CHAPTER 1
DOING BUSINESS IN DIGITAL TIMES
IT at Work
1.1 Zipcar and Other Connected Products
1. Research Zipcar. How does this company’s business model differ from traditional
car rental companies, such as Hertz or Avis?
Zipcar is an alternative business model to the car rental practice that is more
flexible and convenient for customers. It exploits the developments in technology
in order to provide personal transport services. One becomes a member in Zipcar
by paying an application fee and, to retain membership, an annual fee. Zipcar
offers car-sharing opportunities billable by the hour or the day. Members can
reserve Zipcars online by paying a reservation fee. Zipcar was acquired by Avis in
2013.
With Zipcar, cars are parked in specific locations around members’
neighborhoods. Members have automated access to cars enabled by RFID
transponders. After use, members return the cars to the same place they started.
The fees the members pay takes care of the gas, parking, insurance, and
maintenance. When there is unauthorized use, there are system features to
remotely disable car mobility using sensors. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipcar for recent updates on this topic.
2. Think of two physical things in your home or office that, if they were embedded
with sensors and linked to a network, would improve the quality of your work or
personal life. Describe these two scenarios.
Answers may vary. They all should state the objective, the specific information
gathered (sensed) and how that information is used in delivering the desired
service. Such applications could involve remote operations of appliances, sensing
status changes, and reminders for time-specific events, such as: turn on the oven
remotely by sending a message to the home network; open the door for the pet
when it makes a certain type of noise (the sensor is set to detect it).
3. What might the privacy concerns be?
Various data points about customers are collected. The data might contain
personally identifiable information (PII) as well. Therefore, protection of such
information, especially when used in conjunction with cloud computing, could be
a major privacy concern. Only the minimum necessary personal data should be
collected to reduce this risk in handling PII. Sometimes such data may be shared
with other businesses and this may require transferring the data to other locations.
Such extended use of customer information increases the risks concerning
privacy. Judicious collection of customer information is used in Zipcar. For
,instance, even though it is easy to track where all of the customers travelled, such
information is not collected in the system.
,1.2 Wearable Technology
1. Discuss how wearable electronics and the instant feedback they send to your
mobile device could be valuable to you.
Answers may vary. Principal value today is in athletic performance and the
monitoring of health conditions.
2. How can data from wearable technology be used to improve worker productivity
or safety?
Answers may vary. Some answers may include feedback on movements to
improve performance (as with time-motion studies) and alerting workers when
they have had too much repetitive movement or not enough movement for good
health (as in a sedentary job.)
3. What are two other potentially valuable uses of instant feedback or data from
wearable technology?
Answers may vary. Some answers may include sales personnel looking up
information, such as warehouse stock or sale prices, without leaving the customer;
wearing something like Google Glass to instantly access information on a sales
client or medical patient or product prices from different vendors; monitoring
health (pulse, blood pressure, etc.) and medication reminders.
4. How can wearable devices impact personal privacy?
Answers may vary. Such devices might be used by vendors to offer on the spot
discounts, at the expense of collecting data on location and buying habits of the
individual. Access to wireless devices may reveal not only current location
information, but habitual information (when you leave/arrive home, when and
where you go running, etc.)
1.3 AutoTrader Redesigns Its Order-to-Cash Process
1. Discuss how the redesigned order process supports the company’s three new
business objectives.
By reducing the process to only six human tasks, assigning to and alerting the
right people when new work is added, and allowing dealers to make changes
directly to their contracts, the system became much more agile, able to respond to
changing conditions. The new system reduced order fulfillment to one day, with
fewer than five percent needing clarification from sales, generating revenue much
more quickly. Reducing cycle time relieved the aggravation customers
experienced from unnecessary delays, improving customer satisfaction.
, 2. How does the reduced cycle time of the order fulfillment process improve revenue
generation and customer satisfaction?
The new system reduced order fulfillment from more than six to eight days down
to one day, generating revenue much more quickly. Reducing cycle time allowed
for handling a greater volume while also relieving the aggravation customers
experienced from unnecessary delays, thus improving customer satisfaction.
3. Does reducing the cycle time of a business process also reduce errors? Why or
why not?
Yes, reducing the cycle time, the time required to complete a process, can reduce
errors. Reduction in cycle time is achieved by automating tasks as much as
possible and by optimizing other tasks. This reduces the number of human tasks
to be completed and makes those tasks as routine as possible.
1.4 Finding Qualified Talent
1. Visit and review the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web site. Explain HITs. How do
they provide an on-demand workforce?
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for helping companies with small
tasks attract short term contract employees to fulfill those tasks. Amazon defines
the Mechanical Turk as a “marketplace for work” where they “give businesses
and developers access to an on-demand, scalable workforce.”
Amazon Mechanical Turk’s HITs stand for Human Intelligence Tasks and are
small tasks that need to be completed by a person. They can consist of small
activities which are very difficult, if not impossible, for machines to do, but which
can be done with relative ease by humans.
Amazon provides an on-demand workforce by providing a framework that allows
companies to post tasks as they become available and potential contract
employees to search through those tasks. Businesses post a task, its description
and details about the task such as the time requirements, the reward they are
willing to pay for the task, and the quantity needed, and then individuals search
through the tasks to see which ones they are qualified to perform and then submit
a request to perform that task. Contract employees can work on the task on their
own time.
2. Visit and review the InnoCentive Web site. Describe what they do and how.
InnoCentive is an open innovation company that posts research and development
“challenge problems” in a marketplace format for anyone to try to solve.
Challenge problems come from a broad range of domains including: engineering,
computer science, math, chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences, and business.
Cash prizes are awarded to the best solutions. Through this resource,
organizations hope to obtain high quality, new ideas that will help them to solve
problems faster in a more cost effective manner and with less risk.
