Management system free essay sample

This document describes the high level design for the CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping Application and the CHART Internet Mapping Application. The purpose of this design is to show the high-level technical approach to meeting the requirements defined in system requirements specification. This serves to identify the architecture of the system and high-level interactions between major system components. 1. 2 Objectives Identify and describe the software architecture for the system. Provide high-level approaches to various technical challenges. Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1. 3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2. 1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications. The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. We will write a custom essay sample on Management system or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: 1. Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2. 2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP. Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP. Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2. 4 Web Server (IIS) . Net Framework and ASP. Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP. Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP. Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the . Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP. Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The . Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP. Net modules. The ASP. Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2. 5. 2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc. , the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2. 5. 3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i. e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2. 5. 4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2. 5. 5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3. 1. 1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3. 1. 2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3. 1. 3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5. 1. 1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5. 1. 2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5. 1. 2. 1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5. 0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5. 1. 2. 2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5. 1. 3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5. 1. 4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5. 1. 5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display based on the updated information. Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the data in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display. The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5. 3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5. 4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5. 5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP. Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP. Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP. Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP. Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP. Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP. Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6. 1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. Management system free essay sample Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1. 3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2. 1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications. The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. We will write a custom essay sample on Management system or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page . When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2. 2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. ArcSDE provides a set of API and administrative utilities that help manage the spatial data storage. For the CHART mapping systems, the combination of ArcSDE and SQL Server manages the spatial information in the relational database. ArcSDE adds spatial functionalities without disrupting standard SQL database capabilities. 2. 3 Map Server (ArcIMS) ArcIMS includes a few components that will play important roles in the CHART mapping application. The workhorse component that processes the data and generates maps is the spatial server. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP. Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP. Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2. 4 Web Server (IIS) . Net Framework and ASP. Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP. Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP. Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the . Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP. Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The . Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP. Net modules. The ASP. Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. . 5 Security 2. 5. 1 Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2. 5. 2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc. , the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2. 5. 3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i. e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2. 5. 4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2. 5. 5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3. 1. 1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3. 1. 2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3. 1. 3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. Technical Challenges 5. 1 Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5. 1. 1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5. 1. 2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5. 1. 2. 1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5. 0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5. 1. 2. 2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5. 1. 3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5. 1. 4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5. 1. 5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display based on the updated information. 5. Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the dat a in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display. The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5. 3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5. 4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5. 5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP. Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP. Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. . Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. 5. Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP. Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP. Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP. Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP. Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6. 1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. 3. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. 5. PromptFrame will display the current tool selected and instructions for user activities. Here is a screen shot of the preliminary user interface design.

