History Of The Body Area Networks

History Of The Body Area Networks Abstract In the recent few years there is tremendous advancement especially in the field of integration circuit, small sensors and in the wireless networks.in body area networks (BANs) these devices considerably suitable for integrating in any scenario like health monitoring , in sport, and even in military prospective due to its considerable light weight , low power, and sensing capability. BANs provide cheap, reliable, and scalable system for monitoring daily activities for short to long period of time. But still there are a number of challenges issues like integration of devices, system designing according to the user scenario, security and privacy of the data, modification and social issues must be resolved in order for BANs to become ubiquitous. In our report we discus BANs background, its applications, and relationship. Introduction BANs (Body Area Networks) is a combination of micro and advanced Nano technology components for to improve the speed and accuracy of data recording. Generally BANs consist of small but sensitive sensors and actuators for monitoring and log data, then data sent to base station for storage. Users can access to this data in base station via internet or by other mean. BANs are actually a modern invention and primarily design for health industry (doctor and other staff) to monitor the health status. By taking the benefit of this technology we can monitor much more closely patients with chronic diseases like, asthma and diabetes. Doctor update the patients record quickly and efficiently to store general information of patients health. In United States and other part of Europe, they made different pilot programs to monitoring patients health status. They introduced bracelet with chips and antennas that can used to follow the patient position. They attached antennas on patient cloths to track him in the hospital and it send alert when he begins to collapse. A company is currently working on a project Healthy Aims [1] which focused on body devices that helps millions of people. Body Area Networks take low power radio frequencies (RF) and transfer the data of patients in real time. Doctors are able to monitor and change the setting for specific deployed devices on the body to improve the performance devices as well patient health. Pacemaker devices was produce 1960s have to endure pain and stress of surgery because it setup as a part of the body and send the patient health situation to RF transceiver, where it send directly to the doctor. This time interval always up to date the doctor about patient. By BANs Doctor an d his staff can access to patient record at any time so they dont need to visit the patient or patient dont need to visit the clinic, it is a good method in prospective of save time and money by visiting the clinic many time during the month or weeks. BANs is extremely compact and may be complex by its design, but as the sensor devices are very unassertive and a patient will be able to live a normal life. All sensors have same controlable mechanism like same element, power supply, and wireless transceivers. But they are design in such method that they can self-govern for the entire life [2]. They are designed for the measurement of temperature, movement, and location. Sensor and actuator implanted inside the body and they interact wirelessly each others in BANs and process data is transmitted from implanted devices to external devices. Mechanism of a actuator is like environmental agent. In BANs the data passes through sensor to sensor then sent to it base station where it can be transmitted to recipient via internet. 2 Body Area Networks History History about the body area network is not so old to go back many years to find out some material about BANs, taking advantages of some tiny useful technology in this sense is a new and unique idea. A number of different groups was work on PAN(personal area network) in Massachusett Institute of technology and that later grew out of the work on 1990s. The group actually wanted to get the information by interconnect different appliance on the body and to measure the position of the body by using electric field sensor. The main head for developing Personal Area Networks was Thomas G. Zimmerman. He introduces the new technology that allows the body to act like conductor. There was another name Neil Gershenfeld in that field who was in the Massachusett Institute of technology, incharged of the Media and Physics group. He and his group applied a method near -field coupling to solve the problem of determine the accurate position and its relationship with other parts, by fixing pairs of ante nnas on body part for example elbow and hand, and then run an electric current through them. They learned that as one move the capacitance of the circuit was charged. So they determine the exact position of the antennas after measuring the capacitance. There was a problem in the measurement method that the measurement was no longer accurate if hand was placed between the antennas but it was solved by the Zimmerman. There was actually another group working in the Media lab asked them to develop a network such that all electric gadgets that a person can carry are connected together. Many people carried digital devices around thereself but no one communicate to other.For example a person who has a mobile phone, a pager, a PDA or a digital watch mean all about his person at the same time. They both Zimmerman and Gershenfeld learned that, they can represent 1 or 0s, if they modulated the electric field which flowing through a person body,and allowing the body to carry digital information. At the end they discovered that if they used frequency and power that kept very low then the signal will not propagate far beyond the body. It mean that if devices could detect the signal on the body. This used of current at very low or small amount was unnoticed by anyone before. 2.1 Body Area Network Applications There are many possible application for communication like in the hospital, in patients monitoring system at home (post-operative care), use in a large scale throughout the world. There is also a list of BANs usages in various field like in sport, military, mesh, and in sport fields. Body Area Network Sports Applications In the present sporting arena many different readings are possible to take without having an athlete on a treadmill in a laboratory. It provide the platform to measure various levels during different competition in real life, for example in race, where coaches, need his pi athletes strengths and weaknesses. Body Area Mesh Network Applications The body area network consist of low-power and very reliable sensor networking. The low power usage allows longer life Batteries of motes or Gateways. The mesh network provides high reliability and long range communication. Mesh Networking is much more reliable and much capable of data sending Body Area Network Medical Applications Body Area Networks (BANs) can be used to provide interfaces for diagnostics purposes, in the hospital they used for administration of drugs, aid rehabilitation, and for remotely monitoring human physiological data. And for future prospective in hospital or at home it is used for monitoring the patient continuously and give required medication. So by this way patient need no more in the hospital with connected machines for monitoring. Body Area Network Military Applications Body Area Network has done a tremendous job in the military. So many of the military applications that we can use includes, their locations, health monitoring, their temperature and hydration levels, also very useful to enhance the strength, and many more factors for military prospective. 