Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Sap America Case Study Essay Example for Free

Sap America Case Study Essay The case is about a company named SAP America, which is the abbreviation for Systems, Applications and Programs in Data Processing, which in three short years had gone from a smaller company to the heavy hitter within the corporate computing world. Within this case there were many details brought to light on the ambition of the founding members, and the eventual additions to the SAP team. The case details how this firm took their R/3 product, which was a real-time, integrated applications software, and changed the game of product market infiltration. In 1972 SAP was founded by four young software engineers who had come up with a concept for an integrated software package, and their current employer turned it down. This initial idea sparked their first major enterprise information systems product. This took their company public, and after five years SAP’s market capitalization was $15 billion. The expansion that occurred began in Walldorf, Germany where SAP was founding and spread to the America Group. This began in the late 1980’s and was crucial to the SAP’s growth. Once their overseas group took off, there were many elements of their business that needed to be altered and improved to account for their growth. Although they began as a product based company it was very clear to everyone involved that taking care of the client, through implementation and support was crucial to differentiating themselves from competitors within the market, and a key to their survival. The development of an industry strategy wa s another crucial action that paralleled the growth and support of SAP. This vertical industry strategy was to be delivered through industry centers of expertise (ICOEs), which to serve as a bridge between R/3 customers and the product development organization. This partnering was the key to SAP’s consistent growth, by using the manpower of outside and inside consultants. At the beginning of its cross seas venture, there was infrastructure and administrative problems. To solve these, more planning, budgeting, and Human resource involvement would be implemented. The organization of infrastructure was a crucial step taken by SAP, providing its salesman, consultants, and support with more clear guidelines on how to better operate and fulfill customer expectations. The new and improved structure that emerged from the alterations and evolutions of the processes began in a meeting in 1996. The two objectives were for SAP America to act more as one company, and to better leverage its size and skills. At that point in the market, SAP was the breadwinner, they had the product, knowledge, and fulfillment that trumped its competition. SAP was out performing its competition by 300%-800%, with results like that, they only had one piece of the puzzle remaining, granted it was a pretty large piece, but working as a single entity was the issue being dealt with. The new organization of lines of business became the big three; sales, consulting, and training. This was put in place to ensure the quality of its vertical organizational roles. Sales was subdivided by size of account, and by emerging markets. Changes with the ICOEs were a little more complicated, and were altered by bringing consistency and standardization to ICOE practices, and developing an integrated approach to marketing within the company by the distribution of knowledge. With the move to America SAP faced many challenges, they stepped back, looked at what needed to be changed, and took s teps to correct them. SAP AG was founded in 1972 by four software engineers. The key points within the case are, In just three years, SAP America went from a small firm to being the phenomenon of the corporate computing world. SAP AG, which is the parent company of SAP America, was the world’s fifth largest software firm and the leading producer of real-time, integrated applications software for client-server computing. SAP’s pinnacle product R/3 helped them dominate the enterprise information systems segment of the client-server market. All of this was under the Company and Industry background section. The case then shifted to Strategic Focus, and discussed SAP’s move to their America Group. Which also contained Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and Australia. Once the focus was set they needed to chart a course of action involving commissioning a sales force to sell their product, and target customers. The key point of regional organization discussed these challe nges. The next key point discussed was Resourcing Explosive growth. Once the product hit the market, it was a wild fire. With such high quality of implementation, fulfillment and results, companies were chomping at the bit to integrate the software. A vertical industry strategy was devised to penetrate markets and build the installed base, rethink and vastly expand their partnership strategy, and dramatically ramp up their service and support capabilities. Managing relationships and gaining cooperation was a crucial element within this point. Professional Services was the next key point in this case study. These were those activities provided to customers for a fee; support activities on the other hand had no fee. Consultation was the core of professional services, along with training. Within consulting SAP worked to provide its customers with the best service as possible when utilizing their product. Training was absolutely essential for all consultants or professional partners of SAP. The next key point within the case study was Support and Infrastructure. During this time of growth there was very little attention