ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

MGT OF ISD (IMS452)

OVERVIEW

• Enterprise application is an application that is widely used throughout the organization and integrates the operations of many different departments and functions

• There have several enterprise applications such as e-mail, directory services and enterprise resource planning

• E-mail (electronic mail) is a written message that is sent and received over electronic communication system

Pros and cons of e-mail

PRO• The receipt can deal with the

communication at their convenience

• Allow for collaborative online work

• Creates virtual paper trail • Can easily include additional

reference material• Delivery is virtually immediate

CON• The message may be

misinterpreted• Some people more

comfortable with written communication

• Greater risk of confidential communication getting wider distributed

• Make interaction impersonal or lead to confusion

• While it isn’t interactive, no complex discussion or involved issues

Cont.. Pros and cons of e-mail

PRO• Little chance of the

communication being lost• Allows the recipients to

scan the material to find the pertinent information

• it’s virtually an anytime, anywhere solution

• Message can be added or remove easily

CON• Because it’s so

convenient, it can easily be overwhelming, even leading to over communication

E-mail versus Phone calls

• E-mail is often the fastest and most efficient method of making an exchange of information

• Phone calls can be faster but the information exchange is not recorded

• Phone calls aren’t in form that lends itself to re-evaluation

• Phone calls aren’t appropriate for all exchanges because of the length of some material

• Voice mail doesn’t lend itself to lengthy message• Email can be quite long and very detailed in its content

because the receipt can scan the message

The Quality of E-mail communication

• Educate the users on the key principles of email• Some of simple principles of using e-mail:

– Keep it brief– Make the subject line count– Reply to all emails that expect one– Differentiate TO and CC recipients– Use the reply all button with extreme caution– Spell check all e-mails– When stressed or angered, don’t’ hit the send button– Define policies and guidelines for saving e-mail

E-mail product choices• Industry standards

– To ensure messages interoperability with other products

• eg Microsoft’s Exchange, IBM’s Lotus Notes– Internet message access protocol (IMAP)

• Client/server environment that allows to view and manipulate e-mail while it’s still on the server

– Post office protocol 3 (POP-3)• Store and forward environment. Mail is held on the server

until it connect and download to the workstation

– Multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME)• Specification is for formatting non-text messages (graphic,

audio, video) so that they can be sent over the Internet

Managing E-mail

• Junk mail (spam, chain letters, phishing, jokes– Have email packages to identify the sources– Anti spam solution that filter the spam– Help desk or staff tracking to maintain white and black

list of anti-spam

• Harassment– Must have clear cut policy from senior management – Work with Legal and HR department to define it

• Virus– Should have anti-virus software on e-mal servers that

scans messages and their attachments

Cont ..Managing E-mail

• Data size and retention– Corporate policy sets the limits on the size of messages and

mailboxes and the age of message• Users must be aware of these policies• This limit must be set after consider users’ need

• Appropriate use– Most organization expect and tolerate on non-related work

messages as long they aren’t oversized and non-content offensive e-mails

– Many organization automatically add disclaimers to any e-mail messages that are sent outside the company

• E-mail archiving– Become a growing requirement– Archiving solutions keep copies of e-mail sent and received, and

easy search

DIRECTORY SERVICES

• The goal of directory services is to greatly reduce the administration, user-burden and security risk that can be associated with multiple IDs

• Moving toward a single ID and Password– Single-sign on (SSO) – the user can sign on

to the network, e-mail and all the business applications they will need to access

Directory structure

• Set-up in a hierarchical or tree fashion – similar to an organization chart

• Elements found in the directory:– Object (directory entries) – Organization unit- similar as folder in a file system– Attribute – provides some specifics about an object– Object class – defines which attributes are required

/optional and allowed in an entry– Distinguished name

Directory services standards

• X.500 and directory access protocol– X.500 is a set of several standards for

directory services, originally developed to support the needs of the X.400 e-mail standards

– The directory access protocol (DAP) defines the standards for accessing X.500 directories

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)– Is a protocol for accessing a directory

Choices in Directory Services

• Active directory from Microsoft• Sun Java System Directory Server form Sun

Microsystem• E-Directory from Novell• OpenVMS Enterprise Directory from Hewlett-

Packard• RedHat Directory Server from Red Hat• Tivoli Directory Server from IBM• Apache Directory Server from Apache

INTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)

• Is a set of activities that a company engages in to manage its resources across the entire enterprise

• Activities such as product planning, sales programs, material purchasing, maintaining inventories, and performing classically defined HR functions

• With ERP, company can essentially have a single application and database for all its vital business functions (integrated applications)

Costs of implementing ERP

• It is costly

• The biggest costs are the consultants that need to assist in the implementation

• Others cost – Training– Support– Additional hardware

Major changes required

• The way it does business has to change in order to implement ERP package

• Changes in software related, departments function, organization, procedures, employee’s roles and company operations

Decision for implementing ERP

• IT manager will be part of a group of committee making decision

• ERP may be the single largest IT project

• Its success or failure may lead to the success or failure of many executives and department

Disadvantages to ERP

• The very rigid structure of ERP sometimes makes it difficult to adapt to the specific needs of individual organizations

• The sophisticated ERP software make more features and functions needed during installation -> drives up costs and reduce usage as it too complex to use

• The cost to implement and maintain ERP system is very high and can challenge ROI calculations

• Some department or users feel they will loss control on their data as it switch to an enterprise –wide solution