2.2 Body Area Network Devices 2.2.1 Body Area Network Sensors With rapid improvements in medical research, more and more health sensors have been developed to assist caregivers in monitoring their patients conditions. These sensors have been getting smaller, making it possible for the sensors to be worn or to be implanted into the human body. 2.2.2 Body Area Network Actuators The most significant products by any company would be the actuators. we can express an actuator as a device that transforms or converts energy into motion. Also applied as a force, an actuator usually is a mechanical apparatus that takes energy, normally constructed by liquid, air, or electricity, and converts that into a specific kind of motion. This particular product that would help build effective engineering designs in a safe and efficient manner and easily implemented anywhere according to the requirement. [3] 2.2.3 Body Area Network Devices usages Two main non-computer devices (sensors and actuators) can be used in BANs network. The main function of sensors are to measure human body parameters like temperature, electrocardiogram, heart beats rates and the pressure on the joints, These can be taken insidly or outsidely of the human body. Whereas Actuators have some particular action like to get the information received by the sensors and do work on instruction given by web or PDA. They are as following For monitoring muscle activity we can use an EMG (electromyography) sensor . For monitoring brain electrical activity we can use An EEG (electroencephalography) sensor. For monitoring trunk position we can use tilt sensor (TS). For monitoring respiration we can use breathing sensors. For monitoring heart activity we can use ECG (electrocardiogram) sensor. A sensor for blood pressure. To estimate a users activity we used movement sensors (MS). Description: http://www.sintef.no/upload/BAN.jpg Fig 2: A BAN on an Athlete : http://www.sintef.no/home/Information-and-Communication-Technology-ICT/Instrumentation/Biomedical-Instrumentation/Body-Area-Networks/ . 2.3 Body Area Networking Before implementing the Body Area Network, a number of networking issues need to be solved. In this interferences when a node sends data (after processing) directly to central devices there is direct communication that might causes unnecessary rises of temperature in the tissues, there is another way data is sent through intermediate nodes to the destination by multihop communication. The data might pass to other nodes to the way to PDA if node attached to foot, that mean that at the same time the number of data pathways night exist in the same tissues. Node are like routers but it eliminate internal interference and more energy efficient. In PANs communication IEEE 802.15 standard used which basically sure that all group devices in the design of BANs should work with all togather. 2.4 Body Area Network Software UC Berkley in California is developed Tiny OS (Operating System) which is an open sourse operating system in used wireless embedded sensor network.OS is extremely small in sense of memory and code writing which make it suitable for sensor network where they use minimum memory. The search is going on by using this tiny OS in sensor networks to measure some extra ordinary work . For examples sensor networks that are used to monitor volcanic eruptions and tracking/tracing (for help purposes) of fire fighters in buildings. There is a another option available that is toolkit of MSR network embedded sensors that allow user to perform different actions like process the data, collect data, and also visualise data from sensor network. The search is still going on so let us see which development OS or MSR come fist but till yet both available for free download. 3. Challenges of Body Area Networks (BANs) Body Area Networks (BANs) consists of tiny sensor that actually placed around the body (attached on the skin or on the cloths), which take power from attached battery or from body. In BANs all the nodes communicate collectively to the central node (PDA) or other devices which are connected to the internet so data pass through to a particular person or to a particular application. There are a numbers of challenges still in BANs networks which must be overcome by engineer, they are as following: Power sources of life timer needs to be increased in the sensors networks (SN), or adopt different methods to get energy from other sources like body heat so it also should be perfected. The interaction of the different sensors or nodes and the main node like PDA, that should be designed in such a way that it allow some specialist applications to be written to perform particular functions for example disease management. The device needs to be intelligence in sense of memory and processing capabilities for processing, storing and transferring the data. To give a full and clear picture of human physiology, Sensor need to be integrated Physically, Chemically, and Biologically and the BAN components integrated for reliable and cost effective way. 3. Body Area Network User Cases . Body Area Networks (BANs) technology actually develop biomedical engineering according to the natural byproduct of existing sensors. Actually this technology is suitable for any scenario by its low bound of power and bandwidthHowever,there are many potential to use BAN technology due to its flexibility that is as following, Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) Integration of different mobile devices Different personal video devices (VD) Audio system of wireless (WS). Monitoring system for sport and fitness. Each case have unique requirement in term of bandwidth, power usage, signal distance and for latency. These cases use IEEE 802.15 standard which is use for different working group in wireless personal area networks (WPANs). So they think to use this standard within different devices for inside and around the body.And later they develop the standard for BANs and introduces a long range of possible devices to support this standard. For power balance and data rate the task group gave applications and appropriate devices for development. The figure below describe the comparison between power load and data rate in BANs. Fig (1) comparison between data rate and power.