Friday, June 29, 2018
FAILURE OF SINGLE WINDOW IMPLEMENTATION FOR IMPORT TRADE FACILITATION IN SRI LANKA
Actor Network theory has been used in
different ways in analyzing the failures of an ICT project. In this study it
has used the four stages of translation of Callon (1986) Problematization, interessement,
enrolment and mobilization. These help to analyses and describe the process
leading up to the failure, step by step from the Actor-Network’s formation
until its collapse (Greener, 2006; Lee and Oh, 2006;Mahring et al., 2004)
2.1 Problematization
At the interessement moment, the Focal actor uses various devices to
lock important actors into their respective position and establish a balance
powers between actors, ensuring that these actors are able to overcome a series
of obstacles and go through OPP (Callon, 1986)In the beginning ministry
of finance and planning was not allowed and not aware of the
difficulties faced by the different actors and later offered little help to
them with tackling the problems.
3.
Conclusion
Virtual Campus failure in Sri Lanka
Virtual Campus
failure in Sri Lanka
Introduction
ABC
Virtual Campus is a web-based portal developed by ABC institute to offer wide range
of educational resources and features for students’ convenience. This system is
developed for the purposes of enabling students to download study and course
work materials, collect exam entry cards, view evaluation feedbacks and
results, important messages and discussion forums. In simple terms, it is a
student centric web portal enabling students’ learning process easy and faster.
Students who are enrolled in the institute are provided with the access to the
modules that are elected by them and eighteen types of service options are
provided under each module. Viewing reports, online markers, academic corner,
instant messenger, student admission, notice board, exam corner, book list and
lecturer resources corner are some access options that are provided.
This is a platform for managing, tracking,
promoting and sharing information with easy to use on-line tools that aims to
connect the campus community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This Virtual
campus is globally accessed by students whereas the utilization has been
identified as very minimal. This assignment focuses on the reasons for such
minimum level of utilization of portal and suggestions for overcoming the
difficulties with reference to the Actor Network Theory (ANT). The actors of
the ABC virtual campus are the portal administrator, lecturers and student
service employees. Students are the other actors of this network. The non-human
factor involved is the ABC virtual Campus. Reasons for failure of the ABC
virtual Campus The following are identified as technical difficulties faced by
the portal administrators in using ABC virtual campus, Difficulties in handling
bulk data simultaneously This is a MySQL-driven database system in which bulk
data cannot be handled simultaneously. During the situations of data overflow,
this system becomes idle and loses its functioning ability. Difficulties in
load balancing When multiple users are logged on to the portal, load of the
data is not balanced effectively and the data processing speed is decreased. Hence
users are reluctant to access the system for their information requirements.
Hence
addition or editing cannot be done easily through web. No centralized
administrative privileges Though administrator has the authority to update and
handle the portal, he/she is not provided with access to all options in the
portal. For example, students are provided with some options which cannot be
seen under the administrator’s access list. The following are identified as the
hurdles for lecturers and student services employees to utilize ABC virtual
campus in an optimum level,
No
notification system for student registrations
When
a case file of a student’s registration is opened locally by the student
services and processed for registrations, no any notifications are sent
denoting the completion of student registration process that takes considerable
amount of time. However, the relevant student is notified about the completion
of registration process. No method to record student attendance to the online
system There is no any systemic way to record the student access information
and attendance for the online sessions.
Therefore,
the confirmation on students’ utilization of the information shared and the
participation cannot be measured quantitatively. The following are identified
as the reasons from the student’s end for not using the web portal for their
learning purposes,
Not
a multi-lingual platform
Though
this system is accessed globally by students from different region, it does not
have other language options apart from English. No real time online group chat
facility The system consists of information sharing platform as “White boards”,
however it is not quick and effective like real time chat. Students highly
prefer real time communication platform for them to share their thoughts and
sort out their issues. Lack of fluency in web-based learning process The
undergraduate students are lacking of fluency and confident in using an
information system for their learning purposes. Also, only an initial level of
introductory session is conducted to the students in accessing the portal,
whereas no any discussion and problem solving forums are conduct in-person once
the students start using it. Students who are adopted to class-room teaching
and in-person information sharing practices lacking of confidence in getting
maximum information from it.
