Digital Transformation Project – Integrand

13

October

2016

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Customer Relationship Management is a strategic approach aimed at creating improved shareholder value. Firms that invest in CRM systems could gain great benefits and achieve customer-focused business objectives that are critical for succeeding in competitive markets. Because of the rise of the social web, the opportunities for organizations to improve their customer relations have increased. Online platforms are becoming more and more important when looking at value generation for stakeholders and organizations. This is called CRM 2.0. A company that could potentially benefit from transforming its CRM systems into CRM 2.0 platforms, is the internship intermediary foundation Integrand. Through interviews with several stakeholders, their opinions about the current IT within Integrand and potential improvements have been outlined.

Integrand currently uses multiple IT systems on a daily basis, the most notable of which being Salesforce and Connexys. Although multiple strengths for the current operations have been stated – the no-cure-no-pay principle, the helping of the recruiters and the personal attention for students – there are also some weaknesses. The experience on the website and the current connection between the website and the CRM systems are not optimal. Most notable is the fact that the overall integration of the IT system needs to be improved. The proposed solution aimed at resolving several drawbacks in the current IT system, namely: scattered information for internals, restricted access to information for externals and a lack of streamlining in the process. To this goal, a business plan for the development of an online platform has been formulated. There are several requirements that this platform should comply to, but it should most importantly allow Integrand board members, recruiters and students to interact more efficiently. The online platform must serve as one communication tool between all stakeholders in order to simplify the one’s participation. Implementation of this online platform will entail several risks, which can be prevented by assigning an external project team to this proposal. Finally, Integrand will mostly benefit from the competitive advantage that is gained by implementing this platform and disrupt the current industry.

Team 40

Maira van Andel – 384965

Emily van der Haagen – 371781

Chucky Tam – 462302

Jasper Tax – 462315

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End-to-End or End-to-Safety?

4

October

2016

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Many of you have probably seen the new update provided by WhatsApp including the end-to-end encryption. This means that only you and the person you are communicating with can read the messages you send. Your message gets encrypted when you send it and decrypted at the receivers’ end, meaning that it is still encrypted when stored on the servers of WhatsApp. This makes your message totally inaccessible to the company and whoever else might have access to the server.

Open Whisper Systems recently launched an encryption app called ‘Signal’ that uses similar guards to protect their users’ messages. Highly recommended by influential people like Edward Snowden and a variety of journalists, this app claims to be completely capable of protecting their data, even from themselves.

This is a good thing, wouldn’t you think? With all of the privacy issues already emerging in big data, we could use an app that encrypts our private messages. The government does not share this opinion. In the first half of this year, Open Whisper Systems received a subpoena for subscriber information from the state of Virginia. Two phone numbers had come up in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia and in the court order they requested all data associated with these numbers. This data included web browsing histories, e-mail addresses, chat history and cookie data.

As aforementioned, the company cannot give them this information – even if they wanted to – simply because they do not collect this information from their users. Eventually, Open Whispers Systems turned over the only data they possessed: the date that the user registered and when he/she stopped using the app. This was the only data they could provide.

So what do you think? Do the benefits that we gain from having our messages encrypted, outweigh the opportunities for the government to use this data to potentially protect us from harm? Or do you think that they should do this without having access to all data available?

https://whispersystems.org/

http://fortune.com/2016/10/04/signal-messaging-app/

http://www.nu.nl/internet/4331404/signal-overhandigt-minimale-gebruikersdata-verzoek-vs.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/technology/subpoenas-and-gag-orders-show-government-overreach-tech-companies-argue.html?_r=0

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/whatsapp-turning-end-end-encryption/

 

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‘The Theory of Newly Vulnerable Markets’: Is this really the right term?

11

September

2016

5/5 (2)

In their article, Granados, Kauffman and King test the Theory of Newly Vulnerable Markets for the transformation of e-travel distribution. Considering the world that we live in today, should we even be using the term ‘vulnerable’?

The internet offers technologies that can help businesses create a sustainable competitive advantage. When informed about the master programme in Business Information Management, were we not told that the internet is inevitably embedded in the businesses of the future? That we should learn to understand the possibilities that internet technologies have to offer, so that we can manage the intersection between businesses and IT? We should not ‘fear’ using the internet and we should not use the term ‘vulnerable’ for markets that experience substantial disruptions due to the introduction of the internet.

Yes, the internet can cause unwanted shifts in an industry due to companies’ overenthusiasm in the use of it, as Porter has described in his article ‘Strategy and the Internet’. In the early years of the internet, I can imagine it being perceived as a dubious and abstract concept. A market was seen as an established phenomenon and the use of the internet could throw overboard all of the assumptions about markets that people thought were rock-solid, and this could scare them. Seeing a market being disrupted by this abstract concept has led to the use of the word ‘vulnerable’.

Do not understand me wrong; I do think that the content of this theory has a solid base and that we can apply this theory to numerous markets that facing changes due to the introduction of internet technologies. It is solely the name that worries me. If – and I think that, with the knowledge and prospect tools that we possess, we can establish that this is the case – the internet is indeed becoming a more and more important factor in several industries, then we should learn how to use the internet for the advantage of our businesses. All the more because there is still danger in the use of internet and businesses can still make wrong decisions when using it.

The term ‘vulnerable’ has been based on the perception of incumbents in markets that were being disrupted by the internet. When seen from a 2016- point-of-view, we see the internet and the technologies that it brings as a prosperous development that will lead business into a new era.

What do you think? Do you think that the use of the internet can still do so much damage to a company that we should be hesitant in using it? Or do you agree with me? Do you have ideas on better names for the theory?

Granados, N., Kauffman, R.J., and King, B. 2008. How Has Electronic Travel Distribution Been Transformed? A Test of the Theory of Newly-Vulnerable Markets. Journal of Management Information Systems 25(2) 73-96

Porter, M.E. 2001. Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review 79(3) 62-79

http://www.rsm.nl/master/msc-programmes/msc-business-information-management/overview/

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