Wildstrom, Stephen H. From Apple: Organization Made Easy; Using the vocabulary of !Tunes, Bento makes the power of the database user-friendly. Business Week. New York: Feb. 18, 2008. , Iss. 4071; pg. 76
This article from Business Week discusses the importance of databases to the everyday consumer. Everyday we use databases to buy plane tickets, make online purchases, to pay our bills or get our paychecks and many other everyday essential tasks. The article mentions however useful these databases maybe in our daily lives there are very few individuals with the programming knowledge to create such databases on our own personal computers.
The article reports that FileMaker which is a part of Apple Inc. has come up with an application that will change all that. It created a $50 database called Bento for use on Mac computers. The firm took an existing data-base management program called FileMaker Pro which is used in small businesses and combined it with the Mac's new operating system. This new organization tool can be used at home to manage personal information like planning a birthday party or a simple project at work. Instead of using traditional database terminology, Bento mimics the database interface that most personal users are most familiar with, the ITunes library. It doesn't use the term database to describe a collection of data but rather calls such a collection a "library." The system maybe user friendly but it still has the advantages of a traditional database including data security, sophisticated searches, and filtering.
This type of database would be very useful for organizing personal data at home or small projects that are not complicated enough to need a regular database like FileMaker Pro. Unfortunately, right now it is only available for Mac computers. Hopefully the product will become popular just like !Tunes did and it will be offered in a version that is compatible with PCs. I think this article is very relevant to what was discussed in Chapter 6 of the textbook on the use of databases to improve business performance and decision making. I believe these same concepts hold true in our daily lives. We are constantly faced with decisions ranging from whether to buy a house to how to balance a family's busy school, work, and activity schedules. If there was a way to store all the important information we need to make decisions in our personal lives then we all might be able to use our limited time and resources more wisely.
Showing posts with label chapter6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapter6. Show all posts
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Chapter 5 Case- Merrill Lynch Connects Past and Future Technology
1.) Why did Merill Lynch need to update its IT infrastructure?
Merill Lynch needed to update its IT infrastructure in order to remain competitive. One of the most important ways to do so was to provide customers with Internet-based applications that provided them with up to date access to portfolios and the tools needed to work with those portfolios. There are many competitors in the financial management industry and if Merill Lynch cannot maintain its technological edge then those competitors will take advantage by offering a more user friendly web interface and variety of tools for customers to take advantage of. Merill Lynch also needed to consider its IBM mainframe and how to include it in the update of its IT infrastructure. The mainframe provided a strategic advantage in terms of processing power but did not have compatible software for implementing Internet-based applications that were needed to stay competitive.
4.) Do you think that Merill Lynch's decision to sell off its successful technology initiatives was a good idea? Why or why not?
I think that over the short term it was a good idea for Merill Lynch to sell of the technology. It gave the firm a large amount of money to re-invest in IT or other areas of the company and helped recoup some of the $1 billion in costs that the firm spent over a three year period to update the financial advisers' financial management applications. However, in the long-term it might leave Merill Lynch at a competitive disadvantage because now its competitors have access to this new IT infrastructure. The competition can now go to SOA Software and purchase the system for $125,000, which is a lot less then the $1 billion plus that Merill Lynch invested to develop and launch X4ML. If the competition is able to take advantage of the applications of this IT system in the same way that Merill Lynch did then Merill Lynch could loose its competitive advantage. Merill Lynch may have been better off licensing the technology to different companies, at lease then it would have had some control over whether competitors had access to the technology.
Merill Lynch needed to update its IT infrastructure in order to remain competitive. One of the most important ways to do so was to provide customers with Internet-based applications that provided them with up to date access to portfolios and the tools needed to work with those portfolios. There are many competitors in the financial management industry and if Merill Lynch cannot maintain its technological edge then those competitors will take advantage by offering a more user friendly web interface and variety of tools for customers to take advantage of. Merill Lynch also needed to consider its IBM mainframe and how to include it in the update of its IT infrastructure. The mainframe provided a strategic advantage in terms of processing power but did not have compatible software for implementing Internet-based applications that were needed to stay competitive.
4.) Do you think that Merill Lynch's decision to sell off its successful technology initiatives was a good idea? Why or why not?
I think that over the short term it was a good idea for Merill Lynch to sell of the technology. It gave the firm a large amount of money to re-invest in IT or other areas of the company and helped recoup some of the $1 billion in costs that the firm spent over a three year period to update the financial advisers' financial management applications. However, in the long-term it might leave Merill Lynch at a competitive disadvantage because now its competitors have access to this new IT infrastructure. The competition can now go to SOA Software and purchase the system for $125,000, which is a lot less then the $1 billion plus that Merill Lynch invested to develop and launch X4ML. If the competition is able to take advantage of the applications of this IT system in the same way that Merill Lynch did then Merill Lynch could loose its competitive advantage. Merill Lynch may have been better off licensing the technology to different companies, at lease then it would have had some control over whether competitors had access to the technology.
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