They still depend on in-person announcements
related to their assignments, exams and results. Complex interface of the
system The content of the system is not arranged in an order where all types of
relevant and irrelevant menus are visible for all types of users. The scattered
nature of icons and improper partition of menu mislead the users to access the
required destination.
No
feedback, notification and acknowledgement process in the system Feedback of
the users cannot be tracked in the system. Also no any notifying mechanism is
implemented for users to be informed on the updates of the system. This leads
to situations such as students need to be informed via other media about the
update in the system.
Overcoming the failure using ANT This part of
the report provides suggestions for solving above mentioned difficulties in
handling the ABC Virtual campus system in view of the ANT. In the
problematization stage, the actants of this system needs to be identified prior
to development of the system. i.e, the users of this system such as student
service employees, system administrators, lecturers and students need to be
identified and the purpose of developing the system needs to be shared with
them. The expected benefit of the technological improvement needs to be
communicated to all users of the system. When the need for developing and
implementing the system and expected outcomes is clearly defined, the important
features and structure of the system can be planned. The requirements, needs
and interests of all students, lecturers, administrators and student services
employees needs to be discussed and identified to define the features of the
system. The interconnection between the features used by all parties need to be
identified. For example, student performance information access needs to be
provided to lectures and students. Administrator should have the access to all
privileges which is facilitated for students.
The link between students and student
services, students and lecturers, student services and lecturers, and
administrator and all other actants need to be satisfied in the system. In the intersegments
stage, the interest and confident to deal with the system for learning purposes
need to be developed among the students. The convenience and flexibility of
using the system needs to be felt by the lecturers, students and students’
services employees. The purpose of existence of the system, which is acting as
a hub connecting all actants for information sharing purposes needs to be felt
and realized by all users. Various levels of audience-targeted training needs
to be provided for all types of users. This will help users to get better
understanding about the system and share their issues in dealing with the
system. In the enrolment stage, interdependency among students, lecturers, and
students’ services need to be developed via the system.
The
skills to handle the obstacles in using the system needs to be improved. In the
mobilization of allies stage, the real purpose of every actant needs to be
served by the system. i.e, Students, lecturers and students’ services should
satisfy their learning, information sharing, and communication needs via the
system. Further, improvements and enhancements that could be done to upgrade
the functionality of the system needs to be suggested by the users. Conclusion in
the problemitization stage, the appropriate Database Management System (DBMS)
that solves the bulk data and data balancing issues has to be chosen.
Expectations of the students, lecturers, students’ services need to be
discussed and listed. Serious attention needs to be paid on providing access
authorities to all parties and the administrator should be informed about the
access authorities of all the other users.
The
interconnection between all users’ needs to be identified and linked. In the intersegments
stage, customized and common training needs to be provided to all types of
users. Real-time online chat mechanism need to be implemented to make the users
get maximum benefits from the system and to create the interdependency in the
enrolment stage. When the users are comfortable in using the system and the
objective of implementing the system is achieved, students, lecturers and
student services will make suggestions for further development of the system.
If the ABC virtual campus is developed and executed accordingly, it could have
been an effective learning system which serves the needs of students, lecturers
and students’ services.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Critical Analysis of the Technology Acceptance Model
Critical
Analysis of the Technology Acceptance Model
As an essential requirement in the
Management Information Systems (MBA-540) students need to assess Technology
Acceptance Model with the intension of analyzing practical example in the real
business environment. Therefore it was decided to analyze Navision ERP system
introduced to Analytical Instruments (Pvt) Limited and its acceptance and
rejection by the employees who are using the system.
In the first chapter introduction
and discussed and forward the basic identification of the selected organization
and the past situation of the organization without the Navision ERP. Thereafter
discussion will be on TAM model and the next Navision ERP system Introduction
and its acceptance and rejection among employees critical evaluation has
presented. Thereafter summery and conclusion and finally referred research and
text list.
