Saturday, 30 November 2013
Friday, 29 November 2013
Chapter 8 : Customer Relationship Management Heads To The Cloud
1. What
types of companies are most likely to adopt cloud-based CRM software services?
Why? What companies might not be well-suited for this type of software?
Answer:
The companies that most
likely to adopt cloud-based CRM software services are small companies such as
Fireclay Tile, a small sustainable tile manufacturer and Large companies such
as Siemens, the Wall Street Journal, Pitney Bowes and Starbucks. Small
companies adopt cloud-based CRM software service to find the on-demand model
especially appealing because there are no large up-front hardware and software
investment on lengthy implementation corporate computer systems. Large
companies adopt cloud-based CRM software service track sales performance
against objective in real time and to monitor key performance indicators, sales
calls and sales volume. The companies like Nikon might not be well-suited for
cloud-based CRM software service because Nikon had been using different system
to perform business functions and was struggling to merge customer data located
on a variety of legacy systems.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using cloud-based enterprise application?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using cloud-based enterprise application?
Answer:
Advantages
- Helped the company quadruple new sale leads by using e-mail and Web-to-lead
- Can tracks more field activities with automated reports and dashboards monitoring key performance indicators, sales calls and sales volume
- Embedded tools for forecasting and analytics and interactive dashboard
- To merge customer data from disparate sources and applications into a single system
- Customizable applications, impeccable customer service and robust infrastructure
- Implement a Web-based FAQ system to answer customer questions and provide support on the data and thus to reduce the number of incoming calls
- Combine outbound e-mail, contact management, and customer records into a single system in cloud
- Receive a solid return on the investment (ROI) and
saving money
Disadvantages
- Assurances and
service level agreements are not always available
- No guarantees
that their data will be available all the time
- Users dependent
on the cloud computing provider
- Facing security risks related to entrusting their critical data and systems to an outside vendor that also works with other companies
3. What people, organization, and technology issues should be addressed in deciding whether to use a conventional CRM system versus a cloud-based version?
Answer:
Many companies are concerned about
maintaining control of their data and security. Although cloud computing
companies are prepared to handle these issues, availability assurances and
service level agreements are not always available. At the same time, companies
that manage their CRM apps with a cloud infrastructure have no guarantees that
their data will be available at all times or even that the provider will still
exist in the future.
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Chapter 12: Life On The Grid: iPhone Becomes Itrack
1. Why do cell phone manufacturers (Apple, Google,
and BlackBerry) want to track where their customers go?
Answer:
Cell phone manufacturers want to track where their customers go because:
- Manufacturers and their customers can use this information to trend consumer buying habits and pinpoint poorly selling or defective products.
- Enables carriers and retailers to cull important information about a phone through its lifecycle, pinpointing when a unit is shipped, received, returned, and refurbished.
- Both Apple and Google claim the information is being used only to identify the location of cell phones for Wi-Fi-connected phones, and to improve the customer experience of location-based services.
- Apple’s technology reads the signal strength of nearby Wi-Fi transmitters, identifies and maps their location, and calculates the location of the iPhone device.
- Advertising firms will pay Apple and Google for that information and for distributing their mobile ads, manufacturing firms will earn money from there.
- Enable advertising companies send us advertisements, coupons, and flash bargains, based on where we are located.
- If our cell phone is lost, then the manufacturers can help us to track the location of our cell phone.
2. Do you think cell phone customers should be able
to turn tracking off? Should customers be informed when they are being tracked?
Why or why not?
Answer:
Yes, I think that there
should be a feature to turn such features off. Customers should be informed
even though most apps do display that GPS and network access is a requirement
for the application. By doing so, the privacy of customer will be protected.
Sometimes customers might don’t want others to know where they are and what are
they doing so it is better to turn tracking off. For example,
if we don't want our location to be tracked on our cellphone by police, just
turn the GPS off, otherwise we've got no expectation of privacy.
How to Prevent Cell Phones from Being Tracked :
- Watch for signs your phones is being tracked. Does your battery drain faster than it should, is your phone interfering with your radio even when turned off, or is your phone still warm after hours of being idle. You may also have difficulty turning your phone off, your phone may light up when not performing any of its normal functions, or you hear strange background noises during your calls. While none of these alone indicate your phone is being monitored, several together can be cause for worry.
- Take your phone to your service provider. Ask them to wipe your phone's memory and restore it to its factory presets. While this will erase all data, it should also remove any tracking and/or eavesdropping software on your phone.
- Keep your phone turned off when not in use. While this will do little to circumvent eavesdropping, it will prevent the gps in your phone from broadcasting your position. Tracking devices can only find your location when you make or receive a call and/or text.
- Call your wireless service provider's customer service. If they are tracking your phone, they are charging your account for this service. As it is illegal in most countries for a private citizen to track another phone, your service provider will inform you whether they are tracking your particular phone. If they are, you can have this service removed from your cell phone.
