Case Studies: Chapter 1-4

Chapter 1: What’s the Buzz on Smart Grids? 1. How do smart grids differ from the current electricity infrastructure in the United States? One of the main differences between smart grids and present electricity infrastructure in the U. S. is that smart grids provide electricity by utilizing digital technology in order to save energy, to reduce costs, and to increase reliability as oppose to present electricity grids provides electricity which is obsoleted and inefficient (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Another difference is that current electricity grids do not deliver any information about how people utilize energy which makes even more difficult to create approaches to distributions in the efficient manner (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Since current electricity grids do not provide useful information, distributors and consumers may not be able to make proper decisions about how they use energy efficiently (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Conversely, smart grids provide information to both energy provides and consumers so that they can make decisions for better efficiency (U.S. Department of Energy, 2012). Additionally, smart grids deliver information from the house to the power provider and can monitor the electricity usage to lower the cost to the consumers and save energy by using them more efficiently (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 2. What management, organization, and technology issues should be considered when developing a smart grid? The management issues that need to be considered during the development of smart grid would be to convince the consumer to switch over to the smart grid system (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).The need for smart grid must be relayed to the consumer and shown how the utilization of the smart grid will benefit both the power provider and the consumer by being able to utilize power more efficiently (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Consumers will like to have their privacy protected, and the management of the power provider must assure their consumers not to feel i ntruded by the power company but focus on the benefits of the smart grid system such as lowering their electricity bills though the information feedback system that can relay how the energy s being used and the ability to analyze it (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The organizational issue that the smart grid system will have to overcome would be the high cost of the smart grid system to be put into place. The meter that needs to be installed in each household may range from $250 to $500 per unit (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Some consumers are not willing to initially spend the money to have the meter installed especially when they know that to save energy they need to turn off lights and other appliances or electronics when they are not being used (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Additionally, once the smart grid system has been successfully been set up, the power provider may risk losing revenue as more consumers are able to use their energy more efficiently (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The technology iss ue would be the fact that in the initial installation of the system, it will be time and money consuming on both the consumer and the power provider (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). A completely new system must be put into place and replace the old system. With the advancement of technology, this may become vulnerable to forms of cybercrimes as with any other advanced forms of technology may be attacked (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Also, the complicated technology may not be user friendly to everyone especially to the elders or someone who is not as technologically aware. 3. What challenge to the development of smart grids do you think is most likely to hamper their development? The challenges that smart grids face that may hinder their development would be the fact that first of all the startup of the system is very expensive and time consuming (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The complete infrastructure must be changed in order for smart grids to be fully replaced (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).It is also ex pensive for the home or business owners to install the meter necessary to monitor the electricity use and have to figure out who will pay for the initial installation of the meter, when the power provider will have to cover the cost of the system running which may be as high as $75billion (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). As mentioned in previous question, the consumers must also be assured that they do not have to worry about being a victim of a cybercrime and their privacy will be protected.Additionally with the advancement of technology, they must make sure it is user friendly to everyone as some consumers are already making claim that they had a hard time figuring out how to read and analyze the meters (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The hardest part of the power providers starting up with the grid system is to solve all of the issues mentioned above and convince the entire nation to switch over to the smart grid system. 4. What other areas of our infrastructure could benefit from â€Å"smartà ¢â‚¬  technologies?Smart technology can monitor, assess and analyze any form of data and optimize the consumption of resources to be able to utilize them effectively. Smart car can effectively monitor the consumption of gasoline and use it to minimize the consumption and extend it in order to get the maximum miles per gallon ratio to save money and gasoline (McGlaun, 2012). Some cars automatically shuts their engine off while the vehicle is not in motion and automatically turns itself back on when it needs to move (McGlaun, 2012). Hybrid vehicles use gasoline and combine it with electricity to further increase the miles to the gallon ratio.Other smart technologies that are used in cars would be the two way communication technology that will tell cars where other cars are at and what path they are taking. In that way the computers inside the cars can know exactly where each other are at and avoid collision (McGlaun, 2012). Smart technologies are being utilized in automobiles and oth er areas not only limited to houses but also electricity in order to maintain and preserve the nonrenewable resources (McGlaun, 2012). 