Analytical Instruments (Pvt) Limited.(AIPL)
A
25 year old organization originally sales driven trading business and it is
having a turnover nearly 4 billion LKR. Probably the market leader in the
scientific instrumentation industry in Sri Lanka and ICT involvement it
considerably high and ICT used to gain competitive edge in the industry. In
resent past AIPL was able to introduce a major change in to their internal
system that is introduction of Navision ERP system. This introduction was done
due to various pressing issues in the past Q soft ERP system. According to the
preliminary discussions had with the ICT service provider Navision will be
overcoming most of the available draw backs in the q soft system.
On
time invoicing, correct inventory records, proper financial records marketing
records and information will be easily obtainable by the Navision. So that
total staff that is directly interacting with system were trained on the usage
of the system and external staff was train about the possible requirements that
can be obtain from the Navision. The major emphasis on the Navision is that it
will increase the effectiveness of the internal sales support staff of the
AIPL. Additionally the Sales man in the field will be benefitted from this.
After
introducing the system to the organization the situation was not that much
accepted, according to sales mans view point. On the other hand some of the
practiced processes and procedures also changed that was another negative
factor for the effectiveness of the Navision. In this scenario, the
complications in acceptance evaluated by using TAM model.
Critical
Evaluation According to TAM
AIPL
employees are always welcome new technologies unless it complies with PU &
PEOU. Q-Soft ERP system was not effective when the organization grow larger so
that people has to move to new technology. On the other hand sales forces are
the person who brings revenue to the organization so that facilitation from the
office staff is a must. In addition to that keeping them free from office work
will increase their effective sales time which can use to bring in sales. On
the other hand effective sales forecasting and budgeting will bill increase the
effectiveness of the sales strategies? Other than that walk in customers should
be treated quickly which was not happened previously.
With
all those expectations Navision was brought in to the organization. In fact it
was practiced with considerable difficulty due to various reasons major reason
is that operators are not adequately trained, therefore unexpected delays and
errors were occurred, at the same time report generation was quiet remarkable
and effective information was able to drawn from the Navision. Previously
manually generated target Vs achievement report was generated by a single key struck.
In
addition to that stock records were high in accuracy so that prompt delivery
planning and delivering was easy. In logistics handling previously information
obtained through a phone call but sometimes it was not accurate. In promising a
delivery date to a customer need to be concrete and should be matched so that
the world of mouth information was not adequate so that more accurate
information could be obtained from Navision with very limited time period.
Previously
invoicing was not easy for a walking customer so that number of walking
customers were dissatisfied. With the available system it was overcame.
Therefore introduction of the Navision was really effective to the organization
and it was successful. The major reasons behind are meeting the two major
assumptions. So that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were
matched by the technology so that it created a successful launching of the new
technology.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Ecotourism is a golden opportunity to Sri Lanka
Ecotourism
is a golden opportunity to Sri Lanka, since it has the required natural resources.
Tourism is a good foreign income earner and ecotourism is an emerging that Sri
Lanka needs to capitalize on. To identify the current level of ecotourism and
the potential of five star hotels to adapt this concept this investigation is
conducted.
The
problem statement of this investigation is to identify the challenges and
barriers faced by five star hotels when implementing ecotourism. The objectives
which this investigation hopes to achieve are to measure the current level of
awareness of ecotourism in Sri Lanka, to identify the challenges and barriers
faced by five star hotels when implementing ecotourism, to identify the
willingness of five star hotels to invest in ecotourism projects and finally to
develop a strategic plan to overcome these challenges and barriers faced by
five star hotels.
The
population from which the sample was selected are all hotels listed in the
Colombo Stock Exchange. Hotels have various levels like 3 star, four star and
five star it is impossible to investigate all, so the cluster sampling
technique was utilized to select a sample of 6 five star hotels located in
Colombo and are listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange.