given to the licensing and contracts. Through administrative and human resource initiatives both elements were given their proper attention and improved. Also during this time the issues of organizational, systems, and infrastructure were addressed, and through several initiatives were corrected. The next key point within the case study was the Sales and Implementation Process. This point involved the discussion of Presales and Sales, and how in the beginning there was little cohesiveness throughout the company, yet that changed through time. This point also discussed implementation, in which mostly outside partners like Andersen and Price Waterhouse usually took the lead role in R/3 project management and implementation. The next key point was organizational challenges in a shifting market. This point showed challenges with internal and strategic shifts and opportunities. And the final key point was Reorganization, which involved the new structure. This also discussed the key point of challenges in professional services, both within professionalism, and with customer alternatives and involvement. Through this report on SAP America, I was able to learn more in depth about topics we have discussed in class. One thing we have talked about in Chapter 7 is the Benefits of Standards, which weren’t difficult to understand, but the report on SAP helped put it into perspective by applying it to a real life situation. Reducing consumer confusion is considered one of the benefits of Standards. SAP relates to these because part of their strategy to sell and build relationships was to offer demonstrations, test, and help out with setting up after selling to help the customer understand the product better. We’ve talked about making strategic alliances work during class, and SAP definitely puts in a lot of effort to make their partner relationships work. Through the report on SAP America, I definitely learned the importance of strong alliances and making it a goal to keep a good structure and relationship with any partner. I learned how important globalization for a company can be. Not only does a company have the opportunity to become more successful by branching out and starting up in new locations, but they can gain global alliance partners. The decision to spread SAP to America in the 1980’s was crucial to their growth. It helped SAP realize their business strategies need to be altered in order to improve their growth. From the case study, I learned a lot about changing strategy to fix current problem s within the company that may be happening from many different reasons. It seemed that SAP was constantly changing their strategy to better their growth and to fix problems inside and out. They had to do a lot of reorganizing and figure out where it was most important to focus on. I learned that even though a strategy may be working well, it is still okay to change your direction to help maximize growth and fix problems that may exist within a different part of the company. I found this study on SAP to be very understandable and easy to follow. It definitely helped out understanding some topics we have been going over in class and put them into a real world situation.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Physics of Wormholes :: physics science wormhole wormholes

Science fiction will often have fantastic stories about humans traversing stars at great speeds, faster than light. Vast interstellar civilizations are maintained by fleets of starships that fly from world to world in a matter of days or weeks. The truth, sadly, is far less fantastic. The universal speed limit is the speed of light, or approximately 2.998x108 m/sec. Nothing can move faster than that constant. Even at that extreme speed, it would take approximately 4 years for any spaceship to reach the closest of other stars. To make matters even worse, the energy required to accelerate an object increases exponentially as it gets closer and closer to the speed of light to the point where we cannot input enough energy to make the object actually go the speed of light. So how can we have these great galaxy spanning civilizations and expand our frontiers beyond the boundaries of our solar system? One possible solution is wormholes. This web project will attempt to inform on some of the basic theories of wormholes and how they could be used to traverse great distances and possibly even time itself. History Einstein first proposed wormholes in 1935. He co-wrote a paper with Nathan Rosen in which they showed that general relativity allowed for what they called â€Å"bridges.† They theorized that there could be places where space/time is folded that allowed transfer of matter from one point to another in the universe. After this initial burst of ideas in the thirties, wormhole theory was pretty much dropped by the world of physics in general. It wasn’t until the 1980’s when Carl Sagan wished to write his book Contact was wormhole theory revisited. Sagan wanted to have his protagonist leave Earth and arrive at a distant star system in a relatively short amount of time without being completely scientifically invalid. He turned to his fellow physicist Kip Thorne to develop an at least somewhat scientifically appropriate method of faster-than-light space travel. Thorne came up with much of the modern framework for wormhole theory that is in existence today for the book, which is now a major motion picture starring Jodi Foster. Definition A wormhole is a tunnel in space that matter can traverse through. It works in four dimensions with time being the fourth. It connects two points in the universe. A useful analogy for how a wormhole works is a two-dimensional piece of paper with a pair of dots on it.

