Case 2: LufthansaTaking Mobile Computing to the Skies

Lufthansa wants toKeep 3,500 pilots Trained on the latest technology and

procedures Plugged into the corporate infrastructure Informed about schedules, weather events,

and other facts that affect their jobs

Control costsProvide Internet access to passengers

Case Study Questions

1. Are many of Lufthansa’s challenges identified in the case similar to those being experienced by other businesses in today’s global economy? Explain and provide some examples.

2. What other tangible and intangible benefits, beyond those identified by Lufthansa, might a mobile workforce enjoy as a result of deploying mobile technologies? Explain.

3. Lufthansa was clearly taking a big risk with their decision to deploy notebook computers to their pilots. What steps did they take to manage that risk and what others might be needed in today’s business environment? Provide some examples

Are many of Lufthansa’s challenges identifies in the case similar to those being experienced by other businesses in today’s global economy? Explain and provide some examples.

While the specifics of each challenge are particular to Lufthansa’s situation, many are shared by other global organizations. Examples could include:Provide a mobile workforce with equipment that fits their needs while it does not get in the way of accomplishing their objectives (not only technical specifications, but also upgrades and updates, stability, etc)Distribute training and other non-directly value-adding activities during non-productive periods both to maximize efficiency and reduce downtimeProvide adequate support to mobile operations while keeping a tight lid on cost and being able to justify the investmentRedefine processes to accommodate new mobile technologies and needs of a distributed workforce – including communication, meeting and decision making practices

What other tangible and intangible benefits, beyond those identified by Lufthansa, might a mobile workforce enjoy as a result of deploying mobile technologies. Explain.

Examples Increased, all-around, communication, both with the organization and with personal relationships (family, friends, etc). Especially important for a highly mobile workforce such as airline pilots.Remote access to corporate applications, important since increasingly more of the employee’s interaction is self-managed (payroll systems, expense reports, etc.)More productive time spent at customer locations and streamlined order taking and processingAbility to timely collect and report data on the competitive environment, both for the own organization and competitors (prices, volume, advertising, etc)

Lufthansa was clearly taking a big risk with their decision to deploy notebook computers to their pilots. What steps did they take to manage that risk and what others might be needed in today’s business environment? Provide some examples.

Steps taken to manage the risk:Ensured that technical specifications for the equipment were acceptable to both pilots and the union, given the very special work environment they would be used inIncreased the chances of user buy-in by providing convenient alternatives to traditionally cumbersome tasks (such as carrying manuals and technical documents around)Standardized on a unique hardware and software platform to reduce support and upgrade costsStructured the process in phases, pilot and general deployment, to both assess feasibility and obtain feedback before mass implementation

Training users (pilots) in the skills required to operate and become productive with the new hardware and applications, if they did not have them alreadyEnsure that project analysts and support personnel had the skills required to carry on a project of this magnitude

Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4

Group mini case Report & Presentation Due on February 12

Mini case:Delta, Northwest Airlines, and

Vancouver Airport: The business Value of Customer Self-Service Kiosks (87)

IT Hardware

Left: The on-board L2 cache.Right: The Pentium® Pro processor core with 5.5 million transistors.

Source: Intel

Learning Objectives

1.Understand the history and evolution of computer hardware.

2.Outline the major technologies and uses of computer peripherals for input, output, and storage.

3.Identify and give example of the components and functions of a computer system.

Learning Objectives

4. Identify the computer systems and peripherals you would acquire or recommend for a business of your choice, and explain the reasons for your selections.

