Technology Infrastructure Essay Example for Free

Technology Infrastructure Essay Information Technology Infrastructure is the integrated framework upon which networks operate. The infrastructure is the physical hardware used to interconnect computers and users or in some cases it is viewed as everything that supports the flow and processing of information, the transmission media, which includes telephone and cable television lines and also the routers, repeaters and other devices that control transmission paths. The software used to send, receive and manage the signals that are transmitted is also part of the infrastructure and should be managed and designed accordingly in other to have an effective network. In this final paper I will assess, compile, update and synthesize all the information that I have collected throughout the 10 weeks. A proposal will then be written to address some problems and deficiencies which were uncovered in the network and what my proposed solution is. Part 1: Network Assessment  The network that I have been characterizing is a small local area network for an Accounting firm in downtown Manhattan. The network will be made up of 14 workstations where 8 will be used for invoice billing, 1 for the manager, 2 for the IT department, 1 for reception the 2 others will be left unused just in case employees from other offices are there on business and need to access work related files. The LAN is being designed with the hope of expansion to another floor in the coming months so provision is made with this in mind. Considering the size of the organization I chose to design a LAN because of it is cost effective, because of the connectivity and communication which allows users to communicate be email with each other, Data Sharing lets the networked computers share data with each other and because Data Security and Management allows the administrator to manage the data better. I also kept in mind that instead of installing software and updates to each individual computer the software can be uploaded to the entire network and dispatched to all computers on said network eliminating time and expenses. Designing this network called for effective Information Technology planning which is a key ingredient in achieving strategic business success when implanting a network or any type of information technology infrastructure. Because the network is comprised of 10 workstations and the manger as well as the CEO will be using laptops I have chosen to use fiber optic instead of regular cable especially due to the amount of noise present in cable communication media with a DSL / Digital Subscriber Line internet connection while incorporating wireless service for laptops and visiting employees as well as those who work from home. Though Fiber-optic seem to be a bit pricy my decision to go with Laser Fiber Optic was based the company needing the computers to be up and running all day and making sure that the lines are secured. Secondly because the company is thinking of expanding to another floor we need the transmission range to maximize, so 100 kilometers as far as transmission range is important. The only other alternative media that I would consider is the thick coaxial cable but we would need to incorporate the use of repeaters after a 100meters when the company is ready to expand. The main issue to consider is how secure this line is which is the reason why Fiber-optic would be the most trusted and efficient. My third reasoning behind choosing fiber again is the potential noise issues which could slow down the network and cause disturbances. Two specific points where I think noise will be present are when employees are working from home trying to connect through the VPN connection in windows XP there can be attenuation issues which is loss of signal strength. The VPN connections allow window XP clients to connect to a VPN remote access server by using PPTP and LT2P network protocols. Secondly with the wireless network infrastructure implemented if too many users are trying to use the same channel (not enough bandwidth to go around) and the adapter settings are not done properly then there are bound to be interruptions with the data transmission, any form of signal issue is a potential for noise. My recommendation to eliminate this issue would be keeping the routers in an area central to the rest of the devices that will be connecting and changing the wireless channel on the router associated with the wireless connection. The key devices needed to put the network together are 2 servers, (one will be used for backup although we are using cloud computing) CAT6 cable, 2 wireless routers / wireless switches, a network adapter and a repeater. All these devices together links up all the local and remote network segments with each other to make data communication flow better. Because of the size of the network there are a number of peripheral, devices applications and data that will be shared by users on the network. Some of the peripheral devices include the router and modem which will be used to connect all the computers, the printers and copiers, scanners for scanning documents and file and folder sharing. Some of the application software shared will be emails, internet and the web browser. Everyone on the network will also share the same operating system which will be windows 7. The document sharing will be shared among the users on the same network because they all will be connected to the main server. When updates need to be made it won’t be sent to individual computers instead it will be sent through the network and server so all computers are updated automatically. Although a license has to be purchased for every user who is using the software on their individual computers everyone will be able to share and use the same program or software on the network as long as they are connected. Because of the partial wireless nature of the network, there are a number of protocols with needed to be implemented. The two protocols that are implemented are PPPoE and PPP. PPPoE stands for Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet and PPP stands for Point to Point Protocol which is a member of the TCP/IP suite of network protocols. PPP is usually used over serial communications like dial-up modem connections. The advancement of technology has brought hackers and cyber-attack at an all-time high, so securing the network deemed a bit challenging especially due to the wireless part which possess security and technical challenges. Some of the security issues include viruses, worms, denial or service, hackers and the list goes on. To secure the data on the LAN I will be implementing Data Encryption Standard which is a commonly used encryption method