The Strength And Weaknesses Of Oracle Company Information Technology Essay

The Strength And Weaknesses Of Oracle Company Information Technology Essay The company Oracle is particularly keen to keep all its newly acquired customers happy and convince them to buy into its Fusion roadmap. For enterprises making strategy software decisions, the company believes that it has the richest most complete portfolio of applications and middleware. The company also complies with all the ethical guidelines that law has placed and it also has its own ethical guidelines that the entire work force follows. Oracle is the only company that is capable of implementing complete global e-business solutions that extend from the front office customer relationship management to back office operational applications. Larry Ellison saw an opportunity that other companies missed more than three decades ago. This was a description of a relational database. There was no company at that time that committed itself to commercializing the technology, but Ellison and co-founder Bob miner and Ed Oates realized the business potential of the relational database model. The company is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California. Throughout history, the company has proved that it can build for the future, meeting all demanded and changes in trends. The intimate knowledge of customers and successes analysed by the best technical and business minds in the world, made the company what it is today. The main focus of the company is to fulfil its customers needs and implement key technology and business decisions that upend conventional wisdom and take its products and services in new directions. If one looks at companies that are similar to Oracle, it has become a standard for database technology and applications in enterprises throughout the world. The products of the company can be found in nearly every industry, and in the data centres of 100 of the fortune Global 100 companies. Oracle was the first company to develop and deploy 100% internet -enabled enterprise software across its entire product line: database, business applications, application development, and decision support tools. (Wikipedia) Strength and Weaknesses Oracle being the first company to introduce relational database, had the first mover advantage. It helped businesses improve their organization of information and also helped them improve their business processes. It is the worlds leading supplier of software for information management, and it is the worlds second largest independent software company. It has annual revenues of more than $10.1 billion. The company offers its database tools, application products, along with related consulting, education, and support services, in more than 145 countries around the world. Oracle is the only company that is capable of implementing complete global e-business solutions that extend from the front office customer relationship management to back office operational applications. Oracle software runs on PCs, workstations, minicomputers, mainframes and massively parallel computers, as well as on personal digital assistants and set-top devices. This makes its product the best in the market. The attribute of compatibility is what gives Oracle an edge over the other companies being its major strength. Oracles internet-enabled solutions provide a cost-effective way to expand market opportunities and improve business process efficiencies, and attract and retain customers. This is especially for the small and medium businesses that need an IT infrastructure in their organization that would help them get an edge over their competitors. With Oracles help, these companies are able to replace expensive, unwieldy client/server computing models with the efficiency and reach of the internet, companies can deploy a wealth of innovative applications that can be accessed with a Web browser. A weakness of the company that hurts its market is the way it markets its product. Because of the image perception that it has, it is always trying to gain market on the basis of this brand recognition. And this brand recognition has badly affected it in the past. The company markets most of its products using the slogan Cant break it, cant break in, or Unbreakable. (Wikipedia)What this signifies is the increasing demands on information safety. People expect the software to be unbreakable. The company also stresses on reliability of networked databases and network access to databases as major selling point. But two weeks after its introduction in 2002, David Litchfield, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products. (Poulsen, 2002). Then the commentators criticized the slogan as unrealistic and as an invitation to crackers, but the companys chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson portrayed the criticism as unfair. Environmental factors Competition It is a fact that IBM dominated the mainframe relational-database market with its DB2 and SQL/DS database products, it delayed while entering the market for a relational database in UNIX and windows operating systems. What this did was that it opened the door to Sybase, Oracle, and Informix then eventually Microsoft to dominate mid-range and microcomputers. This was the time Oracle lagged behind Sybase and in 1990-1993 Sybase became the fastest-growing database company and the database industrys darling vendor, but soon it merged mania and to technical issues with