Microcomputer Systems

Personal Computer (PC) – microcomputer for use by an individual

Desktop – fit on an office deskLaptop – small, portable PC

Microcomputer Systems

Workstation – a powerful, networked PC for business professionalsNetwork Server – more powerful microcomputers that coordinate telecommunications and resource sharing in small networks

Information Appliances

Hand-held microcomputer devicesPersonal digital assistants (PDA) BlackBerry

Video-game consolesInternet enabled cellular phones

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceCharacteristics of CPUs and RAM

Motherboard: components

bus , chipset, CPU, memory

Motherboard: chipset components of the

chipset memory controller I/O controller bus controller cache controller

types of chipsets

Motherboard: bus system

data bus address bus system/control busexpansion slotsISA, EISA, VESA,SCSI, PCI, AGPHow local bus works? PCI vs

VESABus speeds: Pentium 4 and

AthlonXP

What’s a BUS?

A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. A bus connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory. There's also an expansion bus that enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory Every bus has a clock speed measured in MHz

All buses consist of two parts -- an address bus and a data bus. The data bus transfers actual data whereas the address bus transfers information about where the data should go. The size of a bus, known as its width, is determines how much data can be transmitted at one time. For example, a 16-bit bus can transmit 16 bits of data, whereas a 32-bit bus can transmit 32 bits of data.

Semiconductor memory

Microelectronic semiconductor memory chipsUsed for primary storageAdvantage: Small size Fast Shock and temperature resistance

Disadvantage: Volatility: must have uninterrupted electric

power or lose memory

Two types of semiconductor memory

RAM: random access memory Most widely used primary storage medium Volatile memory Read/write memory

ROM: read only memory Permanent storage Can be read but cannot be overwritten Frequently used programs burnt into chips

during manufacturing Called firmware

Bit and Byte

Bit (short for binary digit) Smallest element of data Either zero or one

Byte Group of eight bits which operate as a

single unit Represents one character or number

Representing characters in bytes

Computers use binary system to calculate

DecimalOctalBinaryASCII

Measuring storage capacities

Kilobyte (KB): one thousand bytesMegabyte (MB): one million bytesGigabyte (GB): one billion bytesTerabyte (TB): one trillion bytesPetabyte (PB): one quadrillion bytes

Main Memory

basic concepts memory banks (0,1,2): 64 Meg to 1 Gig SIMMs (single in-line memory modules), DIMMS

(dual in-line memory modules), SDRAM (synchronous DRAM)

SIMMs older, DIMMS old, SDRAM newer PCs

additional references Upgrading memory

Updating Memory

RAM is sold in the form of chips contained on small circuit boards called memory modules.

Most PCs have three DIMM sockets on their motherboards, and one or two of them are usually free. Adding RAM is as simple as plugging in new DIMMs

Disk drives

Hard-drives Overview Speed Interfaces: IDE, SCSI, SATA, IDE vs SCSI

CD and DVD basics: CD standard and DVD standards x

A measurement of CD or DVD drive speed. Each x translates to either 153,600 bytes of data per second, the data rate of the CD-audio or 1,250,000 bytes per second, the data rate of the DVD-video.

USB flash drives Overview

Magnetic Disks

Used for secondary storageFast access and high storage capacity

Source: Quantum. Source: Corbis.

Types of magnetic disks

Floppy disks Magnetic disk inside a plastic jacket

Hard disk drives Magnetic disk, access arms, and read/write

heads in sealed moduleRAID (Redundant arrays of independent disks) Disk arrays of interconnected hard disk

drives Fault tolerant with multiple copies on

several disks

Optical Disks

Uses of optical disks

Image processing Long term storage of historical files of

images Scan documents and store on optical disks

Publishing medium for fast access to reference materials Catalogs, directories, etc.

Interactive multimedia applications Video games, educational videos, etc.

Disk drive performance

Fragmentation Compression.

CacheSwap file (paging file)

Fragmentation

Fragmentation means two things:

File fragmentation:a condition in which individual files on a disk are not contiguous but are broken up in pieces scattered around the disk;

Data Fragmentation: a condition in which the free space on a disk

consists of little bits of free space here and there rather than only one or a few free spaces.

Compression

ZipWinzip

Example

In John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address, he delivered this famous line: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

The quote has 17 words, made up of 61 letters, 16 spaces, one dash and one period. If each letter, space or punctuation mark takes up one unit of memory, we get a total file size of 79 units. To get the file size down, we need to look for redundancies.