used to send and receive secure transactions. To avoid and intercept viruses and worms I implemented an antivirus called the Symantec Endpoint Protection. Symantec Endpoint Protection offers great performance and support for virtual environments; antivirus scans are reduced because of layering technologies like insight which lowers the risk of cyber criminals. The third form of security that I have implemented is the use of a firewall. A firewall is a system or combination of systems that supports an access control between two networks so in this case it would be between my LAN and the WAN which is the World Wide Web. A firewall limits users on the internet from accessing certain portions of a corporate network and can limit internal users from accessing various parts of the internet. This is where access control would play a part. Firewalls come in two basic types, packet filters and proxy servers. Packet filters examines all incoming and outgoing transmissions and filter out those transmissions that are deemed illegal. Proxy’s on the other hand are computers running at the entrance to a computer network and acting as a gatekeeper. Finally because of the wireless part of my network I will need to make sure that there is wireless security implemented by making sure that a password is used to long in. The use of WAP (Wi-Fi Protected Access) will be used as the encryption key to keep the wireless segment protected and secured. In relation to physical security I recommend always locking up the server rooms, turning them off will save on power but won’t avoid unauthorized persons from tampering, ensuring that there are good locks on the server door is crucial. Secondly disconnecting and removing computers that are not being used and locking them up is a way to prevent hackers from accessing unsecured computers that are connected to the network. Employees who are out to lunch should also lock their computer to avoid the fellow employee from accessing files that they are not authorized to see. The third physical security option is disabling the drives; If you want to prevent your employees from copying information to a removable media disabling or removing floppy drives, USB ports and any means of connecting to external drives is important. Disk locks can be inserted into floppy drives on the computers that are restricted. The forth physical security I would install is a backup server, not at the current location but somewhere away from the office. In case there is a fire in any of the office or someone messes with any of the computers, the files will be stored at a secure location outside of any of the offices that the company in question has. Network security starts at the physical level, having firewalls won’t deter an intruder who is able to gain physical access to your network and computers’ so locking up well is the key. Although every aspect of the network was addressed there were some issues that came up towards the end of the project right when the company was about to lunch the new system. The 2 deficiencies that came up were related to the hardware which was associated with the physical structure of the network as well as performance issues. Part B: Proposal Document Project Justification: The LAN has the potential to be a great network because it has the potential of expanding into a WAN, so to address the problems which were just discovered I have put together a proposal which is guaranteed to eliminate the hardware and performance issues associated with the connection on the network. It is important that the hardware issues which includes the printers, telephone lines and VPN connectors are dealt with before the new network is completely lunched because not only is invoicing done for clients in the New York, but the office in Tokyo needs to access the same files and need to be able to send documents to the printer/ fax machines with no encumbrance. The current infrastructure’s VPN connection was not configured correctly so during testing it was brought to my knowledge that anyone who would be working from home would have issues getting a connection. Secondly with the installation of the VoIP telephones we realized that the connection was not clear and any long distance calls which went over 5 minutes would be disconnected. The performance issues which had been a problem from conception stemmed from me not taking into consideration the applications that were going to run on the network and the use of a hub instead of a switch.

Accounting System in QuickBooks for a Hospital

Accounting System in QuickBooks for a Hospital Introduction: Once the accounting system is installed in the hospital then the hospital records would be kept electronically. All the manual work would be shifted in the computer through the operators. This would lead to many benefits for the organization. First of all the cost of the hospital would be decreased and the time wold be saved for the staff. All the information for the medicines would be kept in the electronic form and it would be convenient for the operators to locate those easily. It will help in maintaining following works of the hospital. Services Management This module will deal with administrations gave by the healing center. Rate of administrations is charged by standards of clinic . It will think about board , Night Charges , Emergency charges , Age of patient and different parameters while ascertaining the rate of administrations for a specific patient. Patient Management Each patient treated in healing center will be given novel Patient ID which is helpful in following visits of patients. All patients information is advantageous for MRD purposes. OPD Management OPD Registration When a patient goes to the gathering work area, another enrollment number is naturally Allotted to him. His particular points of interest like Name, Age, Sex, Address and so forth and the administrations sought are feeded into the product. OPD Billing / Collection Billing of all OPD patients with complete subtle elements of Patient Information, Services gave like Consultation, Laboratory, X-beam, Ultrasound, Medicines, Procedures and so forth alongside Payment points of interest. Discharge Summary After the release of patient release synopsis could be consequently produced with simply few press of keys. Lab information can naturally be foreign. Distinguishing offering clever standard arrangement could be set. Laboratory Management As the test is busy at gathering solicitation is consequently send to research center. Lab can sustain the consequence later and prints alluring reports. Security Management Part base security will be give to client. Customer server building design will be accompanied. Pharmacy Management Complete drug