[1] In the above picture as we can see the range of different devices which can be used in BANs in comparison of power consumption and data rate. The table below also give us a full picture of devices that conform to work in a similar set of requirement, according to the demand of user case, yet still encompass a wide range and variety of devices Network setup time (Per device setup time excludes network initialization) Network Density 2 4 nets / m2 Startup Time Power Consumption ~1 mW / Mbps Network Size Max: 100 devices / network Latency (end to end) 10 ms Distance 2 m standard 5 m special use Effective sleep modes Operation in global, license-exempt band Effective sleep modes Peer to Peer, and Point to Multi-point communication Future proof Upgradeable, scaleable, backwards compatible Quality of Service Guaranteed Bandwidth Latency (end to end) [1] http://www1.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-08/ftp/ban/index.html 6. Zigbee wireless sensor technology ZigBee is the specification of a low-cost, low-power wireless communications solution design to fulfil the needs and requirement of our architecture. ZigBee is of high level Communication protocols using small, low power digital radios bases on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for wireless personal area Networks (WPANs). The Zigbee protocol standard contains the specifications of the network layer (NWK) and application layer (APL). Inside the application layer, functions are defined separately as the application support sub-layer (APS), the Zigbee device objects (ZDO), the Zigbee device profile (ZDP), the application framework (AF), and Zigbee security services. The comparisons of ISO OSI, TCP/IP, and ZigBee/802.15.4 are shown in the fig below: Fig 6.1.1 Zigbee with OSI Layers. Zigbee builds upon the physical layer and medium access control defined in IEEE standard 802.15.4 (2003 version) for low-rate WPANs. The specification goes on to complete the standard by adding four main components: network layer, application layer, Zigbee device objects (ZDOs) and manufacturer-defined application objects which allow for customization and favor total integration. Besides adding two high-level network layers to the underlying structure, the most significant improvement is the introduction of Zigbee device objects (ZDOs). These are responsible for a number of tasks, which include keeping of device roles, management of requests to join the architecture network, device discovery and security. Fig 6.1.2 Zigbee stack. 4. System Capability Requirements The characteristics of sensor networks and requirements of different applications have a vital role on the network design objectives in terms of network capabilities and network performance. The main design objectives for sensor networks include the following several aspects. Small Node Size:- Reducing node size is one of the primary design objectives of sensor networks. Reducing node size can facilitate node deployment, and also reduce the cost and power consumption of sensor nodes. Low Node Cost:- Reducing node cost is another primary design objective of sensor networks. It is important to reduce the cost of sensor nodes so that the cost of the whole network is reduced. Low Power Consumption:-Power is a major role in any System prospective. Reducing power consumption is the most important objective in the design of a sensor network. Since sensor nodes are powered by battery and it is often very difficult to change their batteries, it is crucial to reduce the power consumption of sensor nodes so that the lifetime of the sensor nodes, as well as the whole network is prolonged. Self Healing:-In sensor networks, sensor nodes are usually deployed in a region of interest without careful planning and engineering. Once deployed, sensor nodes should be able to autonomously organize themselves into a communication network and reconfigure their connectivity in the event of topology changes and node failures. Scalability:-In sensor networks, the number of sensor nodes may be on the order of tens, hundreds, or thousands. Thus, network protocols designed for sensor networks should be scalable to different network sizes. Adaptability:-In sensor networks, a node may fail, join, or move. This result changes in node density and network topology. Thus, network protocols designed for sensor networks should be adaptive to such density and topology changes. Reliability:-For many sensor network applications, it is required that data be reliably delivered over wireless channels. To meet this requirement, network protocols designed for sensor networks must provide error control and correction mechanisms to ensure reliable data delivery. Fault Tolerance:-Sensor nodes should be fault tolerant and have the abilities of self testing, self calibrating, self -repairing, and self recovering. Security:- Sensor nodes are deployed in a hostile environment and thus are vulnerable to adversaries. In such situations, a sensor network should introduce effective security mechanisms to prevent the data information in the network or a sensor node from unauthorized access or malicious attacks. 5. Research Pappers. A number of major operations on Mobilehealth are being conducting all over the world especially in European countries like Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Netherland. It is used to monitor a limited range of condition in patient outside the hospital by the medical personnel. Germany: Telemonitoring of patients with cardiac arrhythmia. The Netherlands: Integrated homecare for women with high-risk pregnancies, Tele trauma team. Spain: Support of home based healthcare services, Outdoor patient rehabilitation. Sweden: Lighthouse alarm and locator trial, Physical activity and impediments to activity for women with RA, Monitoring the vital parameters in patients with respiratory insuffiency, Homecare and remote consultation for recently released patients in a rural area. [3] http://www.mobihealth.org/ But a number of different issues arose as a result of these trials like handover, operator errors, data rate fluctuation, and the most common issue of power supplies insufficient. There are also some other issues like privacy and security (For instance, will the data that is being transferred remain private or is it secure), control and legal issues (may someone send false information to the network ) regarding BANs. If someone tell it to perform some dangerous function like make a patient warm or overdose, or is this legal to inform someone like companies that are interesting about its work weather he/she has weak heart or having any kind of disease in advanced BANs. Lastly some imported functions are operated and controlled by the computer that can be damage or stop working at any stage and the actuators that regulated the flow of certain chemical in the body stop then who is responsible, so these issues need to be address before BANs applied in the daily life routine.