Marketing mix Essays

Marketing mix Essays Marketing mix Essay Marketing mix Essay Essay Topic: Marketing In this assignment I will go through how marketing mix is applied to service or a product for two organisations called KFC and Mc Donalds. I will choose a product from each of these businesses and the talk about the product, price, promotion and place. Marketing mix Marketing mix consists of 4ps. These are product, price place and promotion all offered by an organisation to potential customers. The marketing mix is a set of tools that work to achieve companys objectives. Price The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The price is determined by a numbers of aspects, which are material costs, market share, product identity and the customers thought of the product price. Price is determined by what customers notice about the price of the product. Researching about pricing is important because it indicates what customers are looking for as well as what they want to pay. For example Gillette the manufacturer of razors, deodorant and shaving foams seeks to provide the worlds market with products that have affordable prices and targets a particular market segments. Such as young adults who wish to buy low priced razors and deodorant. Product products must meet customer requirements whatever these might be. For many products is simple the physical item that customers of businesses might be buying or selling. For example a customer buys a new BMW 6 series, thats the product. Place Place is also known as distribution. It is the system through which products or services are moved from the manufacturer or service provider to the consumer. Different organisations use different approaches to reaching their consumers. For example, McDonalds uses a franchising system which allows the company to operate in many different geographical locations. Promotion Promotions persuades customers to buy their products or offers though communication Promotions has 4 key elements, these are advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. AN example can be that KFC advertising its new product, the zinger burger on posters with eye catching words will attract young customers. History of McDonalds Siblings Dick and Mac McDonalds opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The principle of modern fast food restaurant called speedee service system was introduced by them. The original mascot of McDonalds was a man with a chefs hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was speedee. In 1963 speedee was replaced by Ronald McDonald. McDonalds serves nearly 48 million customers every day prompting it to become the worlds largest fast food restaurant. Desserts, hamburgers, fries, soft drinks, milkshakes and breakfast food are the primary products that are sold in McDonalds. McDonalds has recently included salad and fruits to its menu as well as a playground for children. Some McDonalds even have a fire place and lounge areas removing plastic chairs and tables. McDonalds is a franchise so each McDonalds is run by a franchisee. The companys revenue comes from the rent, loyalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company operated restaurants. Types of product at McDonalds McDonalds sells primarily beef related fast food products such as cheese burgers, ham burgers, quarter pounder and their signature product the Big Mac. But now due to customer trends changing they have now included salads in their menu as well as different types of food such as oriental snack wraps and egg sausage burgers. McDonalds also sells ice cream which is often called McFlurry. All of McDonalds food is relatively cheap and is aimed at different types of people, young and old. Product McDonalds sells several many fast food products, the products I have chosen is cheese burger. The retail price of the product is 99p. The packaging is foam, plastic shaped as a box which can be opened, but now McDonalds have changed the packaging into yellow paper for some stores. This is because the packaging was causing pollution and wasting a lot of resources. McDonalds continues to design more efficient packaging and by promoting the use of recycle content material. The beef of the burger is not made on site but is delivered to the restaurant. The burger contains 100% pure beef with a single pickle, rehydrated onions, on a toasted bun. McDonalds beef is bought from farms accredited by nationally recognised farm assurance schemes. McDonalds can trace which farms the beef came from, and know the farmers name and how the animals were raised. At the supplier the meat is checked for a date and batch number. The quality of the meat is checked by the staff to ensure that it is at top quality. If the quality is bad then they wont use it. The cheese burger is aimed mostly at young adults and teenagers. McDonalds has a drive through service. People often with cars in the drive through service will receive their meals quickly than those waiting at the queue in the restaurant. Price The retail price of a cheese burger is 99p. The price has been set to make customers believe they are actually saving money but they are only saving 1pence. Psychological pricing is used to play on customers views. This is very effective as the consumer is tricked into thinking that the burger is cheaper than 1 pound. Then comes the cost- plus pricing, this is when you calculate the average cost plus a mark up to see if they made any money on top. The price of the product does change. Cheese burger price may increase if the costs of dairy products and beef rise. So some stores will need to raise the price of the cheese burger and other products to counter financial loss. Other businesses competing with McDonalds will have a difficult time competing with McDonalds, especially private businesses. A cheese burger in high street fast food restaurant like PFC (perfect fried chicken) will sell cheese burger at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.10 or more. Customers will go to McDonalds