"ask" appears two times "what" appears two times "your" appears two times "country" appears two times "can" appears two times "do" appears two times "for" appears two times "you" appears two times our dictionary:

  • ask • what • your • country • can • do • for • you

Our sentence now reads:

  "1 not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 -- 1 2 8 5 6 7 3 4" 

"Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

"Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

full phrase takes up 79 units. Our compressed sentence (including spaces) takes up 37 units, and the dictionary (words and numbers) also takes up 37 units. This gives us a file size of 74, so we haven't reduced the file size by very much.

Others

graphics cards: monitors: resolution, size, analog vs.

digitalprinters: ink, laser, color, speed.Modems: phone lines, cable and DSLscannersdigital cameras

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceConnecting Devices

Connecting devices enable your hardware to communicate with each other.

Busses – system and expansion.

Expansion – slots and cards.

Ports and connectors – USB, serial, parallel, and IrDA

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceConnecting Devices

Hardware: Your Physical Interface

Parallel port

Serial port

USB port

Keyboard and mouse ports

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceConnecting Devices

Popular connectors include: USB (universal serial bus) –the most

popular means of connecting devices to a computer.

Serial connector – usually has 9 holes but may have 25, which fit into the corresponding number of pins in the port.

Parallel connector – has 25 pins, which fit into the corresponding holes in the port.

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceConnecting Devices

Hardware: Your Physical InterfaceConnecting Devices

IrDA (infrared data association) ports –are for wireless devices that work in essentially the same way as the remote control on your TV does.

Radio Frequency Identification

RFIDTag and identify mobile objects E.g., store merchandise, postal packages, pets

Use RFID chips to transmit and receive radio signalsChips half the size of a grain of sandPassive chips: do not have power source and derive power from

signal in readerActive chips: Self-powered

RFID versus bar codes

RFID Scan from greater distance Can store data Allows more information to be tracked

Privacy concerns due to invisible natureRFID Controversy

Additional Readings

www2.una.edu/compcenter/csglossary.htmwww.beginnerspc.com

Why do you think that Aviall failed in their implementation of an airplane parts and components inventory control system? What could they have done differently?

Reasons why Aviall failed would include: The ERP system did not support adequately

Aviall’s business strategies. The ERP implemented did not improve the

basic operational support system needed by Aviall to provide timely supply chain management.

The ERP system project did not adequately address the issue of systems integration between applications.

The implementation of the ERP failed due to inadequate consideration of the magnitude of the project.

What Aviall could have done differently would include the following:Project planning through the use of some form of a systematic development process.Analysis of the business requirements prior to making decisions about the software to acquire for the ERP system.Project management should have been a higher consideration of Aviall.

How has information technology brought new business success to Aviall? How did IT change Aviall’s business model?

How IT brought new business success for Aviall would include: System integrated by using common business databases managed

by database software from Sybase, Inc.

Designing the new combined system to properly access and deal with customized pricing charts for 17,000 customers who receive various types of discounts, and with an inventory of 380,000 different aerospace parts.

Developing Aviall.com to reduce the cost per order from $9 per transaction to 39 cents.

Customers are able to transfer their orders from an Excel spreadsheet directly to the web site.

Customers have access to price and availability information in less than five seconds – a real time feature.

Sales force spends more time developing customer relationships than processing routine orders.

Aviall can better match production to demand from the IT improvements.

How IT changed Aviall’s business model would include:

Changed Aviall from a catalog business to full-scale logistics business.

Aviall became a provider of supply chain management services through the integration of a range of Web-enabled e-business software systems.

How could other companies use Aviall’s approach to the use of IT to improve their business success? Give several examples.

Some Examples:Reposition a firm as a supply chain management services provider through Web-enabled e-business software systems.Redesign the customer relationship management system to minimize the routine order processing and permit the sales force to focus on product and service development efforts that will grow revenue.