5. Would you like your home and your community to be part of a smart grid?Why or why not? Explain. I personally would not like to be a part of the smart grid system. I think that the grid system is a great idea for someone who needs to be reminded and guided on how to effectively utilize electricity. In addition, I also believe that it is important for the environment to conserve power; however like many other consumers I know how to conserve electricity. For example, I turn off electronics and unnecessary appliances when they are not in use, I lower the air conditioner at night time and when I leave the house and make ure all the lights and TV are turned off when they are not being used to name a few. I feel that I am responsible and have the ability to regulate my electricity consumption. That being said, I do wish to pay up to $500 up front for so mething that I already know and can manage. That is why I do not wish my neighborhood to switch over to the smart grid system. Chapter 2: Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble 1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy?The Procter & Gamble’s business strategy is to keep the consumers by maintaining the brand and popularity they have with existing consumers (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Procter & Gamble also focuses on improving their already existing line of products in order to keep the popularity that they already have (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Lastly, Procter & Gamble creates completely new products from start to the final product and sent out new items to the market to improve their sales (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Procter & Gamble innovates and adds to the market by dividing its focus to developing and creating new brands and items for the market. The company needs the colla boration between all of their stake holders being the researchers, marketers and the managers to all work together in order to improve work efficiency which has made them one of the top companies in the world (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 2. How is P&G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy?List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each. The collaboration of over 8,000 scientists and researchers that are employed by Procter & Gamble worldwide, marketers and managers working together increases innovation and as a result further their success in the industry (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). As large as the company is, they keep utilizing all of their employees to research, experiment, produce, market and organize their own brand and create new products (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).With a large amount of employees throughout the world, good communication was crucial to working as one and becoming successful. Proc tor and Gamble collaborated with Cisco Telepresence to improve their communication abilities and made certain that all employees have access to the system to bring the organization into one well-oiled machine (Cisco, 2008). While P&G were conducting business, they realized that one communication system was not sufficient enough to be able to satisfy their large demands and needs (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).They also incorporated Connectbeam, which is another communication system which allowed employees to share more effectively more information by the utilization of networks between one coworker to another in the form of tagging and bookmarks (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 3. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P&G? Some collaborative technologies were slow to catch on at P&G because it took time for all employees to try out something new as many people are more comfortable with what they are used to and are not eager to make changes (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Employees may feel intimidated or does not want to change their normal routine even though they may be told that the new system such as the new communication systems are better and more efficient than the ones that already exist such as new email systems (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Another example would be a specific incident where researchers were using old outdated version of Microsoft software to print out the research and paste them onto notebook physically with paper and glue (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).To counter this effect, Microsoft overhauled the communication system and attempted to make it easier for the employees to utilize new technology and bring everything together (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 4. Compare P&G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment. In the past, researchers wrote up experiments that were performed or to be performed using Microsoft Office (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The researchers then printed out what they have ty ped, and physically glued them onto a notebook one page at a time to place them into a book format (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).The old email system were too controlled by the employees in terms of the receivers of that specific email, being that if the employee who was sending the email did not send it to the appropriate receiver, then the email was ineffective as a means of communication (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). On the other hand, other forms of communications such as blogs reached out to too large of an audience that being anyone who were interested and cannot be relied on sending sensitive