Assignment 1 (MIS)

COLUMBIA COMPUTER CENTER DAVAO, INC.

Company Profile...

Columbia Computer Center Davao, Inc., one of the pioneers in the computer industry of Davao City, started its operation in 1982 as a video center. Due to a promising opportunity in the computer business, investment in this industry was also tried and later concentrated in this field. Consequently, due to a greater demand in the national capitol region, the company decided to establish it’s main office in Manila, Since then, the growth of the company was extended to every major city in the country.

Currently, we have four(4) branches in the Mindanao area. At present, we carry most of the IT leaders’ brand name in the market such as ACER, COMPAQ, HEWLETT PACKARD, CANNON, EPSON, MICROSOFT, INTEL, A-OPEN, 3M, LOGITECH, APC, MGE, PULSAR, 3COM, SEAGATE, ASUS, MICROSTAR, JETWAY, CALIDAD, KRONE, AMP, LIKOM, EXPRESS, and other peripherals and accessories.

Columbia Computer Center Davao, Inc., offers sales, repairs, rentals, networking installation and other services to our customers. We cater to wholesale distribution of complete range of computer product, which covers PC System, peripherals, accessories and components. The retail business is responsible for catering walk-in customers, which are targeted directly to home users to meet every individual’s computing needs. We are also engaged in direct sales providing computing solutions to manage large corporate accounts, government agencies and educational institutions as well as small to medium sized companies. The company also provides services to our clientele to support all the products purchased under Columbia Computer Center Davao, Inc.

Experiences...

Yesterday at around 4 P.M., we went to Davao Light and Power Company Inc. to conduct an interview about the best practices of their IT/IS. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful because they needed a letter signed by the teacher for formality. So we decided to consider another company and conduct an "ambush interview" regarding the said topic.

Columbia Computer Center Davao, Inc., was the next company we went to after Davao light. We asked some of the their crew about the topic but we were referred to their technician and again passed on to another crew until the last person which is their Manager. He was the one who helped us with the topic.

Discussions...

Sir Sariel M. Villano, Manager, Marketing development, Mindanao area, was our interviewee yesterday. According to him, one of their best practices related to IT/IS:

1. Biometrics - refers to methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In information technology, in particular, biometrics is used as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are under surveillance.

Biometric characteristics can be divided in two main classes:

* Physiological are related to the shape of the body. Examples include, but are not limited to fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, iris recognition, which has largely replaced retina, and odor/scent.
* Behavioral are related to the behavior of a person. Examples include, but are not limited to typing rhythm, gait, and voice. Some researchers[1] have coined the term behaviometrics for this class of biometrics.

Strictly speaking, voice is also a physiological trait because every person has a different pitch, but voice recognition is mainly based on the study of the way a person speaks, commonly classified as behavioral.

It is possible to understand if a human characteristic can be used for biometrics in terms of the following parameters:[2]

* Universality – each person should have the characteristic.
* Uniqueness – is how well the biometric separates individuals from another.
* Permanence – measures how well a biometric resists aging.
* Collectability – ease of acquisition for measurement.
* Performance – accuracy, speed, and robustness of technology used.
* Acceptability – degree of approval of a technology.
* Circumvention – ease of use of a substitute.

A biometric system can provide the following two functions:[3]

* Verification – Authenticates its users in conjunction with a smart card, username or ID number. The biometric template captured is compared with that stored against the registered user either on a smart card or database for verification.
* Identification – Authenticates its users from the biometric characteristic alone without the use of smart cards, usernames or ID numbers. The biometric template is compared to all records within the database and a closest match score is returned. The closest match within the allowed threshold is deemed the individual and authenticated.

The main operations a system can perform are enrollment and test. During the enrollment, biometric information from an individual is stored. During the test, biometric information is detected and compared with the stored information. Note that it is crucial that storage and retrieval of such systems themselves be secure if the biometric system is to be robust. The first block (sensor) is the interface between the real world and the system; it has to acquire all the necessary data. Most of the times it is an image acquisition system, but it can change according to the characteristics desired. The second block performs all the necessary pre-processing: it has to remove artifacts from the sensor, to enhance the input (e.g. removing background noise), to use some kind of normalization, etc. In the third block features needed are extracted. This step is an important step as the correct features need to be extracted in the optimal way. A vector of numbers or an image with particular properties is used to create a template. A template is a synthesis of all the characteristics extracted from the source, in the optimal size to allow for adequate identifiability.

If enrollment is being performed the template is simply stored somewhere (on a card or within a database or both). If a matching phase is being performed, the obtained template is passed to a matcher that compares it with other existing templates, estimating the distance between them using any algorithm (e.g. Hamming distance). The matching program will analyze the template with the input. This will then be output for any specified use or purpose (e.g. entrance in a restricted area).

