Ritz Fail! Or is it?

This just in. The Ritz Carlton, the fabulous luxury hotel chain, just received an F grade for customer service.

CUSTOMER SERVICE! That, along with IS databases and staff selection, incorporates the main core competencies of the hotel chain.

"I was perplexed," said Erwin Schinnerl, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton on Boston Common. "To be rated an F is very severe."

Well, no joke.

So, who gave the failing grade? The Better Business Bureau did. It's one of the country's best known consumer watchdog groups.

But because of this rating, along with a few others, the media is accusing the BBB of "running a 'pay for play' scheme in which A plus ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings used to punish those who don't," the article stated.

ABC's 20/20 is airing the investigation tonight. Check it out.

The companies motto, "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," supports its core competencies in every way. It creates the social, structural, and strategic alignment on all levels. That's why I'm disagreeing with the BBB. My money, is on Ritz.

All I want for Christmas is...WiFi!

Google is just so darn considerate. They are giving anyone flying Delta, Virgin America and AirTran a Christmas present this holiday season!

That's right, if you fly with one of these guys between November 20 and January 2, you get  free in-flight Internet access!

According to the article, "users can access the Internet in-flight via laptop computers and handheld devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad." Talk about a strategic alliance between Google and these airlines.

So, if you're flying with Delta, Virgin America, or AirTran during the holidays, here is how you get your Christmas present.  Go to the airborne.gogoinflight Web site, sign up, then join the gogoinflight wireless network when you board the flight.

Here is another Web site that shows you how to sign up. Now, go enjoy the holidays a little more, thanks to IT at work!

The iPad is life changing

Get your tissues ready.

Technology and IT are both allowing us to break normal communication boundaries and barriers on a daily basis. I stumbled across this NY Times article about a 7-year old boy named Owen Cain. For him, technology is making magic happen.

Owen has a horrible disease called spinal muscular atrophy Type 1, meaning he is mostly paralyzed and mute and has a very weak immune system. Daily activities for a 7-year old, like communicating, doing homework, and reading books do not come easy to Owen.

But, thanks to the Apple iPad, with its relatively cheap price tag, large screen and diverse software options, Owen can effectively communicate, read books, and do math homework, simply by touching a screen. Thank you iPad.

As we are learning in IT this week, a vision and mission empowers the strategy of any firm, especially in the strategic IT Planning Process. A portion of Apple's mission is as follows: "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software."

Thanks to an empowering vision, Apple created a piece of technology that has changed one young man's life; by creating the "best computers in the world," Apple allows Owen to break communication barriers every day.

Starbucks? There's an app for that.

Congrats, caffeine addicts. You could soon purchase your Starbucks with your smart phone, thanks to the Starbucks Card Mobile App. It’s like having your Starbucks Reward card without the plastic.

Starbucks in the middle of the trial run for mobile payments, paying for coffee on your smart phone, at 300 participating locations in NYC and Long Island. That would make sense because you literally find a Starbucks on every corner in NYC and Long Island.

Absolute technological brilliance if you ask me…paying for a product without paper or plastic, but technology.

“In addition to the payment capability, customers can also keep track of their My Starbucks Rewards status and reload their card while they are on the way to Starbucks or in line,” said Brady Brewer, vice president-Starbucks Card and Loyalty. “Expanding our mobile footprint gives our customers a new way to connect with Starbucks on the go and transforms the way customers experience their Starbucks Card through the mobile app.”

This week in IT, we studied the case of Frito-Lay and how executives made changes in company-wide infrastructure. One key reason executives made this change is because they realized the correlation between quick decision making and the need for information. Starbucks executives obviously recognized this correlation when they created this app. Baristas need the information quickly to speed up orders, and if they get the payments and order ahead of time, efficiency increases. IT achieves it goal; another massive organization changes based on technology.

What will we think of next?

If you're going to steal, by all means, be ethical!

So obviously in Sweden, ethical standards are pretty high.

Here is the IT scenario:

A professor at Sweden's Umeå University has his laptop stolen. I'm guessing this laptop has a good bit of important stuff on it, especially since this professor teaches at Umeå University, the seventh best college to go to school, according to this website.