messages (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Microsoft products streamlined the communication problems and issues that P&G had to make communication more effective (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 5. Why is telepresence such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P&G? Telepresence is a useful collaborative tool for company such as P&G because in an organization as large as P&G, they need to be able to keep all of their employees which lives in 80 different countries connected through communication (Cisco, 2008).Not only does Telepresence allow international communications not only by the forms of telephone, email or the internet, Telepresence has the ability to supply P&G with 300 videoconferencing rooms where employees such as researchers can see each other during conference which may allow the researchers visual communication or actually show each other’s research and experiment over the video than just verbally explaining tedious and confusing procedures (Cisco, 2008). The videoconferencing room will also allow for a company meeting or private meetings between any employees of P&G without having to travel, which can save time and travel fees.Telepresence can help the P&G Company by effective communication methods (Cisco, 2008). 6. Can you think of other ways P&G could use collaboration to foster innovation? Procter and Gamble has more than 8,000 researchers with 1,000 or more o f them having Ph. D. experimenting, researching and innovating new products for the company in approximately 30 research facilities (Coleman & Hymowitz, 2012). Procter and Gamble is well known and respected company that is known to innovate new products and as a result they have a collaboration of many individuals and organization working for the company and assisting those (Coleman & Hymowitz, 2012).Procter and Gamble can reach out and incorporate more researchers from other parts of the world to collaborate and innovate new products using new ideas and point of view from different part of the world (Coleman & Hymowitz, 2012). Chapter 3: HOW MUCH DO CREDIT CARD COMPANIES KNOW ABOUT YOU? 1. What competitive strategy are the credit card companies pursuing? How do information systems support that strategy? The credit card companies may be following low-cost leadership strategy and product differentiation strategy at the same time (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).For instance, the credit compan ies can categorize the cardholders based on the regular charges the cardholder charges on the credit card (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). From the types of charges that are made on a regular bases. For example the credit card company may see someone charging many speeding ticket costs onto their credit card as being risky and impulsive just as much as someone who has a record of being behind on their bills (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Furthermore, someone that will pay off their credit card bills in a timely matter or someone that will go out of their way to put a high quality product on their credit card categorized as being responsible and a better customer and may have a higher maximum balance on their card (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). The information system gathered by the credit card company profiles cardholders and places them into categories which may be bias and profiling (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).Additionally using this data and reaching out to the customers and offering them advices may res ult in the customers wanting to pay off their debt to their credit card companies before they pay off other credit cards as an individual who was going through a divorce paid off their debt to one company who took time to offer the customers assistance while that customer was unable to pay off other credit cards (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 2. What are the business benefits of analyzing customer purchase data and constructing behavioral profiles?The benefits of analyzing customer purchase data and constructing behavioral profiles would be that the business can have an idea based on the data who will be more likely to pay back the debt in a timely matter and potentially avoid loss (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Customers with a history of not paying off their debt or customers who spend in an impulsive matter may have a hard time paying off the charges and have a hard time getting qualified for loans and higher limit. An example would be customers who lost their homes to foreclosures that put their mortgage on their credit card and abandoned paying their debt (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).On the other hand, customers who have a history of paying off their credit card debt in timely matter may be able to get a higher limit and may have a better reputation from their credit card company (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). There are benefits to the credit card company to analyze using the purchase data being that the credit card companies will be paid back the customers debt, however this does create a bias opinion of their customers as some may not be true and potentially good customers.Additionally, by using analysis from data, it may protect the cardholders as it may alert the credit card companies any charges that may be unusual and ultimately alert the cardholders and potentially avoid or protect the customers from fraudulent transactions (Dhanapal, 2012). Once the fraudulent transaction is identified, the cardholders can then request to start an investigation and shut down that accoun t (Dhanapal, 2012) (Mavri, Angelis, Ioannou, Gaki, & Koufodontis, 2008).Once the investigation has been initiated, it allows law enforcement to track down the date, time and the location of transactions and even request a video surveillance of the fraudulent transactions and create a starting point for investigators and law enforcement officer to conduct and identify the subjects (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). 