Secondary
data was collected from various sources like newspaper articles, corporate
publications, government publications, websites etc. The findings of this
analysis indicate that the level of awareness of Sri Lanka is low, and there is
a great lack of support for ecotourism from the government. The main challenges
and barriers faced were incompetent tourist guides, bad infrastructure, natural
disasters, lack of cultural endowments, competition, lack of government
support, Lack of involvement of community and language barriers.
Tourism in Sri Lanka
Tourism is a major income earner
for Sri Lanka and the tourism ministry has been incorporated for than 40 years.
As mentioned above ecotourism has been introduced for more than 10 years yet,
no proper support has been provided by the ministry. There are many officers
and managers within the ministry who have the power and the required resources
to develop ecotourism. Since ecotourism not only bring income but also protects
the natural resources while developing the rural areas of the country. Having
many natural resources like those mentioned above ecotourism is a great
opportunity for the country. Since it has a combination of wildlife, forests,
culture and interesting ancient cities Sri Lanka is surely an ecotourist’s
destination.
The five star hotels alone
cannot successfully implement ecotourism in Sri Lanka since it requires a lot
of investment. Therefore it is important for the government to contribute for
the development of ecotourism. From the data analysis given above it is clear
that Cinnamon grand is the most dedicated five star hotel for the
implementation of ecotourism. The other hotels are in the initial stage of
identifying ecotourism while Hilton does not speak of ecotourism at all. The
SLEF along with the government need to create awareness of ecotourism attained.
The major challenges and
barriers faced by hotels when implementing ecotourism have been identified and
the strategic plan provides solutions that need to be adapted by the hotels in
order to implement ecotourism in Sri Lanka. This plan is aimed at the managers
of five star hotels and also for the government of Sri Lanka to identify the
importance of their support in order to effectively develop ecotourism.
Friday, June 8, 2018
INTERNET THREATS AND SAFETY METHODS AMONG CHILDREN IN SRI LANAKA
Now-a-days internet has become a vital part in our life style. In
every aspect of our lives, internet has become a part of them. Internet is
essential in each and every field and profession. It has become a common and a
well-known thing among everyone from the small child to adult persons which
means every person in the society is aware about the internet. That means even
the small children are aware about what is called internet. In today’s society,
children are growing with the technological environment so that it’s not a new
thing or magical thing for them further.
Internet has both advantages and disadvantages. When concentrating
about the advantages, e-mail facilities, access to information, online
shopping, online chat, downloading services can be considered as the main
advantages. Identity theft, loss of
confidential information/data, theft of network resources, damaged personal reputation;
financial losses are the common disadvantages.
When using internet, one
should be aware about all of those. But, the pathetic situation is when
children are using the internet, they are only aware of the benefits of the
internet most of the time. Although they are using internet, they don’t know
anything about internet threats. So that as a result, automatically they become
victims of the internet threats.
Lack of awareness of the internet threats can cause negative
consequences on children such as child abuse, sexual harassments, child
pornography etc. If no precautions are taken, children and young people can
come across serious dangers and become the victims of internet crimes.
If the children are allowed to use internet, they should be made
aware by the parents about the internet threats as well as safety methods. If using those methods, one can avoid the
threats and use internet safely without getting affected by any bad impact.
In the course of surveying the research which is the awareness level
of internet threats and safety among children researchers tried to carryout a
particular structure of the field. Followings were made as the conclusions
based on the analysis of relevant literature, the results of questionnaire
survey and the findings about the awareness on internet threats and safety
among students of both schools.
The study was carried out with view point of identifying the
awareness level of children about internet threats and safety methods in Sri
Lanka. Though internet is providing many opportunities for children, it has
exposed the children to a greater risk due to limitation in awareness about
threats and safety. Though many researches
have been carried out in this context, after reviewing the literature it was
notorious that majority of these studies have been conducted primarily on
Western economies. Therefore the study was designed to fill the existing gap in
literature and accordingly research objective was set out. The scope was
limited to from the grade nine to thirteen students in selected two schools due
to the information accessibility.