Homeless Bedford Reader

Joseph Papalexandrou The essay I am analyzing is homeless written by Anna Quindlen. The essay can be found in The Bedford Reader 10th edition. My curiosity it what brought me to this essay. The topic I am writing about is homeless citizens. What interests me about homeless people is that it never seems to bother them where there living. What also gave me interest is how do homeless people feed themselves with no money?I always wonder why homeless people don’t look for money on the streets and save what they find buys a pair of clothes and go for a job interview at McDonalds. The overall message in this essay is that people make what they have home. If it’s living in a box or on the street they will always call that place home. It doesn’t matter what you have but how you feel about what you have. If you’re ok with where you call home then that fine. The real message in this essay is that not all people depend on items or things they have to make them happy. The overall tone in this essay is subjective and personal. Anna is trying to do a story on homeless people, and she found women called Ann on the back of a bus. Quindlen tries to get some information out of the women at the back of the bus and she is having a hard time doing so. In the story Quindlen goes back and forth with how she doesn’t see the big picture in things. But she does bring up some personal information. There are no images in this essay although there the Quindlen likes to make a lot of understatements.She says that it’s not where you live or how big it is but that it’s the place you call home. So basically living in a box you can call home and it doesn’t matter because it’s your home. That is a very big understatement. A lot of people like stability to be able to feed themselves everyday and be clean. The details and evidence that I found to support the main message in this story was when quindlen wrote â€Å"They are not the home less.They are people with no home. (Quindlen 200) That pretty much gives me the feeling that she is saying that there is no right to look down on someone because they have no home and that it gives us no right to call someone homeless. In this essay there are logos & pathos. In the essay Quindlen started to do to a report on homeless people and she even mentioned that she never seen the big picture up until she met Ann on the back of the bus. Quindlen started to no longer call homeless people homeless she instead refers them to people without a home.

Uses of ICT

This section will discuss the background of the study, the statement of the problems, the objectives of the study and the method and limitations of. BACKGROUND. The integration of Information and communication technologies (ICT) into the curriculum is one of the most challenging tasks facing schools. It raises fundamental questions regarding the purposes of schooling and the nature of the curriculum. Information and communication technologies (ICT)—which include radio and television, as well as newer digital technologies such as computers and the Internet—have been touted as potentially powerful enabling tools for educational change and reform. When used appropriately, different ICTs are said to help expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life.. The effective integration of ICT into the educational system is a complex, multifaceted process that involves not just technology—indeed, given enough initial capital, getting the technology is the easiest part! —but also curriculum and pedagogy, institutional readiness, teacher competencies, and long-term financing, among others. The positive influence of ICT in schools continues to rise and can no longer be denied. Although, as yet, ICT is by no means at the heart of our education system, it is now widely recognised as an essential tool for learning in the twenty-first century. Indeed, it is vital that today’s children are enabled to take advantage of lifelong learning if they are to survive the constant pattern of change that is likely to mark their working lives. This means not only being comfortable with ICT as a medium, but also being able to exploit its potential to the full and understanding the ways in which ICT can make learning more effective.