System X. But in 1993, Sybase sold the rights to its database software running under the windows operating system to Microsoft Corporation, which now markets it under the name SQL Server. Informix Software overtook Sybase in 1994 and became Oracles most important rival. But eventually Oracle defeated Informix in 1997. And in November 2005 a book detailing the war between Oracle and Informix appeared. This book provided a detailed background on what happened and how Informix Softwares CEO Phil White landed in jail because of his obsession with overtaking Ellison. But once it overcame Informix and Sybase, it enjoyed years of dominance in the database market. But everything changed when Microsoft SQL Server became widespread in the late 1990s and IBM acquired Informix Software in 2000. It is still the same today as it competes for license on UNIX, Linux, and Windows operating systems primarily against IBMsDB2 and Microsoft SQL Server. In 2004 was the year when Oracles sales grew at a rate of 14.5% to $6.2 billion, giving it 41.3% and the top share of the relational-database market. (InformationWeek March, 2005). Oracle Corporations main competitors in the database arena remain IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server and to some lesser extent Sybase and Teradata. With open source databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, has recently made inroads by claiming that its product delivers Oracle compatibility features at a much lower price point. The software-application market tells the same story. Oracle Corporation primarily competes against SAP. And on March22, 2007 Oracle used SAP, accusing them of fraud and unfair competition. But due to the expanding market for business-intelligence software, many other software companies have successfully competed in quality with Oracle and SAP products. But more products will appear within the next 10 years. Oracle Strategy The company Oracle is particularly keen to keep all its newly acquired customers happy and convince them to buy into its Fusion roadmap. For enterprises making strategy software decisions, the company believes that it has the richest most complete portfolio of applications and middleware. The companys breadth and depth is a big plus and it has helped it in earning a good reputation for supporting acquired best-of-breed products. Furthermore, the company capitalizes on these amassed solutions, Oracle will need to further develop its ISV partner-friendly, solution-centric ecosystem a d continue to chip away at its historically less than customer focused perception. (Duncan Jones) Corporate Governance Oracles Board of Corporations has always developed a corporate governance practice in order to fulfil its responsibilities to the Oracles Corporation stockholders. There are certain guidelines that the board must follow to help ensure that it has the necessary authority and procedures in place to oversee the work of management and to exercise independence in evaluating Oracle Corporations business operations. These guidelines help them align the interests of directors and management with those of the company stockholders. The company continually applies good corporate governance principles to multiple areas. Director The major members of the Board of Directors of Oracle must qualify as independent directors in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The person to be selected as a Director will possess certain attributes including business judgment, management, economics, accounting and finance, legal, marketing, industry and technology knowledge, international business, leadership and strategic vision. 2. Director Responsibilities One of the basic responsibilities of the directors is to exercise their business judgment to act in a manner they reasonably believe is in the nest interest of Oracle and its stockholders and in a manner consistent with their fiduciary duties. The directors can conduct any type of investigation as they deem appropriate, and may reasonably rely on the information provided to them by Oracles senior executives and its outside advisors and the auditors. The board is also responsible for overseeing managements efforts to assess and manage material risks and for reviewing options for risk mitigation. It also reserves the right of overseeing the major risks facing Oracle and may delegate risk oversight responsibility to committees of the Board. Directors are expected to attend the Annual Meeting of Stockholders and to regularly attend Board meeting and meetings of committees on which they serve, to spend the time needed in preparation for such meetings and to meet as frequently as they deem necessary to properly discharge their responsibilities. In addition to this the directors should stay well-informed of Oracles business and markets and as appropriate, meet with Oracles customers or attend events or take other actions they deem appropriate to enhance Oracles business and its effectiveness as directors. The board also believes that the management speaks for Oracle. Individual Board members may, from time to time, expressly represent Oracle in meetings or otherwise communicate with various third parties on Oracles behalf. It is expected that Board members will do this with the knowledge of the management. The most important thing is that all the directors are expected to comply with the Oracle code of Ethics and Business Conduct. (Oracle, The Oracle Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, 2010) Conflicts of Interest The director also has the responsibility to ensure that other commitments do not conflict or materially interfere with the directors responsibility to Oracle. 