Six letters. Not more. Google. So simple and yet so infinitely influencing our lives nowadays. A nice fact about the name is that Google is derived from googol which is a number consisting of a 1 with one hundred 0’s. A trillion only has 12 0’s behind the 1 so you can probably imagine how large a googol is. The reason they used it, is because it symbolizes the mission of google, namely: making all the information on the world accessible for everyone.

What does Google know about you?

From my perspective they are doing a great job so far, concerning this mission. Try to think about things that google doesn’t know about you.

Of course some private information won’t be in their databases, but besides that? Google owns android, which means that they have information about 87% of the smartphone users (Source: IDC, Aug 2016). Besides, google is the most popular search engine (which you would probably use on your smartphone if you are among the 13% non android users) and Google has its own web-browser. So basically google is everywhere on the internet. And do they charge you for any of their services? Not really right? But do they really just provide their service because they want to make all the information on the earth accessible? Are they really that generous?

Well, first of all, they of course have their advertisement revenues. But besides, there is also something even more important, your information. This information is crucial for google’s existence. Based on your information they are able to provide better search results. The can make an estimate where you would be looking for by relating a search query with an older one. Google wants to provide you with the search results you want to see.

Why is this dangerous?

However, there is one big potential danger with those specified search results. They could narrow your mind. ‘All the information’ also consists of wrong information or one sided information. For example, someone who is political liberal and searching for liberal topics will thereafter be more likely served with information from a liberal perspective, because google knows that the person wants to see that. However, by providing this one-sided information stream google is polarizing the thoughts of people.

It somehow comparable with information that we receive from the news. We make perceptions based on what we see, so news media have to some extend control over our opinions. A good example is the reporting of conflict areas. Our perceptions about how life in Syria is, for example, is based on what we see at the news. But is what we see on the news are right reflection of the actual situation?

However, Google is not a news medium. Google is an information medium and people expect to find the truth. I am not sure whether google’s information provision is based on the right concepts. So to conclude, that is why I advocate that Google should put more focus on objective coverage of information, instead of just focussing on what the user wants to see.

Reference:

http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

SOLVE is a student consultancy organization located in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht. They are providing tailor-made advice for social enterprises and organizations in the non-profit sector. By doing this, they are not only improving the sustainability of those organizations but also contributing to the professional development of student consultants.

During the interviews with (former) board members, we found out that an IT strategy is missing. In the past it wasn’t really necessary to have one because everything was quite clear. However, the last few years the organization has encountered a large growth. This growth makes the current google drive as information platform and Gmail and WhatsApp as communication channels not suitable for the business strategy. The following quote from an interview illustrates this perfectly: “We currently store all our data in Google Drive. This is not ideal as data gets lost all the time so everybody also keeps backups of their files on their computer. This results in not up-to-date files in the Google Drive file”.

So we have been brainstorming about possible solutions for this problem and concluded that a mobile ERP system would be the perfect solution to align SOLVE’s business strategy with an IT strategy. The goal of an ERP namely is to: “facilitate the flow of information so business decisions can be data-driven. ERP software suites are built to collect and organize data from various levels of an organization to provide management with insight into key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time” (SearchSAP, 2016). Besides, an ERP can also be used as a “central repository for documents, notes and communication for the whole company”. (Sage Software Solution, 2016)

Based on those characteristics of an ERP we are convinced that an implementation of it will increase the productivity, information visibility and flexibility of the organization. Besides, the most important improvement will probably be the ability to use the ERP as formal communication channel. While in the current situation, project updates are being done by WhatsApp and telephone calls whereby a lot of information gets lost.

Finally, we also made some recommendations for a successful implementation. Firstly, we suggest the implementation of an open-source ERP system. The main reason why we selected an open-source ERP is that this will be much cheaper compared to an ERP system made by a business software developer. But of course, this would bring some safety and security issues, that should be taken into account. Other things that should be taken into account are the needed support of the board members and training for the users of the system. Lastly, it will be crucial to measure the perceived usefulness. The system should be an added value for everyone. Because then and only then, a mobile ERP system will be able to make SOLVE ready for the future.

References used in this summary:

Sage Software Solution. (2016). ERP as Document Management System. [online] Available at: https://www.sagesoftware.co.in/blogs/erp-as-document-management-system/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].

SearchSAP. (2016). What is ERP (enterprise resource planning)?. [online] Available at: http://searchsap.techtarget.com/definition/ERP [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].

Team 50