rather than these shops because they will be saving money in McDonalds. Place McDonalds are located primarily in public places where there are a lot of busy roads and people shopping for example Oxford Street. Oxford Street is a location in west London where many people go and spend hours buying clothes and food. This kind of location will increase the demand of their products and services because many customers will be coming in the restaurant to place an order. A busy place will always increase sales. McDonalds is also located in most shopping centres in the UK. McDonalds have relatively few sites on the motorway due to less demand of customers. These McDonald restaurants will often have a drive though service so customers can buy their products quickly. Promotion Some McDonalds restaurants do 3 cheeseburger for the price of 2. So customers will pay less. McDonalds also promote their business and products such as their cheeseburger offers through billboards, TV and internet. By doing this, McDonalds will attract as much customers as they can. McDonalds also accepts vouchers, such as buy one cheeseburger and get one free. Almost all restaurants accept these vouchers but when the vouchers expire it cannot be used anymore. History of KFC Colonel Harland Sander bought a motel and cafe in Corbin, Kentucky in the 1930s. Colonel sanders had done several jobs such as railroading and operating a steam powered ferryboat but he always loved cooking. There was nothing special about fried chicken, Colonel found a way to combine 11 herbs and spices with flour to create a finger licking good coating. The dining area in Corbin was named Sanders and cafe and was so successful that Ruby Laffon governor of Kentucky gave the title of honorary Kentucky colonel to sanders in recognition of his contribution to the states cuisine. At a time when most businesses were getting bankrupt and struggling Colonels business and reputation increased. But he was forced to sell his restaurant when a new interstate Highway was built through his property. Colonel Sanders at the age of 66 travelled the US with his new plan of created a franchise. Small and independent restaurants were taught by Colonel to cook Kentucky Fried Chicken and his values. He took 5 cent royalty on every chicken sold With most of his deals sealed with only a handshake, there were 838 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises across the United States by 1964. The Colonel was now in his 70s and Kentucky Fried Chicken had grown larger than he could realistically handle, so he sold the operation to businessmen John Y Brown Jnr and Jack Massey for $2 million. But there were strict conditions: Colonel Sanders became Quality Controller and his image stayed on as the company trademark. Colonel Harland D Sanders was 90 years old when he died in December 1980. His philosophies and values of hard work and excellent customer service are, and will always be a part of KFC. KFC is currently owned by YUM brands which are the worlds largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units, over 36,000 restaurants around the world in more than 110 countries and territories. Types of products at KFC KFC sells mostly chicken products these are chicken fillet burger, chicken zinger burger, chicken tower burger, zinger tower burger, and mini fillet burger, kids burger, toasted chicken twister wrap, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken and also sells salads for healthy options. KFC desserts are Avalanche, yoghurt and Rolo ice cream tub. Product The product I have chosen is chicken fillet burger. The retail price of the product is 1.99p. KFC uses paper packaging which helps the chicken crispy by wicking away excess moisture. The paper package is red with KFC logo in the middle. The chicken of the burger is not made on site but is delivered to the restaurant. 100% chicken breast fillet coated in KFCs secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. KFC checks its suppliers to see if they are using any extra ingredients like antibiotic growth promoters to the chickens. Rearing conditions are also strictly regulated to ensure animal welfare. Welfare and bio security audits are carried out by independent experts. KFC chooses he best quality chicken from its suppliers. Price The retail price of a chicken fillet burger is 1.99p. The price has been set to make customers believe they are actually saving money but they are only saving 1pence. Psychological pricing is used to play on customers views. This is very effective as the consumer is tricked into thinking that the burger is cheaper than 1 pound. Then comes the cost- plus pricing, this is when you calculate the average cost plus a mark up to see if they made any money on top. Place KFC are located mostly in public places where there are a lot o busy roads and people shopping for example Oxford Street or Bethnal green. Street is a location in west London where many people go and spend hours buying clothes and food. This kind of location will increase the demand of their products and services because many customers will be coming in the restaurant to place an order. A busy place will always increase sales. KFC have quite a lot of sites on the motorway due to KFC being popular with drivers. These KFC restaurants will often have a drive though service so customers can buy their products quickly. Promotion KFC has free chicken wings promotion for its UK stores. KFC also promotes there business and products such as their chicken zinger burger one the signature dish of the company in bill boards, TV and internet. By doing this KF will attract many customers as they can. KFC also accepts vouchers, such as free Ice cream.

Business Process Engineering for Transparent Workflow Weaving