11. Performance Evaluation There is a Board that is led by the Nomination and Governance Committee that will periodically conduct a self-evaluation to determine whether the Board and its committees are functioning effectively. The Board with the assistance of the nomination and Governance committee shall periodically review these Corporate Governance Guidelines to determine whether any changes are appropriate. (Oracle, ORACLE CORPORATION CORPORATE GOVERNANCE GUIDELINES, 2010) Finance and Audit Committee The purpose of this committee is to provide advice with respect to corporations financial matters, to oversee the accounting and financial reporting process of the Corporation and the audits of the financial statements of the Corporation, to assist the Board of Directors in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities regarding finance, accounting, tax and legal compliance, and to evaluate merger and acquisition transactions and investment transactions proposed by the Corporations management. Decision making: There are three types of decision making all of which are distorted and affected while in the state of crisis. Intelligence Identify conditions that are required for decision making Design Invent, develop different courses of action and analyse them Choice Choose the best alternative, make a choice Structured decision making: This is defined which becomes unstructured when in the state of crisis and when it is not managed properly. Unstructured decision making: Non-routine decision making (this is not defined) TYPES OF SYSTEMS: There are four types of system which we have covered in this (MIS) course which I will be discussing here with their importance in the Crisis management: Transaction Processing System: This system serves the manager at operating level. This system helps to record the transaction that took place within the organization as well as outside the organization. Management Information System: This system serves the managers at the middle level. This system is used to control and monitor the business functions. The input it gets is from the T.P.S. this system is not flexible and it is used for routine decision making. Decision Support System: This system also serves the manager at middle level. This system uses the analytical models to show the performance and it is used for non-routine decision making. This system gets it input from T.P.S and M.I.S. This system has flexibility to change data/information. Executive Support System: This system serves the manager at top level. This system is used to dig out information from big stores. This is used for non-routine decision making, and uses graphical representation of data. Its input sources are M.I.S and D.S.S. But it does not use analytical models for it representation. This means that the decision making processes within the organization get distorted. And because the decision in any company is vital to its operations, hence it is important to have IS as a supporting tool in crisis management. The company uses all these software in its IT infrastructure. It does not need to do anything in order to change this or to improve this. All it needs to do is to maintain a place where all the information of the organization could be accessed easily. This would reduce the time of data retrieval and would also help them in improving them customer relations and their business. Oracle and Ethics Internet technology has posed new challenges for the protection of individual privacy. Information sent over this vast network of networks may pass through many different computer systems before its final destination. Each of these systems is capable of monitoring, capturing and storing communications that pass through it. It is possible to record all online activities of literally tens of millions of people, including which online newsgroups or files a person has accessed, which Web sites and Web pages he or she has visited, and what items that person has inspected or purchased over the Web. Much of this monitoring and tracking of Web site visitors occurs in the background without the visitors knowledge. Tools to monitor visits to the World Wide Web have become popular because they help organizations determine who is visiting their Web sites and how to better target their offerings. Some firms also monitor the Internet usage of their employees to see how they are using company network resources. Web retailers now have access to software that lets them watch the online shopping behaviour of individuals and groups while they are visiting a Web site and making purchases. The commercial demand for this personal information is virtually insatiable. Information technology has made it difficult to protect in tellectual property because computerized information can be so easily copied or distributed on networks. Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal traditions: trade secrets, copyright, and patent law. Oracle takes this into account and makes sure that these things are kept in mind and that the company name is not amongst the ones that are not known for their services. All the products produced by the company are up to customer standards and they try to fulfil them by being true and not being fraudulent.