store shop could be overseen through this module. Moreover it could be connected to fundamental charging. As patient gathers pharmaceuticals from drug store shop their charges will consequently exchange to patient charging. Payroll HRD Management Complete pay might be registered through this module. This module might be connected through Time machines additionally. All fundamental organizations might be created through this module. Accounts Management All buy , expenditures ,installments could be feeded in this module. Receipts might be specifically foreign made from OPD and IPD division. Accounting Information Systems Quickbooks is accounting programming that gives a simple and effective approach to gather and abridge accounting data. Furthermore, Quickbooks makes numerous distinctive reports that are functional when dealing with a business. The target of an accounting framework is to gather, condense, and convey data to leaders. Accounting data is utilized to: prepare tax returns to send to the IRS and state tax organizations. prepare financial statements for banks and gurus. prepare reports for chiefs and holders to utilize when settling on choices about the business. Such choices incorporate: Are our clients paying their bills on time? Which of our items are the most beneficial? Will we have enough money to pay our bills one month fro Transactions An accounting framework gathers data about transactions. As an organization behaviors business, it enters into transactions (or trades) with different gatherings, for example, clients, merchants, and representatives. Case in point, when a business offers an item to a client, there are two parts to the transaction: the business gives an item or administration to the client. in trade, the business gains money (or a guarantee to pay later) from the client. Double-entry accounting Double-entry accounting is utilized to record the two parts to a transaction: (1) the measure appropriated is a debit, and (2) the sum given is a credit. Each entry must equalization; debits must equivalent credits. Double-entry accounting has been utilized for over 500 years. In Italy in the year 1494, Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan minister, and Leonardo da Vinci teamed up on an arithmetic book that depicted double-entry accounting. The double-entry system was utilized by the shippers of Venice to record what was given and appropriated when exchanging. In a manual accounting system, accountants make debit and credit entries in a journal using paper and pencil. When using QuickBooks for your accounting system, you can enter accounting information in two different ways: (1) onscreen journal, and (2) onscreen forms. 1. Onscreen Journal. You can make debit and credit entries in an onscreen journal shown below. Instead of using the onscreen journal, you can use onscreen forms to enter information in QuickBooks. 2. Onscreen forms. One can enter data about transactions utilizing onscreen structures, for example, those appeared. Quickbooks naturally changes over data entered in onscreen structures into double-entry accounting entrances with debits and credits. Quickbooks administers a rundown of diary sections for all the transactions entered if entered utilizing the onscreen diary or onscreen structure Creating an Accounting System in QuickBooks Steps to create an accounting system using QuickBooks are: Set up a new company data file. Quickbooks utilizes an easy step Interview that gets some information about your business. Quickbooks then consequently makes an organization information index for your business. In Part I of this content, Exploring Quickbooks, you will utilize a specimen organization information document that has as of recently been made for you. In Part II, you will set up another organization utilizing the Easystep Interview. Create a Chart of Accounts. A chart of accounts is a rundown of every last one of records for an organization. Accounts are utilized to sort and track accounting data. Case in point, a business needs one record for Cash, an alternate record to track measures clients owe (Accounts Receivable), but then an alternate record to track stock. Quickbooks consequently makes a diagram of records in the Easystep Interview. Quickbooks licenses you to adjust the diagram of records later, in the wake of finishing the Easystep Interview. Create Lists. Quickbooks utilization records to record and arrange data about: customers vendors items (things sold and things acquired, for example, stock) employees other, (for example owners) Enter transactions. Enter data about transactions into Quickbooks utilizing the onscreen diary or onscreen structures, (for example, onscreen receipts and onscreen checks). Prepare reports. Reports outline and convey data around an organizations fiscal position and business operations. Monetary explanations are institutionalized money related reports provided for outer clients (brokers and moguls). Budgetary explanations abridge data about past transactions. The essential monetary proclamations for a business are: Balance sheet: condenses what an organization possesses and owes on a specific date. Profit and loss statement (or income statement): condenses what an organization has earned and the costs acquired to procure the salary. Statement of cash flows: compresses money inflows and money surges for working, contributing, and financing exercises of a business. Other financial reports are made for interior clients (supervisors) to support in deciding. A sample of such a report is a money plan that tasks measures of money that will be gathered and used later on. In Part I: Exploring Quickbooks, you will research Step 2: making a diagram of records; Step 3: making records; Step 4: entering transactions; and Step 5: planning reports. In Part II: Small Business Accounting, you will figure out how to set up another organization in Quickbooks and survey Steps 2 through 5. Advantages Disadvantages of QuickBooks: Regardless of what the way of your business, keeping an exact set of books is crucial. Without faultless business records, it will be challenging to draw in the financing you require in light of the fact that business records are for the most part the first thing potential banks and moguls need to see. Off base or confused business records can likewise make it troublesome to record your taxes, or even land you in heated water with the Internal Revenue Service. Utilizing Quickbooks to keep your business records gives you a chance to maintain a strategic distance from those potential issues. Ease of Use One issue with accounting projects is that a large portion of them are challenging to utilize and lumbering to take in. Quickbooks, then again, is intended to be