This paper is a scholarly review of the article titled Implicit BPM: A Business Process Platform for Transparent Workflow Weaving. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of workflow weaving with regard to integration of business management processes into organization’s applications.   The paper will also look at the relevancy of the conclusion of the article under review, to the business process management, as well as drawing comparisons between the ideas of other articles within the context of the focus topic with ideas advocated by the main article being reviewed.   Integration of the business process or workflow into existing organization’s application can be a costly affair to implement due to the limited interoperability capabilities of the organizations applications. This is occasioned by isolated nature of applications development that is not considerate of integration of business activities into one seamless platform for greater efficiency and performance. The under review therefore, put fort or suggest a concept of reducing the cost of integrating business process or workflow with the existing applications. To look at how this is achieved, we review relevant aspects or framework of the concept that leads to achievement of the set objective of the article. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The article opines that building business systems from scratch is no longer feasible and tenable considering the major business workflow overhaul required in order to implement an entirely new system. The integration process on the other hand requires combination of different innovations and designs that that again requires considerable amount of funds to implement. This assertion is true considering that any business activity implemented by an organization must first by affordable by the organization and secondly will improve the revenue bottom line of the implementing organization. For these reasons, many organizations tend to view business process integration project as a costly affair that may take time before the organization break even on the cost of the project. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014)   The article suggests a technique that will ease the process of integrating the business process with the organization’s applications. The Aspect oriented programming abbreviated as (AOP) technique suggested is viable option of resolving limitations due to generic nature of the integration process as well as the transparency limitations associated with the process of workflow and organizations integration. To further simplify the process of integration, the articles suggest a black-box approach to implement the Aspect Oriented Programming rather than a clear-box approach. The former approach indeed doesn’t require much detailed knowledge of the code internals of the program. It uses a wrapping technique that focus on simplest form of integration that is cost effective as opposed to detailed integration approach.   The authors of the article postulates that the workflow weaving technique they are proposing enables the integration of the business process in a transparent manner in that the technique does not require fundamental changes in the organizations applications and at the same time it can bring together a myriad of heterogeneous web applications into one platform as an integrated end product. Analyzing the concept it is easy to see that when an integration technique doesn’t require extensive changes, then the process is likely to be cost effective in manner that encourages business or organizations to adapt this technique when aiming to integrate their workflow or business processes. The article uses the example of two sample applications one of The Pet Store which is built on Java EE platform and a generic accounting application that manages the books and clients for an organization. The two applications which have been implemented using Model View Controller, MVC framework are i ntegrated together for seamless processing of the business workflow. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The resultant outcome of the fusing is an innovation that combines purchasing and accounting process in one platform. For example, from the Pet Store MVC application home page the user can search fro an item he or she intends to purchase. If the item is found or located, the same is added to the shopping cart where the client can proceed to checkout.   Once the payment as been confirmed, the accounting application also running on MVC approach is triggered and the book balance for the company is updated accordingly. The accounting application will then adjust stock and register the client. On its home page the accountant can be able to see the updated processes in the system thus making work easier for him or her.   This is an example of how the business process has been integrated into one interrelated platform for seamless running of the organizations activities. (Trkman et al., 2015) In isolated applications say with different purchasing application as well as the accounting ap plication, each business activity would have been handled separately. For example, when the item was searched and purchased by the client or the customer the accountant would have to physically look for the sales report to know which items were sold and the prices. The accountant would then proceed to include or update his system on actual book balance and number of items remaining probably to ensure the same is replenished. This is a tedious process that is simplified by integrated business processes. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The MVC approach utilized by this innovation allows black-box modeling approach that provide for codes injection at strategic points of the web application framework. Although the outcome is a generic model that lacks a distinct brand, it serves the purposes of integrating the organizations workflow. To provide better correspondence between the software i.e. the programs and the designs, the hardware material the innovation used in the example above uses the crosscutting interface. Analysis of this interface reveals a flexible approach that enables the integrated applications to work together while at the same time creating a contract between the intercepted system and the platform. This further make the process of integration easier and simple which can make business sense to organizations aiming to integrate their business processes.   In order to eliminate the need of having Aspect Oriented Program (AOP) expert at the IT department, the article proposed use of Domain Specific Language (DSL) in the integration process that inhibit the inherent complexities associated with AOP approach or technology. With DSL technology the organization will avoid dealing with underlying AOP framework. The use of DSL therefore reduces the amount of resources needed for implementation of this integrated business processes model. The fact that the organizations will have this advantage makes this innovation appealing to the business. (Seethamraju, 2012) The cost associated with employing different experts for the integrated innovation coupled by the benefits it brings to the organization is likely to make business sense to the management of the organizations. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The article has also implemented the business process management approach in order to realize the proposed innovation. The innovation has two separate parts the front –end and the back-end parts which are connected via web mechanism that not only makes the combination flexible but also scalable. With the front-end having interception and reflection components among other features, the innovation is capable of drawing up various relationships such as when a client initiates a search of a particular item the integrated system can be able to provide him or her with other similar items to the one being searched by the client. In effect what this means is that the client will have various options of similar product. (Seethamraju, 2012) This is a striking feature for any business which can make the idea of business process integration a worthwhile venture to invest on when you analyze it from business perspective. The back-end part of the innovation is the support part where the who le innovation gets various interpretations of command, coordination, and repository among other support features. To repository feature of this innovation is another plus for the innovation in businesswise as well as the general functioning of the innovation. This feature allows the innovation to keep memory of the actions or commands in the system for easier retrieval when the same action pattern is repeated. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) One important feature of any innovation is the scalability option. With the web standard approach connection between the front-end and back-end that gives this innovation its scalability or extensibility feature, the innovation would be easier to be adopted by a growing organization. Growth and development is part of every organization. It will not be commercially viable to invest in an innovation that will require major changes when the organization expands or grows. At the back of every business decision is the financial benefit an investment has on business either directly or indirectly. This innovation sufficiently answers this question in that apart form streamlining the business process it can be scaled without major financial implications should the implementing organization expand. It worth noting that this is one of the challenges associated with the integration of the business workflow. With this feature it will be easier for the organization to buy into this innovation. (M ondà ©jar et al., 2014)   In its conclusion the article reiterate the importance of integrating business processes with the existing organization application into one system as well as acknowledging the cost implication of the process. This is relevant observation in business process management in that there is no evidence of an existence of business entity that is interested in making loses. The cost implication is always a fundamental question in every business decision and business processes integration is not an exception. The web platform of this innovation which enables it to enjoy various platforms such as cloud computing which comes with web applications platforms will further underline the issue of cost factor in this innovation. Comparing the ideas of this article with ideas of other similar article within the context of the topic under discussion; business processes management, a number of similarities and differences are noted. The book by Radelf Peterson titled â€Å"Using BPEL processes in Web Sphere Business Integration Server Foundation† postulates the same idea as the main article under review in that, they both focus on utilizing web based approaches that enables the innovation utilize the cloud computing. (Petrson, 2004) On the other El-Halwagi in his article have a solution which is not web based. This involves developing a BPM program from the scratch that overhauls the business process and applications. (El-Halwagi, 2006) It is suitable for startups which do not have existing application in place yet. As noted before in this review the cost-benefit analysis is always an important question to any business entity. The solutions with such wholesale changes would the make business case for new entities looking to launch operations for the first time. Systemic process improvement advocated by Mutafelija and Stromberg, is also in tandem with the ideas of the article under review. According to this book business process management should always have capabilities fo r continuous improvement. (Mutafelija and Stromberg, 2003) The web design of the innovation proposed by the main article under review and the fact that it uses black-box approach where only strategic interceptions are made, enable this innovation to be open to continuous improvement and scalability as noted by Mustafelija and Stromberg. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) In conclusion, that the use of web designs in this innovation among other features enables it to have desirable capabilities that will make organizations consider integrating their business processes without finding it challenging with the cost of the implementation of the program. The scalability feature of the proposed innovation is also on of the important aspect that breaths live to its implementation.   Al-Mashari, M. (2011). Business process management ? major challenges. Business Process Management Journal, 8(5). El-Halwagi, M. (2006). Process Integration. Burlington: Elsevier. Harmon, P. (2009). Business Process Change. New York: Elsevier. Mahmoodzadeh, E., Jalalinia, S. and Nekui Yazdi, F. (2009). A business process outsourcing framework based on business process management and knowledge management. Business Process Management Journal, 15(6), pp.845-864. Marjanovic, O. and Freeze, R. (2012). Knowledge-Intensive Business Process: Deriving a Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Business Process Management and Knowledge Management Integration. Knowledge and Process Management, 19(4), pp.180-188. Mondà ©jar, R., Garcà ­a-Là ³pez, P., Pairot, C. and Brull, E. (2014). Implicit BPM: A Business Process Platform for Transparent Workflow Weaving. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp.168-183. Mutafelija, B. and Stromberg, H. (2003). Systematic process improvement using ISO 9001:2000 and CMMI. Boston: Artech House. Petrson, R. (2004). Using BPEL processes in WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation. 1st ed. [Place of publication not identified]: IBM, International Technical Support Organization, pp.7-23. Seethamraju, R. (2012). Business process management: a missing link in business education. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3), pp.532-547. Trkman, P., Mertens, W., Viaene, S. and Gemmel, P. (2015). From business process management to customer process management. Business Process Management Journal, 21(2), pp.250-266. Wysocki, R. (2004). Project management process improvement. Boston: Artech House.