The Life And Hard Times Of Grantly Marshall :: essays research papers

The Life and Hard Times of Grantly Marshall Could anyone imagine having no money, few friends, and no chance to succeed in life? Well, for one individual this situation is all too real. Grantly Reed Marshall, a 18-year-old high school student from Franklin Square, Ohio, had big dreams but little money. Grantly had reached a crucial time in his life. He desperately wanted to attend college. Grantly's siblings were much smarter than he was, as were his parents. None of his classmates expected Grantly to amount to anything, but this made him more determined. Grantly's family was very different. They had one light bulb in their entire house. Grantly got his name when his mother read the book Childbirth Without Pain, by Dr. Grantly Reed. His father ran for president in 1928 under the Communist Party. During this period in his life when they usually excluded him from the other kids, and was the poorest he would ever be, Grantly wanted most of all to go to college. The best things Grantly knew how to do was act and recite poetry. He would memorize poetry with more than twenty stanzas in a week and recite them to anyone who would listen to him speak. Finally, with scholarships, student aid and multiple jobs Grantly fulfilled his dream of attending college. Majoring in theater Grantly graduated Kent State University in 1972 with honors. After he graduated, Grantly did act in local theaters for a few weeks and then decided to do to the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Just weeks before he was to leave Grantly's father fell ill and died shortly there after. Grantly knew his father would want him to go to the Olympics anyway so off he went to Germany. Because he was such a passionate speaker Grantly could speak many languages and had no problems in Europe. A few people Grantly did know and was friends with began to wonder about him after the Summer Games ended and he did not return. Then, one day Gary Johnson, one of Grantly's only friend's received a phone call. It was none other than Grantly. It ended up that Grantly loved Germany and he got a job as a German Postal Worker. Gary had many more long talks with Grantly. These talks did not cost either of them a cent because Grantly always called from the post office. This did make Gary cautious but, they were never caught. Grantly, once again started acting and reciting poetry. People began to notice how good he was and Grantly began to make friends with more important people in Munich.

Miles Davis’ Milestones

One very interesting genre of music which is as popular before as it is today is Jazz. Jazz is often termed as the music of the soul, and it tends to manifest in words and melody the feelings of the heart. This music started as early as the 1800, with the birth of the blues by the African-American community. The blues, which are songs that are derived from hymns and work songs, became the foundation of jazz. The full-blown birth of jazz came about at around 1900 at New Orleans. Jazz in here is depicted as a blend of different types of music – opera, military bands, church music, ragtime, African drumming, and even some dance styles (Marsalis, 2008). Through the time, jazz has evolved in itself, giving birth to a number of sub-styles such as bebop, dixieland, swing, and modern jazz. This evolution also brought about a number of great composers, and hundreds of great songs. Miles Davis is one of these composers. He was a pioneer in cool jazz, a type of experimental jazz which involves voices unfamiliar to traditional jazz. One of his famous songs holds his name in it – Milestones. This track was recorded at around 1958, and is an advent on Miles’ take on working with modal jazz – another type of jazz (Biography, 2005). In this essay, I will try to expound more on this recording by discussing some important elements found in it, namely its melody, harmony, and rhythm and how they blend together to form a jazz sound. Read also about  Coleman Hawkins Melody is simply defined as a flow of notes, a flow of tones which sounds pleasing to the ear. In regular jazz music, there are usually two kinds of melody. One is melody being played at the start and end of pieces. These are usually notated, and strictly followed. The second one is the melody produced when a soloists improvises. Improvisation is very important in jazz, and the melody produced in here must be exciting at the same time pleasant to listen to. It should not be boring and must never outshine the other instruments too much. In the song Milestones, there is a distinct difference heard between these two melodies. Its first melody flows smoothly, creating a feeling of easiness, being subsided by notes. Then, the solo kicks in with a series notes alternating between fast and slow speeds. These contrasting melodic patterns give a great deal of interest for the listener. It creates a relaxed sensation at one moment then gives a slight tension at another. If melody is the horizontal aspect of music, harmony is its vertical counterpart. It comprises of notes being played together, such as triads, major chords, fourth and other intervals. In the song Milestones, harmony is best described as an accompanying effect to the soloist. Better known as â€Å"comping†, this provides a bed on which the soloist improvises on. The song’s harmony has a very strong and tight feeling. This is due to the modal take of the song, wherein the song uses a single scale. Thus, both the soloist’s melody and the harmony of the other players fit perfectly with each other. Also, the harmony is not only played as strict flow, but it is constantly modified. For example, it plays on counts 2 and 4 for some bar, and then suddenly shifts to 1 and 3. The harmony also plays syncopated notes, notes that are off beat the normal rhythm. This gives an additional excitement to the overall feeling of the song. But most importantly, it supports the soloists and never tries to overpower it. Milestones also portray another important element common to jazz takes – its swinging rhythm. This is usually attained by the rhythm section by playing triplets, or three notes at a count, and omitting the middle note. This rhythm gives a forward feeling and tends to move along that direction. It is very different from common contemporary songs, where the downbeat or the quarter note is very much accented. In Milestones, the downbeat is almost lost; in fact the first count of every bar is usually unaccented both by the rhythm section and the soloist. In a whole, the rhythm of the song produces a slightly danceable feeling, but in a cool and slow way. The song’s tempo is not that fast, but the swinging rhythm gives it a kind of push that tends to create a continuous flow of music. These elements give the song a traditionalistic view since it holds the very foundation of jazz music. The swinging rhythm, the accompanying harmony, and the soloist’s melody are the main components of a good jazz song. Miles Davis expanded more on this by creating a much more intricate solo filled with varying tempos and dynamics. The other band members were also able to add to the flavor of the song by playing their parts in a very interesting manner yet still being in perfect fit with each other. In a nutshell, Miles Davis was able to fuse traditional jazz elements with a great deal of experimentation, producing the masterpiece Milestones. References Marsalis, M. (2008) History of Jazz/Black History in America. Retrieved February 22, 2008 from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/history_of_jazz.htm Miles Davis Biography (2007), retrieved February 22, 2008 from http://www.milesdavis.com/bio.asp