natural and straightforward, actually for entrepreneurs who fail to offer an accounting or financial foundation. Integration The capacity to incorporate with different projects is an enormous preference of Quickbooks. In the wake of utilizing the item to enter the sum of their business salary and expenditures, entrepreneurs can without much of a stretch fare that information to their most loved tax planning project to make indexing wage taxes at any rate somewhat less tormenting. Quickbooks likewise incorporates well with Microsoft Excel, making it simple to import information from different sources and use it in Quickbooks. Customization Quickbooks gives various prepared to-utilize layouts entrepreneurs can use to make receipts, spreadsheets, outlines and strategies for success. The product additionally makes it simple to alter the look and feel of those records, providing for them to a lesser degree a treat cutter manifestation and bailing them to emerge in the swarm. The capacity to modify receipts could be especially advantageous, and entrepreneurs can include their organization logo as well as point by point data about each one line thing too. That makes it less demanding for clients to accommodate their receipts and pay them on time. Check Signing In the event that you sign a great deal of checks for your business, utilizing Quickbooks can spare you a ton of time. Quickbooks permits entrepreneurs to output and transfer their marks and utilize those marks to set up the checks for the business. This robotized methodology is much more straightforward and simpler than composing several checks by hand every month. Quickbooks, prepared by Intuit, is a prominent line of accounting programming promoted basically to little organizations and non-benefit associations. The product permits clients to deal with a mixed bag of financial records, including deals receipts, installments, tax structures, financial receipts and stock records. Since Quickbooks is so easy to utilize, most assignments might be finished without an in-profundity learning of accounting systems. Notwithstanding the products easy to understand nature, then again, there are various weaknesses customers ought to be mindful of before putting in the project. Lackluster Audit Trail One of the essential worries about Quickbooks is the products review trail. Bookkeepers, and in addition entrepreneurs , like an organizations stream of financial data to be in-profundity and overall archived. While Quickbooks does give a review trail to most data, there are a few circumstances where financial data could be changed without leaving any kind of documentation. Basically, this implies that the product leaves an escape clause that could possibly permit an organizations financial records to be altered. No Fixed-Asset Section Contingent upon how a customer utilizes the product, an alternate potential issue is that Quickbooks doesnt accompany a settled possession area. Intuit, understanding the oversight, now gives a differentiate report to posting an organizations altered possessions. Upgrade Fees Keeping in mind the end goal to stay up with the latest, there are various pricey overhauls that entrepreneurs may need to buy. Commonly, these redesigns are just obliged once a year to get the most up and coming payroll tables and different administrations. Outages Quickbooks Online Edition an administration that permits clients to pay a month to month expense to utilize the product through a protected web program -accompanies its own particular remarkable issues. While the online administration offers fewer characteristics than the desktop form of the product, the most genuine detriment is the historical backdrop of developed blackouts, which have happened in both 2009 and 2010. Bibliography Advantages using quickbooks . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-using-quickbooks-4933.html Disadvantages of QuickBooks. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/list_7499063_disadvantages-quickbooks.html ERP Solutions for Hospital Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.acsonnet.com/hospital.htm

Bipolar Disorder - Short Presentation :: essays research papers

Bipolar Disorder, also known as Manic Depression, involves episodes of mania and depression, with periods of stability. Manic episodes are characterized by elevated energy levels, restlessness, feeling of nothing can go wrong, and high self-confidence; while depressive episodes are the exact opposite: low energy, sluggish, sadness, and feeling of hopelessness. Occasionally, people suffering from Bipolar Disorder can suffer more severe symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking. Although they do not know the exact cause of Bipolar Disorder, researchers believe that biologic, genetic and environmental factors are all involved in causing and triggering episodes of the illness. Evidence suggests that an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain is the culprit. Episodes can last weeks or months. For two years I live with a 16 year-old girl named Nicole who had Bipolar Disorder. I witnessed several episodes ranging from calm to severe. A calm episode would usually consist of only the manic stage. She had about 7 calm episodes while she lived with me. In reality, calm episodes are just episodes caught in enough time so that an adjustment of her medication was able to stabilize her. In a more severe episode, Nicole would usually decline mentally over a 7-day period, at which point she would need to be hospitalized. Nicole’s behavior during a severe episode included wild mood swings: from extreme happiness to anger to sadness; disorganized thinking: she was unable to follow conversations, and would make inappropriate statements; and cutting depression: she tried to kill herself 4 times. Nicole’s illness affected her life completely. Having spent her most of her life in and out of hospitals she was unable to attend school on a regular basis. She had few friends because she was embarrassed to tell them about her condition. Nicole eventually left our house during a severe episode. She became paranoid that we were trying to control her. She packed all of her stuff and left to go live with her mother. We heard that she was hospitalized just 3 days later. She was in the hospital for 5 months, her longest stretch ever. I went and visited her in the hospital several times. I barely recognized her. She was not thinking clearly, delusional, and paranoid. When she was in â€Å"remission†, she was completely normal. Now, she couldn’t pay attention, was fidgety, and told me she was hearing voices again. As of October of 2001, Nicole is living in a halfway house because her illness is unable to be kept under control.