Monday, January 13, 2020

The Hunters: Moonsong Chapter Six

Cautiously, Matt felt along the path with his foot until he found grass, then inched his way onto it, holding his hands out in front of him until he was touching the rough bark of a tree. There probably weren't too many people hanging around outside the main campus gate, but he'd just as soon have no one see him, blindfolded, dressed in his weddings-and-funerals suit and tie, and looking, he was sure, like an idiot. On the other hand, he did want whoever was coming to get him to be able to spot him. It would be better to look like an idiot out in the open now and become part of the Vitale Society than to hide and spend the rest of the night blindfolded in the bushes. Matt inched his way back toward where he thought the gate must be and stumbled. Waving his hands, he managed to catch his balance again. He suddenly wished he had told someone where he was going. What if somebody other than the Vitale Society had left him the note? What if this was a plan to get him on his own, some kind of trap? Matt ran his finger beneath his sweaty too-tight col ar. After al the weird things that had happened to him in the last year, he couldn't help being paranoid. If he vanished now, his friends would never know what had happened to him. He thought of Elena's laughing blue eyes, her clear, searching gaze. She would miss him if he disappeared, he knew, even if she had never loved him the way he wanted her to. Bonnie's laugh would lose its carefree note if Matt were gone, and Meredith would become more tense and fierce, push herself harder. He mattered to them. The Vitale Society's invitation was clear, though: tel no one. If he wanted to get in the game, he had to play by their rules. Matt understood rules. Without warning, someone – two someones – grabbed his arms, one on each side. Instinctively, Matt struggled, and he heard a grunt of exasperation from the person on his right. â€Å"Fortis aeturnus,† hissed the person on his left like a password, his breath warm on Matt's ear. Matt stopped fighting. That was the slogan on the letter from the Vitale Society, wasn't it? It was Latin, he was pretty sure. He wished he'd taken the time to find out what it meant. He let the people holding his arms guide him across the grass and onto the road. â€Å"Step up,† the one on his left whispered, and Matt moved forward careful y, climbing into what seemed to be the back of a van. Firm hands pushed his head down to keep him from banging it on the van's roof, and Matt was reminded of that terrible time this past summer when he'd been arrested, accused of attacking Caroline. The cops had pushed his head down just like that when they put him handcuffed into the back of the squad car. His stomach sank with remembered dread, but he shook it off. The Guardians had erased everyone's memories of Caroline's false accusations, just as they'd changed everything else. The hands guided him to a seat and strapped a seat belt around him. There seemed to be people sitting on each side of him, and Matt opened his mouth to speak – to say what, he didn't know. â€Å"Be stil ,† the mysterious voice whispered, and Matt closed his mouth obediently. He strained his eyes to see something past the blindfold, even a hint of light and shadow, but everything was dark. Footsteps clattered across the floor of the van; then the doors slammed, and the engine started up. Matt sat back. He tried to keep track of the turns the van took but lost count of the rights and lefts after a few minutes and instead just sat quietly, waiting to see what would happen next. After about fifteen minutes, the van came to a halt. The people on either side of Matt sat up straighter, and he tensed, too. He heard the front doors open and close and then footsteps come around the van before the back doors opened. â€Å"Remain silent,† the voice that spoke to him earlier ordered. â€Å"You wil be guided toward the next stage of your journey.† The person next to Matt brushed against him as he rose, and Matt heard him stumble on what sounded like gravel underfoot as he was led away. He listened alertly, but, once that person had left, Matt heard only the nervous shifting of the other people seated in the van. He jumped when hands took his arms once more. Somehow they'd snuck up on him again; he hadn't heard a thing. The hands helped him out of the van, then guided him across what felt like a sidewalk or courtyard, where his shoes thudded against first gravel, then pavement. His guides continued to lead him up a series of stairs, through some kind of hal way, then back down again. Matt counted three flights down before he was stopped again. â€Å"Wait here,† the voice said, and then his guides stepped away. Matt tried to figure out where he was. He could hear people, probably his companions from the van, shifting quietly, but no one spoke. Judging by the echoes their little motions produced, they were in a large space: a gym? a basement? Probably a basement, after al those stairs down. From behind him came the quiet click of a door closing. â€Å"You may now remove your blindfolds,† a new voice, deep and confident, said. Matt untied his blindfold and looked around, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light. It was a faint, indirect light, which supported his basement theory, but if this was a basement, it was the fanciest one he'd ever seen. The room was huge, stretching into dimness at its other end, and the floor and wal s were paneled in a dark, heavy wood. Arches and pil ars supported the ceiling at intervals, and there were some kinds of carvings on them: the clever, twisted face of what might be a sprite leered at him from a pil ar; the figure of a running deer spanned one archway. Red-velvet-seated chairs and heavy wooden tables lined the wal s. Matt and the others were facing a great central archway, topped by a large ornate letter V made of different kinds of glittering, highly polished metals elaborately welded together. Below the V ran the same motto that had appeared on the letter: fortis aeturnus. Glancing at the people near him, Matt saw that he wasn't the only one feeling confused and apprehensive. There were maybe fifteen other people standing there, and they seemed like they came from different classes: there was no way that tal , stooping guy with the ful beard was a freshman. A smal , round-faced girl with short ringlets of brown hair caught Matt's eye. She raised her eyebrows at him, widening her mouth in an exaggerated expression of bewilderment. Matt grinned back at her, his spirits lightening. He shifted closer to her and had just opened his mouth to whisper an introduction when he was interrupted. â€Å"Welcome,† said the deep, authoritative voice that had instructed them to take off their blindfolds, and a young man stepped up to the central archway, directly below the huge V. Behind him came a circle of others, seemingly a mix of guys and girls, al clothed in black and wearing masks. The effect ought to have been over the top, Matt thought, but instead the masked figures seemed mysterious and aloof, and he suppressed a shiver. The guy beneath the arch was the only one not wearing a mask. He was a bit shorter than the silent figures around him, with curly dark hair, and he smiled warmly as he stretched out his hands toward Matt and the others. â€Å"Welcome,† he said again, â€Å"to a secret. You may have heard rumors of the Vitale Society, the oldest and most il ustrious organization of Dalcrest. This is a society often spoken of in whispers, but about which no one knows the truth. No one except its members. I am Ethan Crane, the current president of the Vitale Society, and I'm delighted that you have accepted our invitation.