nad @ GST5083
it's the journey, not so much the destination...
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Monday, 20 January 2014
I LOVE COFFEE ART!
A pleasure to the eyes as well as to the tastebuds...
Ask for your coffee art from the handsome barista at Plan B, Publika!
Rosetta |
Simple But Nice |
Peacocks |
Tulip |
Fish
|
My Teddy! |
The Artist At Work |
I Love You, You Love Me |
Ask for your coffee art from the handsome barista at Plan B, Publika!
Saturday, 18 January 2014
SAP EXECUTIVE IN LEGO THEFT CASE
When technology and inside information is misused...
click the link below for more information
SAP executive pleads 'not guilty' in LEGO-theft case | News | Mountain View Online |
CASE STUDY 2 (v.3.2) : THE LEGO STORY VIDEO
This video was created as the Lego Group celebrated it's 80th birthday in 2012. It tells of the history of Lego and how it became a huge success to this day. A pretty cool video, IMHO :-)
CASE STUDY 2 (V.3.1) : LEGO - EMBRACING CHANGE BY COMBINING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE WITH A FLEXIBLE INFORMATION SYSTEM
LEGO Company
Background
The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words
"leg godt", meaning "play well".
The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.
The company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder.
It has come a long way over the past almost 80 years - from a small
carpenter’s workshop to a modern, to a global enterprise that is now, in terms
of sales, the world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of toys.
The original Lego toys started with a wooden duck. But the
first LEGO automatic binding brick is their most important product. The products have undergone extensive
development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO
brick.
The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk
Christiansen, in Billund, Denmark. In 1916.
In 1961, Lego wished to expand sales to North America, but did not have
the logistical capabilities to do so. Lego made an arrangement allowing
Samsonite to begin producing and selling Lego products in the United States and
Canada.
On 7 June 1968, the first Legoland Park was opened in
Billund. This theme park featured elaborate models of miniature towns built
entirely from Lego bricks. The three acre (12,000 m²) park attracted 625,000
visitors in its first year alone. During the next 20 years, the park grew to
more than eight times its original size, and eventually averaged close to a
million paying visitors per year. More than eighteen million Lego sets were
sold in 1968.
In 1969, the Duplo system went on sale. This was a newly
developed system, targeted towards younger children. The 1960s were such a period of major growth
for the Lego Group that by 1970, one of the biggest questions they faced was
how best to manage and control its expanding market.
A Lego
production plant was opened in Enfield, Connecticut in the United States. A packing and assembly factory opened in
Switzerland, followed by another in Jutland, Denmark. In 1982 Manaus, Brazil gained a Lego factory as
well, followed by Canada in 1988 and Malaysia in 1990. Lego continues to expand its business
operations with the setting up of Legoland in various locations all over the
world.
With such a vast international expansion, Lego needs to keep
track of its operations efficiently. Lego
uses the SAP business suite system for this purpose. SAP Business Suite is a bundle of business
applications that provide integration of information and processes,
collaboration, industry-specific functionality, and scalability. SAP Business
Suite is based on SAP's technology platform called NetWeaver.
Explain the role
of the database in SAP's three-tier system
SAP’s business suite is based on a flexible three-tier
client-server architecture that can easily be adapted to the new
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) available in the latest versions of the
software.
In the first tier, a client interface-a browser-type
graphical user interface (GUI) running on either a laptop, desktop, or mobile device-submits
users’ requests to the application servers. The applications servers send the
processed requests to the database system-receive and process clients’ requests
to the database system-the third tier-which consists of one or more relational
databases.
The main role of the database is as an information storage
system. The relational database contain the tables that store data on LEGO’s
products, daily operations, the supply chain, and thousands of employees.
Using the SAP query tool, users are able to toggle and
tabulate data and extract reports from the database. Therefore the database’s role is also as a
reports generator.
Explain why
distributed architectures are flexible
A distributed architecture system is a software system in
which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate
their actions by passing messages. The components interact with each other in
order to achieve a common goal.
Data may
be stored in multiple computers, located in the same physical location; or may
be dispersed over a network of interconnected computers. A distributed database can reside on network
servers on the Internet, on corporate intranets or extranets, or on other company
networks.
Because they store data across multiple computers,
distributed databases can improve performance at end-user worksites by allowing
transactions to be processed on many machines, instead of being limited to one.
Users from different parts of the world may access the same data. Therefore they are more flexible in terms of
availability to users.
They also bank on an improved performance of the machines,
as data is located near the site of greatest demand, and the database systems
themselves are parallelized, allowing load on the databases to be balanced
among servers. A high load on one module of the database won't affect other
modules of the database in a distributed database.
They are also more flexible for purposes of expansion of the
database and transparency, as the data can be monitored on site of the specific
computers as the data is potentially stored within the departments they relate
to. There is local autonomy or site
autonomy, where a department can control the data about them (as they are the
ones familiar with it).
They are economically flexible and may cost less to create a
network of smaller computers with the power of a single large computer. Systems can be modified, added and removed
from the distributed database without affecting other modules (systems).
Identify some of
the business intelligence features included in SAP's business software suite
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
SAP Supply Chain Management is a complete solution that
covers supply chain networking, supply chain planning, supply chain
coordination, and SCE (Supply Chain Execution). It includes a collection of
planning applications related to Advanced Planning, Optimization, Scheduling
and Integration with other SAP execution applications. It basically does a supply chain monitoring
and analysis as well as forecasting, planning and inventory optimization.
The software caters to the company’s need to track demand,
supply, manufacturing status, logistics (i.e. where things are in the supply
chain), and distribution. They also need to share data with supply chain
partners at an ever increasing rate.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of
managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering
design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products. PLM integrates people, data, processes and
business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and
their extended enterprise.
PLM enables the
company to deliver high-quality products and reduce waste, throughout every
phase of the product life cycle, to accelerate
product development by integrating supply-chain and procurement management. PLM also helps the company to improve
operations with tools to plan, measure, and track resources, safety, and
maintenance, and to optimize productivity, via an easy-to-use, role-based
portal that enables content delivery.
Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)
SAP Enterprise Resources Planning consists of several
modules, including utilities for marketing and sales, field service, product
design and development, production and inventory control, human resources,
finance and accounting. SAP ERP collects and combines data from the separate
modules to provide the company or organization with enterprise resource
planning.
ERP creates an increased competitiveness with integrated,
fast, and flexible business processes.
It allows for an accelerated time to market with innovative,
individualized products and services.
ERP simplifies corporate structure, market channel, and business
scenario management and improves corporate resource and asset utilization. ERP provides a consolidated foundation for
the latest mobile, cloud, and in-memory technologies.
What are the main
advantages and disadvantages of having multiple databases in a distributed
architecture? Explain.
Advantages
Multiple database contains the tables that store data on
product, daily operation, supply chain and thousand of employees.
Managers can easily use the SAP query tool to obtain reports
from the database because it does not require any technical skills.
Distributed architecture enables authorized personnel to
have direct access to database system from the company’s various location
including in Europe, North America and Asia.
Disadvantages
The additional overhead of these transactions can be a
performance penalty when the total amount of data in the network is small.
Users also see slower performance when accessing data that is not local.
Increased the use of
database space. Every tables must exist in every database. When the number of
tables is very large, the amount of space used can be significant.
Administrators must use database storage parameters to size tables and reduce
database space consumption.
Administrators must
keep the schemas of all database synchronized and ensure that the
network is configured to take optimal
advantage of the distributed-database environment in term of availability and performance.
Although database backups are more flexible in a distributed-database
environment, multiple database add complexity to the backup process
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