The Contribution of Academic Institution in Childrens Well-Being

The Contribution of Academic Institution in Childrens Well-Being Hashtag: #makesafehappen Reducing Childhood Deaths through Awareness and Responsiveness The tagline â€Å"The #1 Cause of Childhood Deaths is Preventable Accidents† from #makesafehappen or Make Safe Happen campaign probably touched the heart of many. It is, in fact, encouraging us to act and become responsive and better parents to our children. There are two important issues associated with thousands of childhood deaths: The large majority of parents or about 76% are not aware of the issue of the deadly effect of â€Å"preventable† accidental injuries acquired at home.   The majority of parents or 63% lack the drive to do more about their children’s safety. In short, since the most probable solution to reducing childhood deaths from preventable injuries at home is awareness and enthusiasm of children’s guardian, the job then is to educate and motivate parents. There are many ways to educate parents but the most effective in terms of scope (a home visit is time-consuming strenuous for health workers) and motivation is to conduct parenting classes where parents can come, work together, share each other experiences, get motivated, and learn in one location. You may be interested in: Moral Failure in Academic Institutions The Limits of Academic Freedom The Value of Academic Debate The Scientific Basis for Defining Seasons Is High IQ a Guarantee of Academic Success? The Contribution of Academic Institution in Improving Children’s Well-Being Many are unaware that aside from basic literacy and numerical skills, the academic institution is deeply involved in other matters concerning children and forever contributing to the improvement of children’s well-being. Let us start with the more obvious. The institution gave us the knowledge and skills that we need to meet the requirements of our chosen profession. This profession is now helping us to support the needs of our family, secure our children’s welfare, and others in need. The academic institution is the core of scientific research and producing thousands of scholarly papers aimed to improve children’s well-being. These include research and useful findings associated children’s growth, disease, mental health, parenting and childcare, learning and skills, behavior, nutrition, and more.  Moreover, the findings of these academic papers are reliable and actually used in improving children’s lives for many years. For example, academic researchers on influenza enable the U.S. Centers for Disease Control or CDC to create a strategy to prevent the spread of flu, which is now a common practice of childcare providers and other early childhood care programs. Similarly, the source of United Kingdom’s healthy eating standards and bullying prevention policy for children, are academic case studies and statistical data. The sources used by #makesafehappen or Make Safe Happen are survey results and statistical data collected and analyzed using scientific methods developed by academic intellectuals. For example, the content in their safety tips are jointly developed by two leading children safety oriented organizations that are generally using information from national statistics and scholarly journals such as â€Å"Etiology and Outcome of Pediatric Burns† study of Morrow Smith (1996), â€Å"Tap water scald burns in children† by Feldman et al. (1978), and others. It is quite clear that the actual contributors in children’s wellbeing are academic papers researched and published to improve children’s well-being. Moreover, some of these academic sources were published many years ago and therefore solid evidence of the enduring commitment of the academic institution to children’s well-being.