Information systems development research - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 18 Words: 5498 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Education Essay Type Essay any type Did you like this example? TASK 1 Question 1: Comparison of Modes of Enquiry. A set of multiple elements that are attached and dependent on one another is called a system. An enquiry system is used to determine different elements in a system i.e. Information System. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Information systems development research" essay for you Create order The goal of a system can be achieved by breaking down a complex system into sub systems and reaching a level where the system cannot be broken down further. Positives and negatives of different modes of enquiries can be determined on basis of real world situations. (Flood.L.Robert, p 215-221). The different types of modes of enquiry are Simple, Complex and Innovative. Inductive-Consensual This mode of enquiry is a series of steps that allows us to have an outcome on basis of limited set of observations. Only one conclusion can be considered with these formulated observations. The different kinds of analysis that can be used in this method are analogous, historical or multiple independently sourced. The problem is first developed by decision maker after which a set of possible results can be given. Analytic-Deductive This mode of enquiry views the world as a formula and often logical consistency is highlighted. This method leads the decision maker to the truth. The identification of plausible solution can be reached by dividing issues into many parts by completely understanding each component. This mode of enquiry has the objective to identify the issue based on classified component, to get some perceptive details and solution parts by parts. Analytic-Deductive Method is an organised and standardized approach because it makes computations based on numbers or mathematical formula. This approach is less subjective as figures and values are used to ascertain the problem, allowing derivation of the solution easier as well as objective. Being the solutions derived from the formula, inaccuracy is reduced. Multiple Realities This mode of enquiry helps in decision making process.In this enquiry mode, complexity of data or information increases and needs more strategic ways so that certain solution is derived. This approach does not only adhere to the identification of a particular solution or outcome because problems are represented in broader and wider perspectives. In this way, management or decision maker will become more involved and may have many factors to choose from. This method has less number of limitations as compared to other methods of enquiry. As an example, the factors for judgement are not restricted to a definite number. Therefore, analysis can be made up of all facets, issues and solutions related to model or problem. As all the factors will be considered so the development of analogy would be accurate. The problem can be created by providing its holistic view by the decision maker. (Ellis, Keith, R., 2005, p 199-214) Dialectic Another method is dialectic approach that helps in making decisions. This method is used to provide dissimilarities between tradition and typical assumptions. This enquiry system is helpful in creation of decision making process that is free from obstacles and progressive. One of the advantages of dialectic approach is that process to make decisions is similar to conflict issues as indicated in the enquiry. Two opposing stand points for a particular issue can be viewed by the decision maker. With this approach the management can critically determine if the integration of business strategy with information technology can be helpful or would be ineffective to boost the performance of the business. (Ellis, Keith, R., 2005, p 199-214) Unbounded Systems Thinking This method allows the decision maker to have good knowledge in all fields and circumstances to come up with the most suitable action, solution or conclusion. This mode of enquiry also enables the decision maker or management to select from what he or she thinks would be most productive and suitable enquiry system to utilise for a particular issue. The decision maker can provide unlimited number of factors and issues about the given information instead of restricting himself to constraints to a certain idea. In line with the use of internet, this enquiry system is advantageous since the internet itself provides many challenges and conception which have to be given a careful thought to have a favourable end result. Question 2: Development of a plan for carrying out the research for Tasks II and III. These three steps to carry out the research. They are as follows:- Step 1: Defining the Research project This step includes purpose of the research; time allotted for the research and what needs to be found and why that finding is necessary? The purpose of the research is basically to accumulate human knowledge. This can be achieved through deduction or reasoning. The underlying reasons for this research are as follows;- To describe the impact of online shopping on MNC using Pest analysis. Impact of technology on IS Strategic planning and IS development. Problems of IS strategic Planning on MNC. Elaborate the ethical issues such as data accessibility. Step 2: Developing a Research Plan The resources used in this research were Internet, library, journals and magazines. Search engines like Google and Bing were used to find information related to research. Step 3: Research and Review Findings The research was conducted keeping in mind the purpose of research and resources which were available related to research topics. The findings of the research are already available in the Questions asked in Task 2 and Task 3. The researcher deduced that the methods of enquiry and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) are beneficial whenever a problem situation is encountered. In the implementation of the concepts, different systems perspective is taken into account in order to achieve primary purpose. Question 3: Method of Enquiry chosen to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the approach. The mode of enquiry system chosen was Unbound Systems Thinking also known as Innovative Enquiry. As this method believes that every one of the sciences and professions is considered fundamental and none is superior to or better than any other. Therefore, this enquiry system is better than any other enquiry modes. It also believes that imaginative approach can be used to establish solutions and other suggestions and ideas can be considered. This enquiry system indicates that everything interacts with everything, Problem is a mess, and it is incapable to have inflexible definition of the problem. It makes the use of thinking system to determine imaginatively the problem. This mode of enquiry is not partial and all types of learning, not only to hard sciences and/or its models and theories are taken into consideration. TASK 2 Question 1: Pest Analysis Impact of Online Shopping on MNC. The way of shopping where customers purchase products or do shopping by visiting online pages is called a Online Shopping. these online shopping website are called electronic stores, electronic shops, webstores, internet shops etc . (Wikipedia, 2010) The number of staff required is reduced as a result of online purchase and thereby reducing costs. Online Shopping is easy and effective way of shopping for customer to buy products online and recieve them