Success Story: Subway Restaurants Essay -- Business Marketing Franchis

Success Story: Subway Restaurants Subway Restaurants, the franchised based sandwich shops, has surpassed McDonald’s as the largest restaurant chain in the country. The â€Å"Healthy Choice† promoted chain surpassed the Big Mac of fast food by 148 locations. Subway opened 904 new locations last year, to McDonald’s 295 opened (www.Subway.com). The sandwich franchise began during the summer of 1965. Seventeen year old Fred DeLuca received a loan from a family friend for one thousand dollars, and opened the first Subway in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The store name was not Subway but Pete’s Super Submarines named after the family friend that gave Fred DeLuca the loan (www.entrepreneur.com). Pete’s Super Submarines was changed to the current name of Subway in 1974 (www.entrepreneur.com). Fred DeLuca wanted to expand and open more locations, he had a set goal of opening 32 shops with in ten years. By 1974 DeLuca owned and operated sixteen locations around Connecticut. DeLuca was just at the halfway point of his goal of 32 shops in ten years. Time was running short with just less than two years to achieve his targeted goal. DeLuca turned to franchising as an option to increase locations (www.Subway.com). A Friend of DeLuca was the first franchisee. Brian Dixon bought the Wallington, Connecticut location (www.Subway.com). In 2003 Subway is ranked number one in the franchise 500, they have held this title for three years in a row. Subway has also been ...

Should We Really Give Children the Vote? :: Exploratory Essays

Should We Really Give Children the Vote? Sixteen year old Vita Wallace is an activist for children’s rights. In her argument, â€Å"Give children the vote,† she attempts to show that an injustice has been made to citizens of the United States. Wallace’s major claim, or thesis (McFadden, 2003), is that citizens under the age of 18 shouldn’t be denied the right to vote on account of age. Rather, she argues, children should be allowed to vote at whatever age suits them individually. By saying individually, she is using a qualifier, words and phrases used to limit and modify the overgeneralization of claims (McFadden). It is important that Wallace uses the term individually, because she recognizes that an age limit would be inappropriate for some children. After this point, most of the essay is dedicated to her opinion on why it is important for children to vote. Wallace’s uses appeal to the reader’s values, also known as warrants (McFadden). The emotional pleas may cause the audi ence to stop and consider her logic, but lack of facts and evidence leaves the argument unconvincing. With her jumpy writing and scattered thoughts the argument is hard to read, and even harder to believe. Therefore, I found the essay to be unsuccessful in persuading my opinion. The logic and evidence used to support her major claim, known as grounds (McFadden) is hard to find. The strongest evidence in the whole essay is statistics of eligible adult voters. With this information, she points out that only 36-40 percent of eligible adults actually vote. However, 25 percent of the population is under the age of 18, leading to Wallace’s statement that â€Å"Although elected representatives are responsible for all of us, they are responsible to only a few of us† (Wallace, 1998, p. 146). This statement would be effective but Wallace loses her credibility at the end of the paragraph when she calls politicians and voters selfish. By doing this she is using a fallacy, statements based on poor logic and mistaken belief (Clark, p. 81). By saying they are selfish she is using an Ad Hominem argument, which is an attack on the person rather than the issue (Clark, 1998, p. 83). Throughout the essay Wallace develops many minor claims, which are secondary statements supporting the major claim (McFadden). Right away she discusses â€Å"Discriminatory laws† which prevent high school drop-outs from getting their driver’s licenses.