Anyway, the laptop is stolen and a week later, the Swedish professor receives a USB stick in the mail with ALL of the data from his laptop. So, a perpetrator steals his laptop, but mails him all of this data. Unbelievable.

A local paper quoted the Swedish professor saying "this story makes me feel hope for humanity." Well, why steal the laptop in the first place?

According to the article, "This [scenario] is the best possible argument against those fingerprint-scanning laptops we're bound to ever hear."

So, without the help of some nifty IT software, this victimized Swedish professor would have lost a good bit of data. We as a society are leaning more and more on technology to store some of our most precious possessions, which in these days is now coming in the form of information.

I would love to know your thoughts on this one. Is this an ethical argument? Does this prove that IS and IT are not only vital in a firm at all organizational levels, but also to us on a personal level?

While in prison, sue Google

 Things must get pretty boring in prison...not that I have any personal experience, but after reading this article, you may understand where I'm coming from.

So, there is this guy in France doing three years for "corruption of a minor," but he is in middle of appealing his case. Well, after googling himself (conceited much?), he realizes the suggested terms that come up are "rape" and "rapist." Now, in France, you are presumed innocent while appealing your case. And while these words may clearly describe the prisoner, they are technically illegal because they defame him.

So, our French friend took this to the Superior Court and is suing Google, "making Google's algorithmic labeling an act of libel," said the article. SUING A PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY. The Superior Court has ordered Google to remove the "rape" and "rapist" auto-suggestions and to keep similar incidences from happening in the future. 


Google is currently fighting the charges.


No matter how ridiculous this scenario may be, the bottom line is that we leave a digital history with our actions. So, is it Google's responsibility to give you a good name, even if your actions ruin your reputation?

A Think-Tank Jam Session

 The theme of this week's class....Embracing innovation. iTigers did a great job with their video in summarizing this theme. Companies must embrace an innovative culture and company structure because innovation translates into ideas, which translates into money. Money is the fuel of any firm.

While companies must embrace a culture of innovation, they must avoid certain pitfalls, such as using the hands-off approach, employing metrics to analyze every aspect of a company, and believing new forms of communication (such as Skype) are a waste of time. Firms must see the BIG picture of the company, where the company is heading, and how the company can keep a competitive advantage when making innovative culture/structural decisions. Innovation gives a company the freedom to work across industries and traditional business practices.

To wrap up the video, iTigers mentioned IBM's Jams. Intrigued, I did some research and found these Jam Innovation Sessions are the quintessential example of a company embracing innovation. Since 2001, about 300,000 IBM employees will get together for a massive think-tank jam session. Individual IBM employees will share ideas, give problem solving solutions, actually change the core values and missions of IBM to fit with current trends, and provide different perspectives and inputs for the company. Basically, everyone gets together and brainstorms.

In 2006, IMB held the largest online brainstorming session, called Innovation Jam. Over 104 countries were represented by over 150,000 employees. The result? Ten totally new IBM businesses were created, which later resulted in almost $100 million in profit for the company. Impressive.

So, who wants to go to China or Brazil, when you can go to Canada and brainstorm with IBMers???? I know I do!

Trust me, I know you better than anyone else

We value our friends, whether it be their opinions, ideas, advice, praises, critiques, questions, and answers. We trust them, we confide in them, we open up to them, and we don't put on a mask around them. Our friends know us better than anyone else...and social media is capitalizing on this.

I read this really interesting article in the New York Times this week about how online companies are turning to social networking sites to now target their customers- through their friends. For example, when you log-on to your Amazon account, you can now log-on to Facebook and Amazon will display YOUR friend's favorite books, movies, tv shows, and any other interests.  So, while Amazon will still recommend to you, they are paying attention to what your friends like...because you are.

Another example. A social networking site called Loopt, which has about 3.4 million users, now shows its users the kinds of restaurants YOUR friends like. Online companies will maximize on this...if your friends like it, more than likely, you'll like it too.