in different parts of the world. (Wikipedia, 2010). According to Global Nielsen Consumer Report, February 2008, online shopping is gaining momentum in todays world because it is less time consuming and allows the consumers to sit in the comforts of the home and getting the product and services delivered at their door-step with payment being made through credit cards .According to this report, main items that are brought online include books, footwear and clothing. Impact of Online Shopping on MNCs Using Pest Analysis. The nature of most online businesses are global. so there are some concerns as well in online shopping as well. these four concerns political, economic, technological and social. these can be different from country to country, The rules and regulations of a particular country have to be taken into consideration before planning is done to sell in that country. The decisions of the managers of a particular organization will be effected by many factors in the macro-environment. New laws, tax changes, trade barriers, government policy. Demographic change is all instances of macro change. (Kotter, J. and Schlesinger, L.,1991, p 24 29) To help ascertain these factors, senior executives can classify them using PEST Model. This classification differentiates between: INCLUDEPICTURE https://smehro.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/pest.png?w=604h=485 * MERGEFORMATINET Figure: Pest Analysis Political Factors: These factors indicate the government policies such as degree of government i nterference in the economy. This factor also includes the formal and informal rules of a particular country in which organization has to function. For instance, the UK political effect on UK sales and marketing, if the company will stay within the law, the sales of the company will be low because of the sale of age restrictions, i.e. under age sale of alcohal. the other examples of political facors are as under. Policies of government related to tax. Laws of government on employment of that country. Regulations and restrictions imposed on import and export of goods. Regulations related to safety of employees. Rules and regulations related to competition. Economic Factors: These factors include rate of interests charged by financial institutions of that country, the rate of exchange from one currency to another, steady growth in productive capacity of the economy which will further help in growth of national income, phases of the business cycle and confidence of con sumers. A firms behavior can have a major impact because of economic change like: Investments can be deterred because of high interest rates as it costs more to borrow. Exporting could be difficult because of strong currency as it may increase the price in terms of foreign currency. Costs can be increased because of high wage demands from employees provoked by inflation. The firms products may get a boost demand because of higher national income growth. Social Factors: The demand for a firms products can be affected because of changes in social trends and the accessibility and eagerness of individuals to work. For instance, in a country like UK where population has been ageing has increased the costs for firms as they are determined to pay pensions for their staff members because they are living longer. So, older employees can be recruited to tap into this growing labour pool. This ageing population has great impact on demand: for instance, demand for sheltered accomm odation and medicines have grown up whereas demand for toys is decreasing. Prediction of social factors is difficult. For instance, predictions about social networking sites like Facebook or My Space or SMS messaging would be so popular. If the companys business is bound to have a social impact then the company needs to develop price control to stop which effects that turnover.it may be useful for the companies to do research in new areas of marketing and advertisement. there are different ways to do that. for example putting a search box in your website and have a continuos look on that searches. by doing this the company can add or subtract new products depending on the results of the searches. Technological factors: Technology helps a lot in developing new products. Automation in various industries like manufacturing, processing, chemical etc makes the use of technology. There are many advantages of technology like reduction in costs, improved quality of products and services and innovation.( Pugh D.Wills,2006, p 2) Both consumers and organizations can be benefited by these developments. Staying ahead of crowd will be possible if the company stays ahead of technology and will also benefit the customer. But the company has to careful about technology as some technologies would not be liked by customers and the company would end up costing the money and not helping the business. Example of Pest Analysis: Pizza Hut Introduction and History of Pizza hut Frank and Dan Carney launched an idea of pizza restaurant In 1958. the pizza restaurant was so small that it has only 25 seats and they can write only 9 letters on the sign. there restaurant building look like a hut, so they named it Pizza Hut. After fifteen years later, they open a first UK restaurent and now it becomes the first biggest pizza company in the world. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF PIZZA HUT Research was conducted on Pizza Hut for PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) Analysis. i. POLITICAL ISSUES: Political issues include regulatory frame work operating in judicial system which may affect the business in different ways. As there is lack of competition so there are not many political factors affecting Pizza Hut. The organization has to follow rules such as laws on business employment, pollution and taxation. ii. ECONOMIC FACTORS: There is a green signal for business if the GDP of the country is good because it will increase the per capita income of the people and and they will spend more money. In the beginning of any month, most people spend more and visit Pizza Hut more often. When the inflation rate increases the cost of raw material also increases and this leads towards high prices of the products and vice versa. iii. SOCIAL FACTORS: Pizza Hut originated from America so the company is overwhelmed by western culture. It is a multi national co mpany. The society consists of all classes from upper to lower. The organization can be affected by cultural norms, values, beliefs and religion of a particular country. iv. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS: Technology is evolving at a faster pace. New and efficient technology used at Pizza hut will result in efficient services to the customers. Due to new technology there are new ways of marketing like internet; telemarketing and the organization can advertise their products with much more faster pace. Management information system is the best way to collect customer data which can help companies to make right decisions. Question 2: SSM IS Strategic Planning and IS Development Most of all, the organization should know the future vision, what they wishes to have. the key to unlock the competitive future of the organization may be Technology and if used wrongly, it may result in problems that will be faced by the whole structure of the organization. With the help of technology, external business environment can be easily scanned by organizations to gather information or data that can be useful in decision making on resource allocation in a way that it should be the on the best standards and should have a maximum use of it. The decisions are made faster, ideas are shared and information is easily communicated with the help of technology. Organizations can also benchmark from other companies strategies that could be used to reach objectives with the help of internet. the best information system Strategic plan with state-of the-art technology reflect the best practices. When best system implemented, if provides the best results with minimum overhead costs. these types of systems concentrate on contouring the procedure and improve productivity. ( Avison, 1991, p 98 112) SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY Peter Checkland developed the Soft System Technology in UK in Late 60s. in the start, its emphasize was modeling tool but after few years it becomes the learning and meaning development tool. Soft Systems methodology Process SSM is widely described as a seven-stage process, as follows: Determining the problematic situation that it is desired to intervene in Researching the situation and building a rich picture (interpretive representation) of it Choosing perspectives and building root definitions (key processes that need to take place within the desired system) Developing a conceptual model of the change system Comparing the model with the real-world situation Defining the changes to be implemented Taking action. Stage 1: Determining the problematic situation that it is desired to intervene in It involves identifying and providing brief description of the situation that is desired to intervene in. The first part of SSM is normally done by those involved in or affected by the issues coming to an agreement about the situation that needs attention. Attention should be given not to formulate the issue as a problem to be solved as this can lead to too narrow approach at an early stage. The situation has to be acknowledged, explored and defined in the first step. So first we decide what it is we are actually exploring. We assess the general area that interests us instead of defining the problem. Data is collected whether it is qualitative or quantitative by whatever method seems suitable e.g.: surveys, observation or measurement. There are no restrictions placed by any formal definitions or organizational boundaries and works as goal free evaluation. Stage 2: Researching the situation and building a rich picture (interpretive representation) of it In second part, rich picture is developed. The objective here is to build representation of the situation in which intervention is desired. The overall situation should be described by rich picture. Formal Research Techniques or Unstructured Approaches can be used to gather information. The most important benefit of rich picture is that it gets information and perspectives from the widest possible range of sources.(Ledington 1988, p 31 36) The picture can be represented visually rather than just as text. Here, the situation needs to be expressed with all its richness. The main items that should be included in picture are: Structures, Processes, Climate, People, Issues expressed by people and Conflicts. Stage 3: Choosing perspectives and building root definitions (key processes that need to take place within the desired system) The third part involves analyses of the people-dimension situation. it highlight the main players of the situation and the view or perspective of the world. This will find the client who will cause intervention to happen, the professional who will utilize or guide the SSM process and the owners of the issues addressed. All of these can be the same people. The cultural environment, politics and power relations can also effect the situations. In system development, methodology is the most and important activity which needs to be understand well before draw a picture. It will be very complex task to address all these perspectives as a whole. Situation would become more clear by addressing key perspectives individually, understanding their implications and then making use of those understanding while re-integrating these perspectives into a set of evaluative conclusions and suggestions for future action. The next step involves choosing a particular perspective and put it through a very structured and rigorous model development process. At this point it can be useful to carry out a CATWOE analysis, which will draw in part on the Stage 1 analysis. CATWOE is a mnemonic for: Customer, Actors, Transformation process, World-view, owner and environmental factors. Customers: people who are affected by the transformation Actors: the people who perform the activities in the transformation Transformation process: stating what is changed and to what World-view or perspective from which the transformation is meaningful Owner(s), i.e. the person or people who control the transformation Environmental / external factors, i.e. anything that constrains the transformation. Each process in SSM is normally indicated in form of Root Definition which is either a short paragraph or a long sentence in the format Do action P (what), using method Q (how), to (help) achieve result R (why). Transformation (T) is the initiation point. Once the Transformation is identified, the process can proceed to determine other key elements of the system. Stage 4: creating a conceptual model of the change system Using the root definition you draw up a conceptual model using systems conventions. This involves evaluating the change model against the situation and is usually represented by the rich picture and associated analysis. Sometimes, further development of rich picture is required and there are modifications to be made in change model. The other objective of this stage is to develop common understanding of the change and change processes among key actors and stake holders involved. This stage should look for accommodation or major acceptability not total consensus which may not be possible due to differing perspectives. Stage 5: Comparing the model with the real-world situation Now the model is compared with reality, insights drawn from that comparison, and ideas for improvements determined. This is the real powerhouse of the methodology. Checkland suggests four ways of doing this: Unstructured discussions Structured questioning of the model using a matrix approach Scenario or dynamic modeling Trying to model the real world using the same structure as the conceptual model. Stage 6: Specify the alteration to be enforced This stage will be different as it will depend on a particular change project but it includes developing the changed model into concrete plan. Formal Project management Protocols will be useful at this stage. A less structured approach can also be suitable. Here, The methodology will not be series of steps and will become cyclic in nature. Possible Intervention are explored on basis of analysis. Stage 7: Take Action. This stage involves keeping track of the effects of the project by monitoring and investigation. this is a research section which highlights the basic problems and its solutions. this stage can return to the stage 1 to detect how the system should be made to view the clear and better picture and how the change can differentiate the better than the previous one. TASK 3 Question 1: Possible problems that may be faced by MNC while developing Information systems. the way of combining or developing a companys business strategy with an effective computer based information to achieve the maximum benefit and its goals is called the strategic information system planning. the main objective of the SISP is to align the companys