colon cancer essays

colon cancer essays So many factors are thought to come into play in determining who gets colorectal cancer and who doesnt that its hard to choose one as the most important. A diet that is low in fat and red meat and high in calcium and folate may contribute to preventing colorectal cancer, and although the verdict is not yet in on the benefits of fiber, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables with a high fiber content would be beneficial in many ways. Daily doses of non-steroidal anti-infla mmatory agents (NSAIDs), such as aspirin and naproxen, may lower your risk of colorectal cancer by as much as 40 percent. "But we dont recommend these medications for patients who dont need them for other reasons," says AGA member Francis Giardiello, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director, Division of Gastroenterology, at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His recommendation, then, for the best way to fight off colorectal cancer? Get to know your family better. "Family history is very important," says Dr. Giardiello. "People with first-degree relatives (parents, siblings or children) who contracted colon cancer before age 50 have a 22 percent greater chance of contracting it themselves." He adds that people with a family history of polyps, benign growths that often are precursors of cancer, also have an increased risk. Approximately 15 to 50 percent of colorectal cancers are familial, meaning they tend to occur in more members of a family than expected by chance alone. Two hereditary causes of colorectal cancer are familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) (characterized by hundreds or even thousands of polyps developing in the colon or rectum at a young age) and hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) (an inherited tendency to develop colorectal cancer at a younger age). If you discover that you are at high risk for colorectal cancer or polyps, theres no need to despair - the enemy you know is better than the one you don ...

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Research Paper

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry - Research Paper Example d respectable man in the society through starting a business, thus he combines forces with his friends as joint venture partners to start on liquor store (Hansberry, 500). Walter, in his dreams has come to believe that no man can gain dignity, pride and respect out of being employed by others. Therefore, he wants to work his way out through ensuring that he stands for himself and creates his own wealth, so that he may gain respect amongst the people in the society (Loos, 39). Therefore, his dream almost saved his life, because it at least did show him that all he needed to do was to work for himself by starting a business, which was the platform through which he could amass wealth, and thus gain self respect, pride and dignity (Morrin, 51). In this respect, if he had succeeded in this business, then the dream would have become a major factor that would have saved his life and that of his family. It is this dream that makes him feel dissatisfied with his life as a chauffeur for a white man, which he feels is a job that has less opportunity for advancement, but more demeaning and embarrassing, since out of this job, he can barely provide for his family (Hansberry, 546). This feeling of dissatisfaction makes him nasty and rude to everyone, but his family is the most affected, because he quarrels with almost everybody, whether his sister, wife or mother. However, his dream of becoming wealthy through business does not come to pass, and Walter becomes even more frustrated, with nothing to show off to his family or to the society. He trusted his friend Harris against the warning of everybody, and he insisted on starting a liquor store when everyone in his family was against it (Loos, 47). This is the point at which his dream now destroys his life, after Harris runs away with the money, and the dream forces him to sink even lower than he was in his life, willing to bow down to Mr. Lindner, the white man from whom he had earlier refused to receive money as payment for

Comparing and Contrasting Development in Germany and Kenya Research Paper

Comparing and Contrasting Development in Germany and Kenya - Research Paper Example From this study it is clear that the physical geography of the two nations has played a big role in shaping their population settlement patterns, geopolitics, economic and social development, imperialism, and other areas that ultimately determine development.This paper outlines that  it is highly industrialized and populous country with the largest national economy in Europe. It is among the largest world exporters and is rich in minerals like natural gas, copper, iron, and nickel. She has a GDP of $3.2 trillion, a per capita income of $39,028 and life expectancy is 80.44 years. Its population is at 82.2 million. Furthermore, its people are highly educated with a 99% literacy level (Knowles 36). On the other hand, Kenya is less developed than Germany, although it is the most highly developed country in the Eastern Africa. It is less industrialized and has fewer minerals than Germany. It majorly depends on agricultural exports, which tend to fluctuate considering harsh climatic cond itions.  Germany’s most densely populated areas are along or near rivers. The first civilization in Germany stated around rivers since people were looking for more productive and fertile soil. Thus, people were able to produce more crops, and allowed every person to become productive.  The overall result was the development of the country.  Berlin City, the most populated city, is the capital city of Germany, which is located along the river.