using the traditional ways such as fax and telephone The company provides a full range of associated filter products and accessories. The main product is filter bags which are using for dust control in various industries such as food processing, pharmaceuticals, and mining quarrying cement. SuperBag offers an assortment of services included; designing suitable bags, onsite fitting, producing made to order products, maintenance, and advice for problem solving. Majority of the products SuperBag manufactured are mainly sold in Thailand. On the other hands, SuperBag imports raw material from many countries included; Germany, Taiwan, Korea, and China. The materials from different country of origin are significantly affected to the product quality and profit margin. The aims and visions of SuperBag are promised to high standard filter bags, fast service, made to order by specialist, concern the customer relationship, in order to achieve the highest customers satisfaction. (SuperBag, 2010) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“most management and organisational researchers suggest that you are more likely to gain access where you are able to use existing contactsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Buchanan et al. 1988; Easterby-Smith et al. 2008; Johnson 1975 cited in Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009, p.176) Sampling Method After the sample case was explained, this section describes the sampling technique that was applied to this research. According to the research question that what to know how to adopt e-business to Thai SMEs which are a numerous number of this kind of enterprise in Thailand. Therefore, the entire population cannot be collected and analysed, the sample case is necessary. Additionally, an alternative of probability, this dissertation decided to use non-probability sampling technique. As Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) indicate that non-probability sampling techniques are allowed to choose the sample purposively. With this reasons the research question could be answered from rich information that usually gains from small sample size. Finally, when combined various supported reasons and the opportunity to access the SuperBag Company data, made this research applied a non-probability with purposively selected SuperBag Company as a case study to simplify the general idea of how to ado pt e-business in Thai SMEs. Data Collection Data were collected from two major types included secondary data and primary data. Firstly, secondary data which are the existing data could be collect from either external or internal company database. Referred to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) internal data are data that can be obtained from the firm. External data could be conducted from many sources such as internet, library, and some publishing media (Harwood, 2010). Another data source is primary data which is data that first collect in the research. As mentioned in sampling method that the research will use a single case study, which will be the good source of primary data. Secondary data As McQuarrie (1996) suggested that before planning to spend time and money to collect data, the researchers should look for secondary data first. Even though the secondary data were gathered for different purposes, they were ready to be used. Moreover, secondary data can be the firm internal data such as investment plan, company annual report. Also, wide ranges of existing knowledge are provided, in this dissertation was focused in four areas consisted; information systems (IS) and information technology (IT), e-business adoption, Thai SMEs, and business strategy. There are a choice of sources to review such as public and university library, and opened online sectors. These secondary data were valuable to the research if they are related, reliability and validity (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009). Primary data This type of case study suits when the case provides authorities to access their data (Yin, 2003). The information was gathered from two interviewers that are the owner and the successor of the company. Furthermore, the interview will use face to face and virtual face techniques. In detailed, these qualitative interviews will be prepared as semi-structured interviews. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009), the semi-structured interviews useful when new aspect from the interviewers are very significant to the research outcome. Because new questions can be added or omitted depends on the conversation. Moreover, the conversions would be recorded by audio-recorders and paper notes. Data Analysis Technique Data Analysis All records will be transcribed into word files and then get through the data cleaning process. Next, these data will be answered the research questions. Nevertheless, the process of data collection and analysis will be repeated until all questions were answered. Resources Although, various secondary data can be found in opened online sector such as Webcat and TDnet, some of useful information has to pay for. Moreover, this research was prepared by individually, so the researcher has to pay for all cost which happens during this project. The free online articles and journals which involve in the topic will be used in this research that can find from intranet at Library of University such as TDnet, Webcat. Time management and location Location Location could have significant impact to the data that was collected, so this research will conduct the information as virtual face and face to face. For virtual face means the interviewee and interviewer can see each other and have real time communication (Skype, 2010). In this research will use the software called Skype. Also, international call will be used in emergency situation.