business strategy with its information technology strategy. SISP is very important because the company spent a lot of resources (money, time, human resource) to develop it. the team face a lot of problems while its on his way to develop it. (Newkirk, Ledererand Srinivasan,2003, p.201 228) there can be a problem of specification gap between the statement of the suggested system and more facts required for potential system enforcement. (Hevner, Studnicki, 2000, vol. 4, pp.4005). A specification gap in SISP can be checked in the development of bigger system. he system design teams recommend a system to develop and some time fails to explain the the important issued. the this recommend or developed system come to the pro gram developer team where they input their knowledge. on the other hand the system design team is always their to help or explain them the issues. but some time what happened. the system design team could not help the programmers to resolve the issue and pressurize them to do it. Productive design methods must establish a discipline in which validity and completeness are enforced at all levels. (Earl M, 1993, p 1 24) As the response to the difficulty of Specification gap, the use of box structure methods is recommended. They provide valid and completeness to specify proposed IS solutions that bridge the specifications gap to productive system implementation. there are lot of important issues which can bring success to the projects recommend information System Plan. the failure of the SISP projects are oftenly seen the problem of effectively implementation of IS solutions. there are lot of reasons for failures of the projects there can be shortage of resources, lot of changes etc . The overarching reason for implementation failure is the huge Specification Gap between the recommended IS solutions and the knowledge necessary to actually implement the desired information systems. SISP methodologies require IS personnel to devote substantial time and effort to requirements of the desired systems. The managers satisfaction with the SISP methodology , the resources required to implement the methodology ,process, outcome and final implementation were also rated as factors for unsuccessful IS plans. The two problems that were of major concern were difficulty in getting senior management commitment for implementing the IS plan and the requirement for further analysis in order to carry out the plan. It is often seen that SISP methodologies may come out with good IS plans but the companies lack management commitment and control processes to ensure that they follow the IS plan. Lederer, Albert L and Sethi (1996, p 35 62) see that strategic planning should be aimed at building robust information management foundation for long term management of information and its supporting technologies, and to: Analyze current and future information requirements of the corporation that reflect close alliance of business and IS/IT strategies, aims and functions. Ascertain management policies, creation, maintenance , control and accessibility of business information resource IS/IT functions should be repositioned centrally in the corporation with representation at senior management High quality systems can be built and maintained by ensuring that IS architecture is sound. Analyze a portfolio of abilities that will be required over the lifetimes of the plans. Ascertain a productive and attainable corporate structure for the IS/IT function. There should be an acknowledgement of shared responsibility between IT/IS and corporate people for the successful implementation of IS plans. Question 2: Ethical Issues of Strategic Design Information Systems have provided managers with better information, enabling managers with better decision making. Effective Information Systems can be a source of valuable information which can have competitive advantage. Managers control and coordinate using the system. there are some security challenges in using information system which poses serious ethical questions and affects society in a number of ways. there are number of ethical issues in the areas of employment, working conditions, crimes and privacy. (Reilly and Kyi, 1990, p. 691 698) Information ethics are categorized into for main parts namely Privacy, Accuracy, Property and Accessibility. There are two forces threatening privacy. The first is the growth of information technology with its improved capacity for scrutiny, communication, calculation, storage and access of data for subsequent use. The second one is the information value in decision making. Policy makers are highly interested in information; they de sire it even if acquiring that information invades privacy of another individual. Information systems are created and information is stored in databases which might be helpful in decision making. So, it becomes a responsibility that the information in databases has to be accurate. Today, information is produced about so many people and their activities that our exposure to problem of inaccuracy is enormous. Intellectual Property Rights is one of the most difficult issues faced by our society. Several economic and ethical fears are attached to property rights; fears related to special attributes of information and the ways by which information is conveyed. It can be extremely expensive to produce information in the first instance. Information can easily be reproduced and shared with others after it is produced for the first time. The original information can be copied without destroying the actual one. Therefore, information is difficult to safe guard and it becomes communicable. When somebody else uses your information then it becomes difficult to secure appropriate reimbursements. (Besan and Kirby, 1989, p 255 280) Top management in every corporation needs information for strategic decision making. there are a lot of managers who are using computers or have direct access to to the computerized informations. so when manager/Senior management involves in the companys information and sees some problems, this information travels throughout the company then it becomes the responsibility of the company. the problem solving activity becomes faster and are more chances to solve it or decide what to do with problem. there are some issues as well who can access the informations. this access needs to be controlled by the top management that who have the right to access the information. there should be some proper measure to stop any unauthorized person to view the informations. ( Premkumar and King,1994, P 75-109). Information system failure can occur because of the following reasons:- The developed system does not meet the objectives, requirements or specifications laid down for it. It is also assumed that the system objectives, requirements and specifications are determined in the early phases of system development. There are weaknesses in the system development process due to poor planning or incorrect estimation of resources required. This results in workable delivered system but with additional cost and time. The delivered system may be reduced in scope or complexity to reduce the impact of process failure. Here, the system is either rejected or not used as intended by its users but meets its stated objectives, requirements and specification. Such systems may be avoided by their users in favor of unofficial shadow systems, often developed by the users themselves. In this case, there are multiple stakeholder groups that are involved in development of information systems. 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