They are using this technology in their company for login and logout purposes of all their staffs. According to Sir Sariel, it will automatically reflect on the DTR as soon as the person's fingerprint is being recognized for his/her time in and time out, this will be followed by person's 4-digit for privacy and confirmation that the person is already timed in or out. This is a best technology so far in replaced to the manually done Date and Time Record which is the "bundy clock".

2. MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) - is the name of an Australian multinational corporation with operations in five countries. The company provides accounting, payroll and retail software and web hosting to small and medium businesses, and is particularly well-known in Australia and New Zealand.

The MYOB name was first used on a small business accounting software product originally developed by Christopher Lee and the team at Teleware, Inc. in the United States in the late 1980s. An Australian republisher, Data-Tech Software (owned by Brad Shofer and Craig Winkler) then purchased the intellectual property rights to the software in 1996, and provided equity to Christopher Lee. In 1999 they changed the company name to MYOB Ltd and took it public on 9 July 1999.

In subsequent corporate development, MYOB Limited merged with Solution 6 Holdings in 2004, further expanding MYOB's footprint in Australia, New Zealand and UK & Ireland, and expanding its range of products and services for accounting practices.

In early 2008 MYOB sold its UK Accountants Division and Business Division.[1] In May 2008 MYOB launched a new package of online services, including web hosting, email hosting and domain registration.[2] In January 2009, a private equity consortium lead by Archer Capital successfully completed a takeover bid for MYOB, returning MYOB to private ownership.[3]

MYOB's product and services for businesses range from entry level accounting software through to multi user enterprise software (MYOB Exo Business[4] and MYOB PayrollEnterprise). Other products include retail point of sale software, asset management, payroll, payment services, practice and tax software and E-commerce solutions. Software products are provided for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems.

For accounting practices, MYOB offers firm-wide operations systems incorporating client management, document and workflow management and tax and compliance processing systems. MYOB also offers outsourced compliance processing services for accounting practices in Australia and New Zealand under the service brand of MYOB Accountants Resourcing.

MYOB has over 700,000 client businesses including over 10,000 accounting practices in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

The MYOB small business accounting range has at its core a C-tree DBMS. Data input is stored in form of database. Backup and restore functionality is provided within each MYOB Accounting product. For external audit purpose, you may define 13 months or 12 months a year. Also you can define preview of the real time financial statements statue after data input without posting. The administrator has the absolute authority to define the setting to control users' human errors. The MYOB small business accounting software has audit function to trace and report who has done and what has changed the database before.

Columbia Computer Center Davao Inc., is using this program, MYOB (Mind Your Own Business), for the control of their inventory in sales, debts and etc. Everytime they had an incoming stocks or outgoing products, it will be manually checked and encoded by their personnel in this program for their records. So, all of their sales, products and etc., will be systematized and recorded in this program, MYOB. However, this a local area connection only which means that they cannot use this on the other branches through online.

3. Quickshare - the easiest way to share something to another person. The Columbia Computer Center Davao Inc., is using this technology to connect them to any of their branches in the Philippines.

4. CCTV - Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors.

It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point to point wireless links. CCTV is often used for surveillance in areas that may need monitoring such as banks, casinos, airports, military installations, and convenience stores.

In industrial plants, CCTV equipment may be used to observe parts of a process from a central control room; when, for example, the environment is not suitable for humans. CCTV systems may operate continuously or only as required to monitor a particular event. A more advanced form of CCTV, utilizing Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), provides recording for possibly many years, with a variety of quality and performance options and extra features (such as motion-detection and email alerts).

Surveillance of the public using CCTV is particularly common in the UK, where there are reportedly more cameras per person than in any other country in the world.[ There and elsewhere, its increasing use has triggered a debate about security versus privacy.

One of the things, Sir Sariel shared that amazed me is about this CCTV. As the main office of all branches in mindanao, they can access or monitor their personnel and staffs through cctv, online. They don't need to go to the branches but monitor them online.

In Addition...

With respect to the peopleware, as Sir Sariel said, the traditional way of dealing, handling and managing their people is still being used. The hierarchy of positions is still being considered. But when it comes to work, they call themselves, jack of all trade or the "daltans"(Dala tanan), which all of them can handle the work of the other.

Respect and Discipline are still being practiced.

MIS(Management Information System) department is not being considered because they are already a group and they manage the people directly. As Sir Sariel said, it will create a redundancy on their part. Instead, MIS departments of any sectors are their clients.










Some References...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometrics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MYOB_(software)
http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=29627
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television