3. Are these practices by credit card companies ethical? Are they an invasion of privacy? Why or why not? I believe that these practices by the credit card companies on analyzing their customers purchase data have both pros and cons.They are unethical in the terms that every situation is different in every case. If the customer is having a hard time in their life, such as being in between jobs, they may not have the financial means to pay off all of their debt on time, however it does not mean that the customer is intentionally not paying off their debt to steal from the credit card companies (Mavri, Angelis, Ioannou, Gaki, & Koufodontis, 2008). It may be that the individual may have a job lined up and they may pay off the credit card debt as soon as they get more financial stability (Mavri, Angelis, Ioannou, Gaki, & Koufodontis, 2008).As a customer, the idea of credit card would be that the customers can purchase what they need at the time even though they don’t have the liquid asset in that particular time and pay them off on a later date and time (Mavri, Angelis, Ioannou, Gaki, & Koufodontis, 2008). By being judged by the analysis based on data, customers may be being judged by unfair bias (Mavri, Angelis, Ioannou, Gaki, & Koufodontis, 2008). On the other hand credit card companies are business and need to be paid back the debt that people make by making a purchase on their credit cards.If the company does not get paid back the debt, then the credit card company will be losing revenue in a highly competitive industry. Chapter 4: The Perils of Texting 1. Which of the five moral dimensions of information systems identified in this text is involved in this case? Accountability and control is one of the moral dimension of information systems that is involved in this case because people that text while driving should be held accountable and liable if they put someone in danger, injure, or worse (Laudon & Laudon, 2010).Mobile phone subscriptions have increased considerably over the past decade and have been continuing to rise at a rapid rate. According to recent study, 5,870 more deaths and 515,000 more accidents were caused from prior years by texting while driving (The Perils of Texting, 2012). Based on this information, it is obvious that we should not wait until someone gets injured in order to hold people accountable for texting and driving; there needs to be accountability now.Quality of life is another moral dimension of information systems that is involved in this case because though we are living in an information-and-knowle dge based technological society, there are certain values and practices that should be preserved and supported (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Valuing human life is one of those practices that should be supported. Those who text while driving put so many people at risk. Society as a whole is aware of the dangers associated with texting while driving; therefore, those who do so, are not valuing human life. 2. What are the ethical, social, and political issues raised by this case?Several States, 31 to be exact, have already prohibited texting while driving, and there are likely more to come; President Obama has also prohibited texting while driving for Federal government workers (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). The ethical, social, and political issues raised by this case are very important as texting while driving has become one of the most prevalent and dangerous practices people all over are vulnerable to. The laws surrounding texting while driving vary among states, some severer than others. The point is that this is a major issue in anywhere throughout the world.It is ethically wrong to text while driving because people are putting others in dangerous way (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). There is, however, still some debate between the social and political aspects of this problem; some feel that we should be allowed to text while driving because we should be free to make our own decisions, while others argue it is not the state’s or federal responsibility to outlaw poor decision-making (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Despite the opposition, there is a need for legislatures to set harsher penalties for drivers who creates an unsafe road conditions when they text and drive (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). . Which of the ethical principles described in the text are useful for decision making about (Dhanapal, 2012)texting while driving? The ethical principles described in the text that are useful for decision making about texting while driving are: †¢The Golden Rule because people shoul d do unto others as people would like to have them do unto themselves (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Therefore, people should not put others in harm’s way by texting behind the wheel if they don’t want to be put themselves in harm’s way because others could potentially do the same thing. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative principle is applicable because it applies to everyone. It is not ok for me to text while driving and not others because my actions could endanger someone else. If everyone texted while driving the probability of that action endangering people increases enormously. †¢Descartes Rule of Change is useful for decision making about texting while driving because every time you text you are increasing the risk of injury to yourself or others.This rules states that if the action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take it at all. This also applies because if you text and drive once and get away with it, you may be inclined to keep doing. This is the slippery slope rule (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). †¢Risk Aversion principle is useful for decision making about texting while driving because it asks you to take a course of action that produces the least amount of harm (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). In this case, you should choose not to text while driving because it could potentially cause a great deal of harm.