Marco Trend Analysis of Smartphones in the Telecommunication Industry Research Paper

Marco Trend Analysis of Smartphones in the Telecommunication Industry - Research Paper Example A competitive environment therefore is affected by the following six macro trends: Demographic, sociocultural, economic, technological, regulatory and natural environment (Mullins & Walker, 2010). This paper will analyze the macro trends that affect the smartphones in the telecommunication industry and how the trends might impact the successful marketing of the smartphones by different telecommunication companies. The first macro trend is technological trend such that the telecommunication industry has to keep up with latest technology in the market. Many customers in the western world do not only buy smartphones but buy them keeping in mind the latest operating systems and other features that are make the devices perform better and faster. Statistics showed that demand for smartphones in Europe and the U.S stalled in 2011 because many customers waited for the flagship of devices that featured the latest versions of key operating systems. Slowdowns are also seen in Asian and Latin Am erica of about 23.9% compared to last year 28.2%. This figure show the leading provider of smartphones, Nokia, as other companies trailed behind (Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 2011). This trend is seen to go on for the coming decade and this is because of the new technologies that emerge every year such as Symbian systems, android systems, windows systems and increased processing capabilities and power. The second trend is the sociocultural trend such that we have witnessed the growth of the mobile phones from the texting and calling only device to a device that has helped us connect with friends and family all over the world. Social networking, gaming and shopping are part and parcel of our daily lives. The smartphones have changed how people engage in these activities. At the moment many smartphones allow for instant communication both through text and video. In five years’ time, with the development of the 3G and 4G lite technologies, will see the smartphones take advantage of thi s and bring video conferencing to the phone. Many companies will need to adapt to the change in the industry and focus on how to best meet the social needs of the people. The third trend is the economic trend where a look at the previous three two years show a decline in the sale of smartphones because of the economic recession. Many people opted to buy budget phones because of increased prices that they could not manage. People’s spending reduced as the impact of the recession took toll on them. The market of smartphones declined. In the coming years the economy in many parts of the world is picking up and more people are bound to buy smartphones. This is because companies have realized the need for the people in the lower end of the market to own such products in order to build the economy. Many have come up with smartphones that are cheap and affordable. A good example is the Nokia C3 smartphone and the ZTE Blade. These phones have the latest technology at reduced prices ( Mohapi, 2011). The trend is seen to continue with many of these companies wanting to penetrate other untapped markets such as Africa. Increased sales will be seen in these areas if the smartphones will be cheaper as is the trend now. The above identified trends will affect the marketing of smartphones in one way or another. Marketers need to come up strategies

Questions wk5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Questions wk5 - Essay Example This policy would help companies to utilize local knowledge as much as possible so that the company’s business prospects in the host country can be enhanced. This policy gives more importance to host country norms. It also helps companies to reduce labour cost considerably since in most of the cases the labour cost in the host country would be lesser than that in the home country. Geocentric staffing approach is implemented in global and transnational companies. It helps companies to get the services of best personnel all the time irrespective of the country of origin of the employees. It gives lot of flexibility to the staffing policy. The major disadvantage of the ethnocentric approach is that it may produce anger and cultural conflicts in the business units in the host country. Moreover, this strategy is suitable only for international companies. The major disadvantage of polycentric staffing policy is lack of career growth and opportunities to the employees. It may also is olate the headquarter from subsidiaries. Geocentric staffing policy is highly expensive as far as implementation is concerned. Moreover, immigration policies in the host and home countries may limit the exchange of workforce. This strategy is not at all suitable for domestic firms. Link between an international business's strategy and its human resource management policies, particularly with regard to the use of expatriate employees and their pay scale The utilization of expatriate employee force is necessary for international companies to manage their business activities successfully in overseas countries. For example, it is impossible for Microsoft or Apple Inc to manage its activities in India with the help of Americans alone. Only the Indians know their market well and hence their service is vital for Microsoft or Apple to build their business strategies in India. Moreover, labour cost in India is extremely low compared to that in America. Under such circumstances, I would be su icidal for Microsoft or Apple to bring workforce from America to India to manage their business activities there. It should be noted that all the companies are currently trying to establish business units, especially manufacturing units in cheap labour oriented countries. This strategy would help such companies to stay competitive in international market. It should be noted that prominent Japanese and American companies have manufacturing units in China at present. For example majority of the Sony products are currently manufactured in China even though the origin of Sony is in Japan. While operating cross culturally, HR managers should make sure that the employees on deputation to the host country have adequate exposure to the cultural norms in the target country. HR Management of local work force is extremely different from the HR management of international or cross cultural workforce. Most of the international organizations are keen in keeping a diverse workforce. HR managers sh ould make sure that the interests of the diverse workforce never make any conflicts in the workplace. In what ways can organized labour constrain the strategic choices of an international business? How can an international business limit these constraints? â€Å"Organized labor has attempted to (i) set-up its own international