The sample was collected
using stratified sampling method in a way to minimize the sampling error and
information was gathered mainly using a questionnaire. Further secondary data
was also assisted in drawing an appropriate conclusion. The SPSS software was
used in analysing the gathered data through survey. The findings indicated that
nowadays almost all the students have
internet access device and daily browse and most of the students are spending
approximately one hours browsing internet especially playing online games.
Further it was observed that there was no any relationship between parental
mediation and awareness level about internet threats and safety among children.
However the educational level and concern about threats protecting behaviour
are highly affect to the awareness level among children of internet threats and
safety.
However it has to be noted
that the research is subjected to certain limitations including generalization
of the findings among students in other provinces in Sri Lanka since the sample
was obtained only from the western province and Sabaragamuwa province.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Importance or advantages of human intervention in a bank
Importance
or advantages of human intervention in a bank
Importance or advantages of digitalized
systems in a bank
· E-banking: This enables the bank to
deliver its services easily to its
customers. To make the system user friendly to all clients, banks have
used a Graphical User Interface , with this software , customers can
access their bank details on their own computers, make money transfers from one
account to another, print bank statements and inquire about their
financial transactions. Another technology used by banks to exchange data
between the bank and clients is called Electronic Data Interchange this
software can be used to transmit business transaction in a computer-readable
form. So the client on the other end will be in position to read the
information clearly.
· Plastic money: Credit cards or
smart cards like Visa / Master have
made the banking industry more flexible than before. With a credit card , a
customer can borrow a specific amount of money from the bank to purchase any
thing and the bank bills them later. In this case, they don’t have to go
through the hassle of borrowing small money. Then with Smart Cards like visa/Master
electron , a customer can pay for anything using that card and that money is
deducted from their bank accounts automatically, they can also use the same
card to deposit or withdraw money from their accounts using an ATM
machine.
· Self inquiry facility: Instead of customers
lining up or going to the help desk, banks have provided simple self inquiry
systems on all branches. A customer can use their ATM card to know their
account balance, or to get their bank statement. This saves time on both sides.
· Remote banking: Banks have installed
ATM machines in various areas this means
a customer does not have to go to the main branch to make transactions. This
facility has also enabled anytime banking, because customers can use ATM
machines to deposit money on their accounts. Remote banking has helped people
in rural areas improve on their culture of saving money.
· Centralized Information
results to quick services: This enables banks to transfer information from one
branch to another at ease. For example, if a customer registered their
account with a rural branch, they can still get details of their account while
at the main bran in an urban area.
· Signature retrieval
facilities:
Technology has played a big role in reducing fraud in banks which protects its
clients. For example, banks use a technology which verifies signatures before a
customers withdraws large sums of money on a specific account and this reduces
on the errors or risks which might arise due to forgery.
·
Accessing money through an
automatic teller machine (ATM) anytime is convenient to clients. On the other
hand, that freedom can allow easier access to people’s money for someone who
has stolen ATM card.
Online banking empowers customers to pay
bills and transfer money without leaving their living room. Unfortunately, it
also allows new ways for criminals to seize control of their bank accounts and
other information associated with them. If a criminal finds out one’s online
banking log in information, for example, he can make money transfers and can
probably find other numbers.
Advanced banking technology allows bank
account holders to arrange for credit
faster than in the past. Decades ago, obtaining credit was purely a paper based
process. Today consumers can acquire credit lines instantly. While many people
enjoy the convenience of getting a car loan or store credit card within minutes,
the temptation can lead them to borrow money they can't afford.
By
using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, customers can pay for
goods or services by simply waving their debit or credit card in front of a
reader. The RFID chip inside the card broadcasts bank information wherever go,
which can be quite convenient
for
example, instead of having to go into the gas station to pay, you can simply
make sure your wallet is close enough to the reader. However scammers can get
that information if they have their own scanner.
·
Website Interruption
Many
consumers become reliant upon technology to pay bills or conduct other kinds of
banking transactions. Ideally, this is a beneficial arrangement.
For
example, if client forget a credit card payment, he don't need to worry about
whether paper check will get to Credit Card Company in time. Simply log on and
make the payment. If the bank's website suffers an interruption, may be unable
to send payments to creditors, incurring late fees or other consequences.