Counter-Intuitive Marketing

Chapter 10 gives the reader a view if direct marketing is really effective on selling products to consumer at large. Most of selling companies consider direct marketing as a â€Å"personalized† marketing; however, there is more to the tedious door-to-door selling. Factors are attributed to how the consumers buy-in to the concept that goes to the product, may it be the message it conveys or the packaging itself. Before going to the assessment of current direct marketing strategies and research designs that can be used to target the right customers, the current problems of direct marketing were enlisted.One of the problems experienced was the decline in the response rates among the consumers. This situation may lead to the next problem which is saturation to direct marketing mails. Since many companies are into direct selling, there may also be a thin delineation among these companies. This leads to the problem of having not enough innovation in the part of the marketers. With t hese problems at hand, the author routed us to the idea if the list that marketers have at hand is really the list that would patronize their products.In marketing, it is important to understand the market so you would know if your product will fit. It is easy to secure a list, but the book tells us that there is more to having that list. When marketing a certain product, it is important to understand the behavior and attitudes of the consumers. The material recommends that it pays the company who builds their own list and understands the needs of those consumers on that list. In this way, from a bigger perspective of the population, the company can identify the segment of the population that is expected to buy.However, the concept of direct marketing is not only confined to the relationship of the company to its consumers. Direct marketing can also happen to business-to-business. One computer company can sell its services to another company who would need its products. But just lik e how one company should understand its consumers, when dealing with companies as well, it would need to know what it values, what it finds important or what risks it will take. Towards the end of the chapter, it discusses methods on how one company can find effective direct marketing strategies.The process of finding the appropriate strategy is continually evolving. It is not serving the same content yet in different packaging. Changing strategy mix from time to time will help the marketer fine tune his design to effectively sell the products. It also pays in direct marketing to make itself visible, not only once to the customer. Once a direct mail is sent to the consumer twice, it will yield a higher possibility of response from the side of the consumer. Direct marketing in an essence is an experiment that molds itself to perfection.One cannot really have a perfect model to follow, but one thing sure about making it effective is to always acknowledge the side of your productâ€⠄¢s market. Indeed, it is a powerful tool once a company can get it right, but also a way of wasting resource if done otherwise. The next chapter leads the readers to a more specific perspective of marketing – building the concept for the product that will be sold to the customers. Within a product, marketers can actually think of numerous possibility or mixes on how to market it effectively.Some companies would go on for discounts, freebies and favors. However, not all these would actually work. It shows that it will be all competition driven, thus, sacrificing the actual sales that the product would have. Most of companies employ the idea of the traditional concept testing. In doing this design, it is recommended that companies should have larger sample sizes and should disclose the full description of the product. This is to ensure that they will have at least the credible response of the consumers about their selling proposition.However, this strategy is engulfed with pro blems. It fails to acknowledge that consumers may not really mean what they are saying. The customer’s promise of saying that he will buy the product may not necessarily mean that they will do the thing of buying it. Models may say that consumers will most likely buy it if there is a high self reported probability of purchase. Then again, this is still a gamble. As mentioned on the previous chapter, there is more to understanding the target market. Affective and cognitive components affect the consumer’s decision to buy the product.Affective would mean their intangible impressions or their feelings, and the latter focuses on their intellectual impressions on how the product could be of help to them. These two components have to be reconciled in order to have a clearer picture on the consumer’s willingness to buy the product. However, as mentioned, there are still numerous options under one concept. The two components cannot give the marketers a concrete answer o n what to really market on the larger scale of consumers. A methodology is herein presented to address this challenge.As proposed by Paul Green of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the multiple trade-off analysis can address the problem on how to consolidate the factors and all other small concept under the big product design. One can also evaluate each factor independently; however the multiple trade-off analysis can also show the interaction effects between factors. Not all factors is a stand-alone, the researcher must acknowledge that one factor can actually rely on another. The end each analysis is always to come up with the best marketing decision.The chapter warns marketers that the most appealing concept may be the most expensive one. As the company proceeds with its operations, not taking into consideration the financial part can be detrimental. Thus, deciding on the best concept will speak about optimality – not only considering the dimension but always keeping in mind profitability. Evaluation thousands of options is always worth doing and balancing it with the returns would lead to a marketing success. Possible Questions to the CEO During the Interview 1.What strategy does your company employing when you market directly your products? 2. What were the success and failures of this strategy? 3. How did you understand your market base in order to cope up with the failures of the existing strategy? 4. What method did you use to know what effective marketing concept that would let your consumers avail of your product or service? 5. Do you think you method has been successful in capturing your target market? Why? BIBLIOGRAPHY Clancy, Peter C. Krieg Kevin J.. Counter-Intuitive Marketing. New York City: Free Press, 2000.