Theories and Principles of Learning and Communication Assignment Essay Example for Free

Theories and Principles of Learning and Communication Assignment Essay Learning is something that takes place everyday for most people in some way, shape or form and varies depending on certain circumstances. The principles can be simple or radical depending on opinion, some you may agree with while others you might discount straight away. Whether it is in the classroom or sat at home, it is important to understand that learning takes place all the time and people can learn new things everyday regardless of age, culture or background. The education system is the best example to connect these theories as it is so varied in its delivery depending on factors such as again age, skill sets and ability in particular. Overall it is important to understand that by following some of these theories and principles it will help all tutors in performing better within the classroom and delivering better sessions which means that you will enhance the experience for the learner. Theories and Principles of Learning It is important to understand the significance of learning theories and principles as it is important for tutors to understand them, which will then help ensure that effective learning is taking place. It can support the tutor and the learner through the process which allows for success within the taught subject. I believe that certain theories such as Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Motivation and Personality, Third Edition, Harper and Row Publishers are not relevant in regards to all learning sectors today, in particular not in the lifelong learning sector. I agree with Geert Hofsteds’s (1984). The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept. Academy of Management Review that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs neglects to illustrate and expand upon the difference between the social and intellectual needs of those raised in different societies. I think that with our society as it is today, due to such a huge and diverse range of cultures now within the United Kingdom that i t is impossible for this to still completely apply. Within the lifelong learning sector I think that andragogy is perhaps the best principle to apply. Malcolm Knowles researched and penned the four crucial assumptions to his theory which are as follows: 1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being 2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning. 3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles. 4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness. He later added a fifth assumption in 1984:  5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal. Within the post 16 sector individuals are more geared up to follow in what they want to do and have the experience and hopefully the right mindset to try and achieve this. Therefore this theory is one that can support a tutor by simply understanding why the learners are there, which is normally through choice rather than in the school system were pedagogy seems to take precedent and is a legal requirement. Analysing such theories will always help towards my own personal development and will hopefully allow myself to develop and improve the experience for the learners. Communication â€Å"The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium: The Oxford Dictionary† Effective communication is essential within any teaching field and perhaps more so in the lifelong learning sector. Without this then even the simplest of tasks can become difficult or done wrongly simply by misinterpreting what the instructions are. The important thing to remember is that it is a two way process. It is all very well telling the learners what to do but if you do not allow them to ask questions to double check what you have said or even as the tutor you were may not have been clear enough to the learners in your delivery. I believe also that gaining a good rapport is essential with the age group that I deal with as some of the information being given is sometimes completely new to them. As it can be a lot to take in within such a short time period then openly discussing their opinions and what they are aware of is important to their and in some cases my understanding of the subject matter that we are delivering to them. Impact of Learning Theory on Practise Describing how a Foundation Learning course operates is not that simple, but in effect it ties in with the learner and should adapt and cater for the learners specific needs and can be tailored to incorporate different aspects of what we deliver and what they want to complete. Our end goal even though it is not within our YPLA contract is to gain them employment after they have improved on their qualifications, which we are contracted on for our funding. My role within this is the delivery of the third week of the induction completing an Employability Award, whilst also helping the learners select which direction and qualifications that they would like to complete with us. Within the classroom I am doing career progression and interview techniques and these are essential to the learner in helping them choose what career direction they would like to go in when they eventually leave us. My main delivery method is to openly discuss with the learners their knowledge and opinions on certain aspects about what is needed for their future employment. While also making sure that there is class participation by everyone and hopefully building on their confidence as individuals. By doing this it helps me gain knowledge and hopefully a good rapport with the individual, which is necessary as I complete their Individual Learning Plan with them. This then helps them decide what they are going to do and provides support to them so they can tailor what they want from the Foundation Learning Programme that we offer at CTS Training Ltd. There are two theories that I believe are best applied to the lifelong learning sector and that they specifically apply to my own role on a day to day bases. The first is the Humanistic approach which I have looked at is Carl Rogers and I believe that out of his all his hypotheses that the following one is the most important. â€Å"A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate anothers learning. This is a result of his personality theory, which states that everyone exists in a constantly changing world of experience in which he or she is the center. Each person reacts and responds based on perception and experience. The belief is that what the student does is more important than what the teacher does. The focus is on the student. Therefore, the background and experiences of the learner are essential to how and what is learned. Each student will process what he or she learns differently depending on what he or she brings to the classroom.