† He paused and looked around. â€Å"You have been invited to pledge because you are the best of the best. Each of you has different strengths.† He gestured to the tal , bearded guy Matt had noticed. â€Å"Stuart Covington here is the most bril iant scientific mind of the senior class, perhaps one of the most promising ones in the country. His articles on biogenetics have already been published in numerous journals.† Ethan walked into the crowd and stopped next to Matt. This close up, Matt could see that Ethan's eyes were an almost golden hazel, ful of warmth. â€Å"Matt Honeycutt enters Dalcrest as a starting player on the footbal team after leading his high school to the state championship last year. He could have had his choice of col ege footbal programs, and he chose to come to Dalcrest.† Matt ducked his head modestly, and Ethan squeezed his shoulder before walking on to stop next to the cute round-faced girl. â€Å"Junior Chloe Pascal is, as those of you who attended last year's campus art show know, the most talented artist on campus. Her dynamic, exciting sculptures have won her the Gershner Award for two years running.† He patted Chloe on the arm as she blushed. Ethan went on, passing from one member of their little group to another, listing accomplishments. Matt was only half listening as he looked around at the rapt expressions on the faces of the other candidates, but he got the impression of a wide range of talents, and that this was indeed a gathering of the best of the best, an assembly of campus achievers. He seemed to be the only freshman. He felt like Ethan had lit a glowing candle inside him: he, Matt, who had been the least special of his group of friends, was being singled out. â€Å"As you can see,† Ethan said, circling back to the front of the group, â€Å"each of you has different skil s. Brains, creativity, athleticism, the ability to lead others. These qualities, when brought together, can make you the most elite and powerful group, not only on campus, but throughout life. The Vitale Society is an organization with a long history, and once you are a member of the society, you are one for life. Forever.† He held up one finger in caution, his face serious. â€Å"However, this meeting is but the first step on the road to becoming a Vitale. And it is a difficult road.† He smiled at them again. â€Å"I believe – we believe – that al of you have what it takes to become a Vitale. You would not have been invited to pledge if we did not think you were worthy.† Matt straightened his shoulders and held his head high. Least remarkable member of his group of friends or not, he'd saved the world – or at least his hometown – more than once. Even if he'd just been one of a team then, he was pretty sure he could handle whatever the Vitale Society could throw at him. Ethan smiled directly at him. â€Å"If you are prepared to pledge the Vitale Society, to keep our secrets and earn our trust, step forward now.† Without hesitating, Matt stepped forward. Chloe and the bearded guy – Stuart – stepped with him and, looking around, Matt saw that every one of the pledges had moved forward together. Ethan came toward Matt and took hold of the lapel of his suit. â€Å"There,† he said, quickly pinning something on it and letting Matt go. â€Å"Wear this at al times, but discreetly. You must keep your involvement with the society secret. You wil be contacted. Congratulations.† He gave Matt a brief, genuine smile, and moved on to Chloe, saying the same thing to her. Matt turned his lapel up and looked at the tiny dark blue V that Ethan had pinned to it. He'd never thought much before about fraternities, or secret societies, or any kind of organization that wasn't a sports team. But this, being the only freshman the legendary Vitale Society wanted, was different. They saw something in him, something special.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Language Is The Method Of Human Communication - 1008 Words

There is always confusion on whether culture and language go hand in hand. Culture is something that is brought through years of tradition and it is something that we are born with. We are born with doing things a certain way because of our culture . Language is the method of of human communication, although language can be viewed as a way to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties it does not necessarily make up someone s culture. Right from infancy a child is able to adapt from what they come in contact with. In the 21st century there are many factors that can influence someone s cultural preference and the way they speak, such as media, peer pressure, experiences, enlightenment etc. As Tan stated in Mother Tongue...â€Å" Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person s developing language skills are more influenced by peers† (209). Language is more based on what we surround ourselves with as where culture is more based on identity. Your culture is something you are born into similar to your identity in which you are raised into. Culture can be viewed as activities that bring a group of people together. For example they can be activities such as art or faith. Culture has nothing to do with the way a person speaks rather the practices that bring a community or group together. You can speak a language and still feel like you do not belong, vice versa, you can be part of a culture and still feel like you do not belong. AsShow MoreRelatedLanguage Is A Method Of Human Communication1350 Words   |  6 PagesLanguage is a method of human communication, one of the most important things all humans have in common. In Dillon’s Grammar Repair textbook, she mentions that language is power and those who can exercise its power â€Å"possess a greater share of life’s privileges across the board† (1). Language greatly defines the person and how they are deceived by others. 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