Geo100 Brisbane Floods

ESSAY As natural disasters are inevitable, it is essential that we as humans mitigate the potential outcomes caused by these disasters. This essay will explore the 2011 floods of Brisbane and whether proper planning and preparation could have minimised the outcome. It will further explore the impact the Wivenhoe Dam had on the floods and discuss whether dam maintenance; level supplies and warnings could have helped. December 2010 and January 2011 saw Queensland experience record-breaking rainfall that has not been seen since 1960.Approximately 1 000 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in January alone, which caused the second biggest flood Brisbane has experienced since 1974 (Hornet & McAneney, 2011:1150). The 2011 floods caused severe devastation throughout Brisbane with over 26 000 people loosing their homes and over 5 000 businesses around the city either partially or completely flooded. It further caused around ninety kindergartens and sixty schools to be affected and unusable. However the greatest devastation was the loss of twenty-three people’s lives as a direct result of the floods (Calligeros, 2011:4).The Queensland Government also suffered a major financial repercussion from the floods. Over 440 million dollars was spent in repairing roads, bridges, power poles and other public facilities that were destroyed (PM With Mark Colvin 2011). This kind of spending by the Government caused speculation that if proper planning and preparation been implemented, the Brisbane floods could have been mitigated. This speculation further lead to the investigating of whether the Wivenhoe Dam helped or hindered the floods.The Wivenhoe Dam opened in 1985 after the great Brisbane floods of 1974 occurred and was seen as a solution to prevent further floods from happening again. All the dams, creeks and rivers surrounding the Wivenhoe Dam were connected that any potential overflow could run straight into the Wivenhoe and therefore have minimal risk of overflowing. H owever what occurred in 2011 was not what was planned when building Wivenhoe many years earlier. Wivenhoe Dam was built to hold a water supply of 1. 5 million millilitres of water, with a capacity to hold 1. 45 million millilitres at Full Supply Level or FSL. The 30 million-millilitre difference was allocated as a reserve for floodwaters to help mitigate flooding (Honert & McAneney, 2011:1152). Although a reserve level had been allocated in the dam, the issue was that there had been constant and heavy rainfall in the previous spring months. This led to the Wivenhoe catchments being relatively full prior to the downpour that occurred in the December 2010 and January 2011.This rain further caused the surrounding rivers and creeks to overflow causing minor river flooding, with water then starting to flow into Wivenhoe to help prevent major flooding. Leading up to the floods Wivenhoe peaked at 1. 50pm on Wednesday 12th of January reaching an astounding 2. 29 million millilitres. (See Ap pendix 1 – Table 1. 0). A day later Brisbane River peaked at 4. 46 metres at 2. 57am on Thursday 13th of January, causing major flooding to begin. (See Appendix 2 – Graph 2. 0).It was during these two days that the role the SEQWater played was questioned, as they were aware that the dams were high enough to overflow. This speculation was further fuelled when it was made known that SEQWater only released 60% of the dam’s water, moments before the flood engulfed Brisbane (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). SEQWater is the company in charge of the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams and have three simple operating guidelines that they must follow (See Appendix 4 – Guidelines 4. 0).It was apparent that none of the guidelines were followed for a number of reasons. Firstly this was evident as when the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams began filling up as a result of the severe wet weather, SEQWater did not release any water from either dam until Tuesday 11th of January. As t hey had left the water idling for too long they had no other choice but to release the water at once instead of gradually releasing water like they were advised to do from the Senior Flood Operations Engineer.After the flood occurred SEQWater stated back, â€Å"The flood compartments of the dams were filled to a high level by the first flood that there was not sufficient time to release this water prior to the second flood arriving,† (Water, 2011:1158). So although the SEQWater tried to justify their actions, it can be argued that the SEQWater company and the employees were warned a few days in advance that by releasing a small amount of water at different times during the day would help minimise the amount of flooding that could have potentially occurred.Once it was discovered that the SEQWater had received numerous warning of potential warnings, the issue was studied and analysed. It was estimated that between 11:00 Tuesday 11th of January and 19:09 Wednesday 12th of Januar y that 518,000 millilitres of water was released from Wivenhoe dam making around a 60% contribution to the already rising water around the Brisbane area. (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). By 6:09pm Thursday the 13th of January the water flowing past the City Gauge was estimated to be around 866,000 millilitres and was still continuing to rise. See Appendix 5 – Table 5. 