Unfortunately, websites experience downtime on occasion.
·
Humans
provide judgment to the system. It is a common perception that humans are more
flexible, adaptable and creative than a purely automatic system.
Eg:-Banks are tending to keep backups of databases even though
how much advanced the existing systems used.
-In ATMs employees are deciding how much cash need to be
loaded for specific periods.
-Implementation Integrated Risk Management processes even
though it generate reports through automated systems.
- Banking systems are controlling by the staff through
placing username /passwords
Because it can help
differentiate a company from its competitors, the employees themselves in the
process of deciding about the customer service, it is them who are in the
direct contact with clients and meet those most often
Sales people bridge the gap
between customer needs and the product/service that fulfils that need. Often,
salespeople are dealing with already warmed up prospects that have an existing
awareness of the company through marketing and advertising efforts, and it’s
the job of the salesperson to close the deal by introducing further information
and helping the customer make those connections.
Bank employees play a key
role in the building of loyalty and trust between customer and the bank. There is a high correlation between
the customer service quality and profitability.
Eg:-Employees meet potential
non customers,even existing customers time to time and create awareness of them
regarding banks products/services, benefits of dealing with the bank.
-Initial level customer
attraction mostly depends on the reliability of bank staff.
-Even for maintaining
existing relationship with clients staff has to work on tactfully .such as keep
wishing for B’Days, offering gifts.
·
Work overload
Extreme pressure,
stress, and fatigue from work overload can lead to loss of concentration and
consequently to inadvertent errors or omissions. Even the best trained employee
cannot sustain flawless work if overtime and overwork have become routine.
·
Complex tasks
If tasks and
procedures are too complicated and unsystematic, employees may be not able to
repeat them correctly and consistently hundreds of times during the day, every
day of the week.
·
Unclear instructions
If the job to be
done is unclear and poorly documented, execution may result in errors
especially by new recruits. If the procedures and sequence of steps are stored
in someone's memory, they may not be repeatable and transferable to others.
·
Lack of standards
If banking
procedures lack standards and are subject to whimsical changes, personal style
and interpretation, then we are inviting errors and confusion. There is nothing
wrong with changing procedures, especially for the sake of improvement. The
problem is when these changes are not documented and communicated right away to
the rest of the organization. Another problem occurs when it is not clear who
is authorized to make the changes in procedures. In this day and age of all-out
employee empowerment, we should address this downside risk of changing things
without proper and timely documentation and communication.
·
Lack of training
If untrained or
inadequately trained personnel are assigned even the simplest of tasks, then
errors are prone to happen. If fact, these incompetent employee may not even
know they are committing mistakes.
·
Monotonous jobs
The minds of
employees bored with monotonous jobs wander continuously. They try to fight the
system and eventually lose concentration and make mistakes.
·
Poor working conditions
An employee working
under adverse working conditions, will make mistakes, whether he likes it or
not. Distracted and irritated by noisy, hot, cramped, or poorly illuminated
work area, he cannot put enough attention to the job on hand.
·
Inadequate, unreliable equipment
If employees are
made to work with machines that keep on breaking down or difficult to operate,
then equipment induced human errors are inevitable.
·
Wrong incentives
Finally, employees
must be financially motivated to do things right the first time, rather than to
produce the most volume or quantity. Incentives, like piece rates, which are
tied to the volume of output, e.g. number of documents processed, can be very
counterproductive by inducing employees to disregard quality and accuracy in
their haste to reach or exceed quotas.
Conclusion
As
highlighted above it could observe importance and issues related to the both
systems and employees related to the banking sector.
However the basic purpose of any
organization to achieve pre set goals so that it important to hold their
employees motivated and satisfied. If the employees are motivated, case by case
the quality and quantity of performance increase that has a positive effect
directly to all organization’s performance.
Humans provide judgment to the systems though systems provide
high efficient contribution towards success of banking activities.
Simply systems can’t play the intended role without human
touch in banking .Hence it can conclude that human intervention as the most
crucial factor.
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