3. Do you think cell phone tracking is a violation
of a person’s privacy?
Answer:
Yes. Smartphones
contain a treasure trove of personal information, including banking information,
travel plans and family photos. However, while use of advanced security
software is commonplace on our computers, many of us are not safeguarding the
personal information stored on and transmitted through our smartphones. While
there is security software for smartphones including anti-virus and encryption
software, it is not available for all models of cell phones and has not been
widely adopted.
Apple iPhones and Google Android smartphones are
regularly tracking people locations and recording this information in a hidden
file stored on our phones. Anyone able to access our phones can use the stored
locational information to reconstruct our daily travels and routine.
Verizon
Wireless is selling all our app usage and location information to
marketers.Verizon is not only tracking consumers, it is sharing that
information with other companies, and possibly linking it to databases with
more of your personal information.
Cell phone tracking is a violation
of a person’s privacy. Cell phone tracking enables someone to track other
person location without the consent of that person. It will cause disturbance
for that person or cause many problem, such as the enemies of that person can
track that person location and plan to murder that person. Moreover, bank
information or other private and confidential information flow to other people
means it violate a person’s life.
Strict ethics and security measures are strongly recommended
for services that employ positioning, and the user must give an informed,
explicit consent to a service provider before the service provider can compute
positioning data from the user's mobile phone.
Officially, the authorities like police can obtain
permission to position phones in emergency cases where people including
criminals are missing. So, the cell phone tracking should give to some specific
people, not to all the people. That specific people make sure the information
not flow to other people.
Chapter 9: Social Commerce Creates New Customer Relationships
1) Assess
the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media to
engage with customers.
Answer:
We can assess the people, organization, and technology
issues using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to engage with customer.
- Powerful tolls for engaging customer and asses the people, organization, and technology issues.
- Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve greater visibility.
- Twitter has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.
- Facebook targeting capabilities to determine which type of people respond to the various ads it has created.
- Many companies are running online ads that focus less on pitching their product than on promoting their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
- The ads feature menu tabs and allow users to click within the ad to see a brand’s Twitter messages or Facebook wall posts in real time, or to watch a brand’s video content from YouTube-all within the Web page where the ad appears.
- Even if the Facebook or Twitter postings in ads show brands apologizing about missteps or customer complaints, advertisers may still benefit.
2) What are the advantage and
disadvantage of using social media for advertising, brand building, market
research, and customer service?
Answer:
Advantages:
- Building Brand Awareness
- Great for SEO
Social Media or even more specific, Google+ is great for
boosting our SEO. Google is picking up on how much activity each business is
doing on social media and will rank our business accordingly. The more active
and fresh content we are posting on our social media accounts, the better our
business will rank on Google and it really is, as simple as that.
- Cost Effective
Social Media Marketing doesn’t cost you a penny, unless you
want it to. You can market on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and any
other social network for free. If we want to run competitions or use a few
select third party tools, we may end up have to pay a small fee but on the
whole, social media marketing is very cost effective.
Using Social Media to market our business can make us a
thought leader in our selected field.
Disadvantages:
- Understanding on how it works
- Commits illegal crime
- Viral social disadvantage
- Negative effects on worker productivity
- Distraction
- Serious detrimental outcomes on individual’s health
3) Should all
companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or
why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platform?
Answer:
Now days, people are not call up a
company and complain or tell their feedback. Now, they are more likely to head
to their smartphones or computers to tell the world how a product is. That’s
why social media platform like Facebook, Twitter is important for customer
service.
JetBlue Excels in
Responsiveness. Airline delays are one of the most common causes of
customer frustration. JetBlue ensures
they’re responsive to their customers because they understand it’s important
for continued customer loyalty. They engage
with happy customers, but they also respond to and help frustrated customers as quickly as possible.
JetBlue is to be extremely responsive to customers mentioning
their brand. Whether they send public a reply or a private DM to answer a
question, they are quick to interact. As seen in the picture above, they
reached out to their frustrated customer within the hour.
Social media is a channel where
customers get quick responses. Social media platform help companies to response
quickly to customer. Many companies dedicate full-time employees to the task of
responding to customers and potential customers on social media. Social media
help to satisfy customer needs.
Moreover, social media help find all this
things.
- Social Listening (Listening for conversations about your company, competitors or other topics of interest)
- Social Conversation (Finding and responding to conversations online – engaging with others in social media)
- Social Marketing (Launching and running campaigns and promotions in social media)
- Social Analytics(Measuring and analyzing results of social media efforts across various platforms)
- Social Influencer (Identifying and engaging with influencers that are relevant to your company or industry)
Social media
platform is cheaper than traditional marketing and advertising methods. Promote
a product using social networking sites by determining where their customers
and potential customers are, and getting their product visible on those sites.