0). The final detailed analysis sent out to SEQWater by the Senior Floods Operation Engineer it was analysed that if releases from the Wivenhoe dam were timed appropriately it could have minimised the flooding that occurred. (See Appendix 6 – Analysis 6. 0). The Bureau of Meteorology proved to be helpful through the disaster, by providing warnings through their rainfall data. Day-to-day rainfall charts and rainfall maps were updated online and made easily accessible to the public and those affected. See Appendix 7 and 8 – Graph and Chart 7. 0). The BOM also released a clear warning to both the government and the public that the amount of rain that was coming would have the likely strength of a La Nina event. As the information was made available to anyone with Internet access, SEQWater and the Government could have easily accessed this information. By doing so they would have been able to see the potential threat the approaching heavy rainfall could have and in turn should have helped them make a wiser decision.By choosing to ignore any sort of warning sign provided by the BOM, SEQWater and their employee’s did nothing about the almost full catchment even though more heavy rain was approaching. Leading to the conclusion that by ignoring the warnings they demonstrated poor planning and ignorance to the information provided. Throughout this essay is has been concluded that through proper planning and preparation the Brisbane Floods of 2011 could have been mitigated. Evidence and research shown throughout this essay evidently points unfavourably to the SEQWater compa ny and its team.It concluded that although many warnings were issued, the SEQWater and government chose to ignore them and therefore resulting in all the water being released at once. Even though this natural disaster could not have been prevented through proper planning and preparation it definitely could have been mitigated which would in turn also result in minimal devastation and destruction. This flood has also been dubbed a â€Å"dam release flood† by hydrologists that were appointed with the Insurance Council of Australia.Again as the evidence and research implies, with proper planning and preparation yes, the Brisbane flood of 2011 could have been mitigated. APPENDIX 1 TABLE 1. 0 – WIVENHOE APPENDIX 2 GRAPH 1. 0 – CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 3 TABLE 1. 1 – RELAEASE FROM WIVENHOE PLUS CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 4 GUIDELINES 3. 0 – OPERATING GUIDELINES * The flood storage (or catchments) should generally be kept empty by releasing all the water flowing into the flood storage system until the defined downstream flood event is reached. Releases from the storage system should then be selected to remain below the defined downstream flood event until the flood event has passed or the storage system becomes full. * If the flood storage system becomes full, the storage system must then release all the inflows but releases should never exceed inflows. APPENDIX 5 TABLE 1. 2 – ESTIMATED FLOW PAST CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 6 ANALYSIS 6. 0 – DETAILED ANALYSIS 123,000 millilitres was discharged either earlier than 11. 00 Tuesday 11th or ater than 19:00 Wednesday 12th rather than during this period, the flood level at the Brisbane City Gauge would not have exceeded the Major flood level, or if 335,000 millilitres was discharged outside the period 02:00 Tuesday 10th to 08:00 Thursday 13th rather then during the period, the flood level at the Brisbane City Gauge would not have exceeded the Moderate flood level, or if 623,000 millilitres was d ischarged outside of the period 13:00 Monday 10th to 21:00 Thursday 13th rather than during the period, there would not have been a flood at the Brisbane City Gauge. O’Brien, 2011:9) APPENDIX 7 AND 8 DAILY RAINFALL GRAPH AND CHART 7. 0 REFEERNCE LIST Apelt, Mar 2011, Joint Flood Taskforce Report March 2011, viewed 19 April 2012, Himsley, May 2011, Dams and Flood Mitigation, viewed 19 April 2012, Honert, R & McAneney J 2011, ‘The 2011 Brisbane Floods: Causes, Impacts and Implications’, Water Journal, Vol. , Iss. 4, pp 1149 – 1173, viewed 19 April 2012, < http://www. mdpi. com/2073-4441/3/4/1149/> Calligeros, M 2011, ‘Wivenhoe Dam release caused Brisbane flood: report,’ The Brisbane Times, 11 March, viewed 19 April 2012, < http://www. brisbanetimes. com. au/environment/weather/wivenhoe-dam-release-caused-brisbane-flood-report-20110311-1bqk7. html> Calligeros, M 2011, ‘Brisbane flood victims to confront the destruction,’ The Brisba ne Times, 14 January, viewed 21 April 2012, < http://www. risbanetimes. com. au/environment/weather/brisbane-flood-victims-to-confront-the-destruction-20110113-19q04. html> Seqwater, 2011, The January 2011 Flood Event, viewed 19 April 2012, Bureau of Meteorology, Feb 2011, Brisbane Metro in January 2011: A major rain event and severe flooding, viewed 21 April 2012, O’Brien, Mar 2011, Brisbane Flooding January 2011 An Avoidable Disaster, viewed 19 April 2012, Bureau of Meteorology, Jan 2011, Monthly Weather Review Queensland January 2011, viewed 21 April 2012, PM With Mark Colvin, ABC, 8 February 2011, ABC Australia, Brisbane. (Also a radio broadcast of it on < http://www. abc. net. au/pm/content/2011/s3133417. htm>)