† Rogers, Carl (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. For the Foundation Learning programme to work it should be understood that the learner must bring themselves to the table as they are responsible for the choice and control of what they want to achieve. They must also be able to self evaluate their own performance in regards to how they feel they are doing and whether they will be successful, with or without support, in regards to what qualifications they are completing and what career choices that they have made. We can guide the learners but I would suggest we let them guide themselves so I try to apply what I should be doing in the following quote when delivering in the classroom: The tutor or lecturer tends to be more supportive than critical, more understanding than judgmental, more genuine than playing a role. The next theory that I apply is also tied into this and is one that I have discussed early in this assignment and that is the theory of andragogy. I believe that this also ties up well with the humanistic approach as well and by using the two together they complement each other and hopefully reinforce confidence within the learner that they will be able to succeed. Allowing them to be more in control and understanding that they make the decisions which is what the essence of Foundation Learning is, means that I am able to tailor my sessions depending on the groups I get. As I deliver to a different group on a weekly basis, this means I can focus on what is either more important or specific for that group rather than them just completing the same work each week and not addressing what they bring as a whole or on an individual basis. This can be challenging as it can change my aims and objectives on a daily basis which I believe is also good as it keeps the sessions fresh and up to date. By getting the learners to communicate with each other and myself I believe they can then take control of their learning. Giving their input to the direction that they want to choose and ultimately even without them knowing, breaking away from practises such as pedagogy which on the whole, has not worked for many of my learners which is why they have not made a success of the school system. Reflections on Insights Gained from Application of Learning Theory Overall on reflection I believe that this has helped immensely in regards to my approach to how I deliver within the classroom. My experiences of teaching are only within one aspect of the lifelong learning sector but I can see that my delivery has improved by realising and believing that the learner needs to be more active in the decision process of what subjects that they want to learn. A majority of my learners have been told in the past you’re doing this or that next and the decision have been taken away from them as individuals, whether this is directed from their school or even their parents. But I think regardless of where the influences of previous decisions have come from allowing the learner to take a more active role, in particular within the 16 19 category I work in, is essential as it will hopefully change the way that they learn forever and make their choices in the future.

Mending Wall Essay -- essays research papers

What is so important about mending a wall? Robert frost a down to earth, phenomenon has used his supernatural skills to write a poem which may seem to be a simple, ordinary poem, yet what lays hidden behind the veils may be unraveled. That is the spiritual world that you and me may learn to understand the philosophical basis of human nature that provokes the human revolution. Believe it or not this poem was ingeniously devised by Robert Frost to articulately open up a world of ideas that acumen imagination and its complexities. That is what I will be elaborating on in terms of textual evidence. Like many of Frost’s poems, ‘mending wall’ involves a journey. We are introduced to two farmers in an annual meeting at the wall that separates their properties. They walk the length of the wall, repairing damage that has been done during the year. This process allows Frost to probe the whole question of communication or, more precisely, the way we put up walls and create barriers between ourselves. As happens in this poem, Frost moves in his thinking from a basic, natural setting to an abstract consideration of human behavior. The very first word of the poem establishes the sense of that which colours its entire atmosphere. This opening line establishes a mystery; there is ‘something’ that doesn’t want the wall to be there. Whatever it is, it is a powerful force: it creates a ‘frozen grounds swell’ that attacks the wall from the base, forcing the boulders on the top to tumble off. Wintertime is when the destroyer does its work. The effect is not a small one, but a gap contrived is as wide as two people are. The question is ‘what has caused them?’ In this stanza, he breaks from his consideration of this mysterious wall-hater for the moment to discount hunters as culprits. He knows that hunters damage walls. He has repaired the damage they have done. They cause a lot of damage to let the dogs get at rabbits that hide amongst the rocks of the wall. The hunting image becomes, however, but a dramatic aside to the main concern of the poem. A more earthly consideration of an expression of that force which is responsible for the unexplained gaps which seasonally and mysteriously appear in the wall and await discovery in the spring with all the patience of the cosmos. We return to the air of mystery. These gaps that appear just seem to have happened, with no one seei... ... not go behind this saying to test whether it has any validity. Frost has tried to guide him behind it with his questioning, but to no assistance. The neighbour in fact takes pleasure in repeating this piece of derived ‘wisdom’. The poem leaves us with a somewhat comic character who like an untested saying, derived from his father, who probably derived it from his, and so on back into the ‘old-stone’ age. His neighbour ends the poem, in something of an anticlimax and wins the ‘argument’; the wall is fixed and they will meet again next year. A strong feature of Frost’s poetry is his use of symbols. He starts a story and gathers an additional meaning and significance as the poem develops. The wall represented barriers, divisions, irrational and unnatural dividers that keep people apart, nature symbolises a unifying force, the stone-age man represent unthinking man and that civilisation has passed him by while spring symbolises a new birth in nature. Changes of seasons are important on Frosts’ poem where the neighbour rejects the chance for a new start. So as you can see this poem is just a poem about mending a wall, but it has significant meaning which relate to human behaviour.