Twitter now polls what kind of hotels and airlines you and your friends use and lets you see the results....hotel and airline companies are rushing to these sites instead of "counting clicks" from online advertisement. The customer freely gives and takes this information...so these companies know the data valid.

I loved this quote from the article: “People are likely to find what your friends are saying about the iPhone 4 or a Chinese restaurant more helpful in a Web search,” said Matt Cutts, a software engineer who oversees search quality at Google.

Companies are capitalizing on the trust you place in your friends. Is it invasive? Another step closer to minimizing any privacy you may have? Or is it an absolutely brilliant business strategy? I would love to know your thoughts!

Here is the article, just in case the link didn't work for you: (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/technology/13search.html?_r=1&ref=technology)

Clouds, Mashups, and Web 3.0- The future of Business Processes

This week, our IS class dove in to this idea of business processes, which is basically all the hard work the IT department does for a firm to achieve a specified business outcome. This idea that technology achieves these tasks is actually a thing of the past. In fact, IT functions are shifting to a list of processes to achieve the goals of a firm. In order for a company to be a "blackbelt" in this business processes and in the way that it redesigns the way it conducts business, it must employ six sigma criterion, such as design, analyze, and control, to truly be successful in achieving its goals.

The process controls the type of technology. And this technology is every changing, as discussed in Dr. Schwartz's blog and lecture this week. In his lecture, he mentioned three processes and technologies that are currently trending and reshaping how a firm conducts its business processes. The one commonality that I found in these three processes is that it places control in the hands of the user, future enforcing the demand-pull theory.

First is cloud computing, which is simply using the Internet to move data in novel ways. Again, this places the control in the hands of the consumer. Cloud computing is demand-push. To truly get a grasp of cloud computing, I found this article, published in mid-July of this year.

Second is mash ups, which correlates with cloud computing. I ventured to www.programmableweb.com to check out this new business process trend. It appears the most popular mashup tags are mapping, photos, and shopping. It, again, allows the consumer to customer to control the content and manner in which they place data on the web. The consumer is in control of the operating system.

Lastly, Dr. Schwartz mentioned Web 3.0. Currently, we are in the Web 2.0 stage, which is basically user-driven content, like social media networking like Twitter and Facebook. The future of the Internet, Web 3.0, will take that user-driven content a step further and allow the consumer to control not only what the publish, but how it is delivered across the wire. This YouTube (an example of Web 2.0, user-driven content in and of itself) video gives a graphic depiction of the evolution of the web.

That's all for this week. The future of business process...it's all in YOUR hands.

Finding and keeping the right focus

Last week, I completed my first official week of graduate school...and survived. My take away from the whirlwind of a week? I will certainly have my hands full, but the work load has a purpose...to make me a better manager. A better manager of time, manager of priorities, and a manger of my school work. All of this requires...the right focus. Focus, therefore, will be my theme for fall 2010. And not just focus, but the right focus.
Going on day eight of graduate school, I've realized this is ironically an ongoing theme of focus in IS businesses, especially those that research to improve customer satisfaction. For any business to build momentum and maintain strength, finding and then keeping the right focus is all about knowing the business purpose behind each resource intensive effort. After reading this article, I have found companies like Harrah’s find its focus by seeing the elements of it's company relative to the whole. Harrah's identifies its purpose and then select the right tools to fit its business strategy. This maximizes competitive advantage for almost any company.

Companies must devote their resources to one successful formula that fits their business strategy best. Harrah's researched and identified their customer that yielded the most profit and honed in on retaining the loyalty of that particular customer. While requiring complex and meticulous research, Harrah's set and maintained its focus, increasing profits and customer satisfaction. In a Babson Executive Education article, it argues companies are shifting analytical focus on customers, "assessing the likelihood of customer attribution, or identifying sources of problems for customers." The article then goes on to say companies can broaden its focus beyond the narrow, but in the same sense they are careful not to become "too diffuse in their analytical targeting so that they continue to support their primary strategies."

While information systems and technology are rapidly changing virtually every aspect of a business, that business must maintain focus, the right focus, on its business strategy.