Facebook page
Companies’ product can have its own
page, where people can like it, comment on it, leave reviews and even link to
your website so they can buy it. Companies can offer incentives such as coupons
and discounts. Invite people to share company page with their friends so
company community can grow.
Companies can set up an account on
Twitter for their product and promote it by attracting followers. Companies
have to come up with brief messages that describe and promote their product.
Follow people, brands and companies that might be interested in their product.
The more people a company follow, the more followers that company have a chance
of attracting.
In our opinion all companies are
best suited to use social media platform. At the same time the company should figure
out what they want to accomplish via Social Media. Moreover, what are their
human resources, and how many people can work on their social media
efforts. Finally, how long is their project going to be.
Chapter 7: Information Security Threats and Policies In Europe
1. What is a botnet?
- The term bot is short for robot. Criminals distribute malicious software (also known as malware) that can turn the computer into a bot (also known as a zombie). When this occurs, the computer can perform automated tasks over the Internet, without us knowing it.
- Criminals typically use bots to infect large numbers of computers. These computers form a network, or a botnet.
- A botnet is a network of autonomous malicious software agents that are under the control of a bot commander.
- The network is created by installing malware that exploits the vulnerabilities of Web servers, operating systems, or applications to take control of the infected computers.
- Once a computer is infected, it becomes part of a network of thousands of “zombies”, machines that are commanded to carry out the attack.
The main points of the
Digital Agenda for Europe are:
- Create a new and stable broadband regulatory environment.
-Guarantee universal broadband coverage
- New
public digital service infrastructure through Connecting Europe Facility
loans.
- exploit the potential of Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to foster innovation, economic
growth and progress.
- Propose EU
cyber-security strategy and Directive.
- For instance, to react in real-time conditions, a well function
and wider network of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) should be
established in Europe.
- At a more operational level, internationally coordinated
information security targeted actions should be pursued, and joint action
should be taken to fight computer crime, with the support of a renewed European
Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).
- Digital
Single Market
- Europe has successfully dismantled cross-border barriers to
trade in most physical goods and many services.
- Leveraging Europe’s digital strengths into global
competitiveness, economic wealth and sustainable jobs requires the creation of
a European Digital Single Market, where business can be conducted online as
easily as via traditional channels.
-The Digital Single Market will require greater harmonization
across policy areas to eliminate existing obstacles to the provision of
pan-European online commerce and services.
- Launch grand Coalition on digital skills and jobs
- We need to both grow our ICT sector and drive the development of
individuals with the necessary understanding and skills at all levels of the
value chain.
- Europe must set ambitious goals for 2015 including halving the
digital literacy and competence gaps and guaranteeing that all primary and
secondary schools have high-speed Internet connections. By 2012 the EU should
ensure all primary and secondary school students receive training about the
risks and safe use of the Internet. All adults of working age should have
access to e-Skills training.
- Update EU’s copyright framework.
- Accelerate cloud computing through public sector buying power.
- Launch new electronics industrial strategy – an “Airbus of Chips”
3. Explain how a cyber attack can be carried out.
There
are two types and techniques of cyber attacks commonly used include:
A
denial
of service attack occurs when “an attacker attempts to prevent
legitimate users from accessing information or services.” This is typically
accomplished when the attacker overloads a system with requests to view
information. This would be an example of a remote attack. By extension, a
distributed denial of service (DDoS) occurs when multiple computers are
involved in a denial of service attack causing an even larger amount of traffic
on the target website.
Vulnerability is some part of the
system that the attacker can take advantage of or manipulate A safe cracker,
for instance, must know where the safe is and how to get into it. The
vulnerability would require knowledge of the safe, its locking mechanism and
what aspects may be exploited. The payload, in this case, would be a bag full
of money. Given these three aspects, prior intelligence is needed to understand
what access is available and what vulnerability can be exploited in order to
attack precise targets.
- The Web is made up of billions of pages created by different people with different levels of technical skills, offering rich content in many different formats. Accessing some of this content requires helper applications, such as media players. Many different types of back-end software serve up these web pages, content, and many of those formats, applications, and tools have weaknesses hackers can exploit.
- Hackers use vulnerabilities to create exploits that let them penetrate your computer or network. Often, when you visit an infected webpage or open an infected email, the attack code starts snooping around for any known weaknesses in your system.
- The level of sophistication is remarkable in that the malware sites can actually identify the particulars of your computer and operating system and infect or attack the system appropriately. For instance, if you run Safari as your browser, the malware sites will not bother trying any known Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. Instead, they focus on Safari or Safari plug-in weaknesses.
- When a useful vulnerability is found, the goal of the malware attack is to create a buffer overflow condition in your computer. This then gives the malware the capability to initiate the download of harmful code, the key loggers, botnet software, spyware ad generators, or others.
- Malware creators and distributors also take advantage of "weaknesses" in human nature, such as curiosity, trust, and desire for connection, and carelessness, to dupe users into handing over the keys to their system security.
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