DOING BUSINESS IN DIGITAL TIMES
IT at Work
1.1 Zipcar and Other Connected Products
1. Research Zipcar. How does this company’s business model differ from traditional
car rental companies, such as Hertz or Avis?
Zipcar is an alternative business model to the car rental practice that is more
flexible and convenient for customers. It exploits the developments in technology
in order to provide personal transport services. One becomes a member in Zipcar
by paying an application fee and, to retain membership, an annual fee. Zipcar
offers car-sharing opportunities billable by the hour or the day. Members can
reserve Zipcars online by paying a reservation fee. Zipcar was acquired by Avis in
2013.
With Zipcar, cars are parked in specific locations around members’
neighborhoods. Members have automated access to cars enabled by RFID
transponders. After use, members return the cars to the same place they started.
The fees the members pay takes care of the gas, parking, insurance, and
maintenance. When there is unauthorized use, there are system features to
remotely disable car mobility using sensors. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipcar for recent updates on this topic.
2. Think of two physical things in your home or office that, if they were embedded
with sensors and linked to a network, would improve the quality of your work or
personal life. Describe these two scenarios.
Answers may vary. They all should state the objective, the specific information
gathered (sensed) and how that information is used in delivering the desired
service. Such applications could involve remote operations of appliances, sensing
status changes, and reminders for time-specific events, such as: turn on the oven
remotely by sending a message to the home network; open the door for the pet
when it makes a certain type of noise (the sensor is set to detect it).
3. What might the privacy concerns be?
Various data points about customers are collected. The data might contain
personally identifiable information (PII) as well. Therefore, protection of such
information, especially when used in conjunction with cloud computing, could be
a major privacy concern. Only the minimum necessary personal data should be
collected to reduce this risk in handling PII. Sometimes such data may be shared
with other businesses and this may require transferring the data to other locations.
Such extended use of customer information increases the risks concerning
privacy. Judicious collection of customer information is used in Zipcar. For
,instance, even though it is easy to track where all of the customers travelled, such
information is not collected in the system.
,1.2 Wearable Technology
1. Discuss how wearable electronics and the instant feedback they send to your
mobile device could be valuable to you.
Answers may vary. Principal value today is in athletic performance and the
monitoring of health conditions.
2. How can data from wearable technology be used to improve worker productivity
or safety?
Answers may vary. Some answers may include feedback on movements to
improve performance (as with time-motion studies) and alerting workers when
they have had too much repetitive movement or not enough movement for good
health (as in a sedentary job.)
3. What are two other potentially valuable uses of instant feedback or data from
wearable technology?
Answers may vary. Some answers may include sales personnel looking up
information, such as warehouse stock or sale prices, without leaving the customer;
wearing something like Google Glass to instantly access information on a sales
client or medical patient or product prices from different vendors; monitoring
health (pulse, blood pressure, etc.) and medication reminders.
4. How can wearable devices impact personal privacy?
Answers may vary. Such devices might be used by vendors to offer on the spot
discounts, at the expense of collecting data on location and buying habits of the
individual. Access to wireless devices may reveal not only current location
information, but habitual information (when you leave/arrive home, when and
where you go running, etc.)
1.3 AutoTrader Redesigns Its Order-to-Cash Process
1. Discuss how the redesigned order process supports the company’s three new
business objectives.
By reducing the process to only six human tasks, assigning to and alerting the
right people when new work is added, and allowing dealers to make changes
directly to their contracts, the system became much more agile, able to respond to
changing conditions. The new system reduced order fulfillment to one day, with
fewer than five percent needing clarification from sales, generating revenue much
more quickly. Reducing cycle time relieved the aggravation customers
experienced from unnecessary delays, improving customer satisfaction.
, 2. How does the reduced cycle time of the order fulfillment process improve revenue
generation and customer satisfaction?
The new system reduced order fulfillment from more than six to eight days down
to one day, generating revenue much more quickly. Reducing cycle time allowed
for handling a greater volume while also relieving the aggravation customers
experienced from unnecessary delays, thus improving customer satisfaction.
3. Does reducing the cycle time of a business process also reduce errors? Why or
why not?
Yes, reducing the cycle time, the time required to complete a process, can reduce
errors. Reduction in cycle time is achieved by automating tasks as much as
possible and by optimizing other tasks. This reduces the number of human tasks
to be completed and makes those tasks as routine as possible.
1.4 Finding Qualified Talent
1. Visit and review the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web site. Explain HITs. How do
they provide an on-demand workforce?
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for helping companies with small
tasks attract short term contract employees to fulfill those tasks. Amazon defines
the Mechanical Turk as a “marketplace for work” where they “give businesses
and developers access to an on-demand, scalable workforce.”
Amazon Mechanical Turk’s HITs stand for Human Intelligence Tasks and are
small tasks that need to be completed by a person. They can consist of small
activities which are very difficult, if not impossible, for machines to do, but which
can be done with relative ease by humans.
Amazon provides an on-demand workforce by providing a framework that allows
companies to post tasks as they become available and potential contract
employees to search through those tasks. Businesses post a task, its description
and details about the task such as the time requirements, the reward they are
willing to pay for the task, and the quantity needed, and then individuals search
through the tasks to see which ones they are qualified to perform and then submit
a request to perform that task. Contract employees can work on the task on their
own time.
2. Visit and review the InnoCentive Web site. Describe what they do and how.
InnoCentive is an open innovation company that posts research and development
“challenge problems” in a marketplace format for anyone to try to solve.
Challenge problems come from a broad range of domains including: engineering,
computer science, math, chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences, and business.
Cash prizes are awarded to the best solutions. Through this resource,
organizations hope to obtain high quality, new ideas that will help them to solve
problems faster in a more cost effective manner and with less risk.
