Your main task is to formulate an Information Systems (IS) strategy Essay

Your main task is to formulate an Information Systems (IS) strategy for an organisation of your choice. You then need to compile a concise report detailing your IS strategy - Essay Example It offers consumers great values by guaranteeing business a minimum number of customers, if a certain number of people sign up, then everyone gets the Groupon offer. If that minimum isn’t reached then no one gets the offer. The business process starts with the business owner or the retailer. The business owner will agree to provide his primary products or services at a set discounted price compared to retail value. Then the local daily deal is displayed at Groupon website. Then buyers will pay for the deal. If a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all, if predetermined minimum is not met no one gets the deal that day. Goupon then collects the payment if the deal is valid and splits the revenue with the seller. Because groupon model encourages first time customers to partitioned business by offering services at 50 percent less than retail prices, the business owner will experience low or negative profit margins when they offer discounted products and services. They then have to set a ceiling on the amount of vouchers issued to limit their loses. Goupon gives half the payment to the seller and remains with the other half. This is how Goupon earns its revenue from the sales it acquires daily and the payment to the seller is broken down into instalments over life cycle of a deal loading Groupon with negative working capital. The Groupons mission is to become the operating system for local commerce. The business strategy has been discovering a business model that brings the power of the internet to local commerce .the business model has allowed the company to connect with millions of consumers and hundreds of people. Groupon has a number of contributions by facilitating trade and benefiting its seller and buyers. First by facilitating trade it brings together small sellers and individual

Tax Office Operation Transformation Essay Example for Free

Tax Office Operation Transformation Essay Governments of developing countries are constantly scrambling to raise the revenues required to finance higher service demands expected by their citizens and the infrastructure (economic, social and environmental) that will enable them to grow the nation towards being industrialized. And to sustain the all imperative comparative advantage over neighbouring nations. Taxation revenues continue to be the main source of revenue for Government spending. This in turn requires well-designed tax policies (new taxes and tax reform) that are translated into clear legislation and are administratively feasible. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing these countries is to improve the effectiveness of their tax administrations.[1] Common Challenges Tax Administrations in developing country contend with the same range of challenges with developed nations, although the significance of typical collection issues may be greater. As a result these countries suffer significant losses in revenue collection. Introducing tax initiatives such as self-assessment and GST does alleviate the revenue leakages to certain extent, however the agencies capacity and capability to administer an effective and efficient taxation system is the ultimate determinant to maximizing collections. It has longed been realized that the existence of widespread tax evasion as part of the hidden economy is a critical concern to developing countries, as it is with developed nations. Hidden income can be defined to include legitimate earnings which are hidden actively or passively to evade tax, as well as illegal earnings derived from non-lawful operations and services. Without trivializing the complexity in dealing with the later type of evasion, the taxpayer’s perception of the administration influences their obligation behaviour. It’s more so evident in developing countries where the administration may not be seen by taxpayers as service organization nor as an active enforcer. For example, common trends include: Â  Inability for taxpayers to get information from or transact with the agency, either low responsiveness, inconsistent advice, multiple hand-offs, huge queues at the service counters etc. Assessments and refunds taking months to process, often taking over six months to make a refund No urgency for Taxpayers to get registered, especially with small to medium enterprise and self-employed Lodgments and payments not pursued actively by the agency, often resulting in over 30% of non-filers Accumulating Debt not pursued in a timely manner by the Agency. Over the years can amount to considerable loss in non-recoverable debt (ie. timing issue). Low level of compliance actively, in terms of education and enforcement. Taxpayer being audited is seen as just bad luck. The Problem The common complaint of the developing country’s tax administration is the lack of resources. In terms of priority, these agencies are more focused on transaction processing activities which are largely manually driven. They are constantly bogged down dealing with never ending processing back-logs, including low turn-around in assessments, refunds, audit cases, appeals, rulings and so on. A large portion of the administration’s staff would be devoted to these low-value activities, which actually does not grow the revenue. The executive management of these administrations is well connected to the best-practices being adopted elsewhere, and understands the positive application to their own environment. They are challenged by the expected rate of change imposed on their agency, constantly battling the needs of Government to collect more and implement new policies quickly, at a lower operational cost. Taxpayers who demand the same levels of services they come to expect from the commercial sector Employees who are frustrated no having the revenue-agency tools to deliver superior services or for effective compliance enforcement. In this hast to modernize the tax agency often turns to automation and Information Technology as the savior and try to implement large amounts of innovation in a short period. As examples, interactive internet service, imaging for data capture, data warehouse, mobile audit workbench, IVR/CTI. All of these are essential IT enablers for the business; however, they often fall short of delivering the benefits in improving service and compliance enforcement in developing countries. The solution Lesson learnt elsewhere tell us that certain characteristics of an agency are central to support business innovation (new ways of doing business) using IT. Without these characteristics, the agency would cripple its efforts to modernize. These characteristics are: Having the building blocks for tax processing, Registration, Lodgment, Payment and Policing. High level of data quality Effective Change Management ability Building Blocks for Tax Processing The main functions of a tax administration, in dealing with taxpayers, aside from actual tax collection or sanctioning non-compliance, largely involve gathering and processing information. The four interrelated blocks are: Registration: Identify potential taxpayers and register taxpayers. Each taxpayer would be identified via a tax identification number and contact details are maintained. This information is core all business activities and imperative to maintain accurate and completed details. Lodgement: Capture, quickly process and record information to assist taxpayers in meeting their tax obligation. Non-lodgment needs to be managed [1] Developing The International Dialogue on Taxation, A Joint Proposal by the Staffs of the IMF, OECD and World Bank, 13 March 2002.

The Minutes Pass :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

The Minutes Pass I sit at a round desk for eight hours eight bucks an hour and doodle. The phone rings once or twice every few hours (if I’m lucky, that is) and the population of people over 50 seems to rise by the minute. I sit with my legs crossed, sandal-less, wearing â€Å"work† shoes and my â€Å"work† smile. I enjoy the company I find myself in, even if it is a good book and a nice thought of myself at the beach. So I play tunes in my head, sing songs of glory under my breath, even snack on crackers when my stomach grumbles. Right now I’ve got â€Å"Riders on the Storm† playing along in my head Riders on the storm riders on the storm Into this world we’re born into this world we’re throw It’s kinda funny, seeing as how among the massive song files the Doors have recorded, I usually find this one to tickle my fancy the least, though always hear it up on the radio, overplayed in time. I mean don’t get me wrong - great song, better than most - but as far as the Doors go, I find the song rather mundane. It has become accepted by the public, merely because it’s too far out of grasp for ordinary people to actually determine its true and logical meaning. Of course, they’re all oblivious to this. Only true Americans, and maybe some Europeans, can come to some sort of conclusion within themselves about the truth in things of small importance. Europeans I say, because they live within their culture, see the past and their history. Most Americans on the other hand, live in the present, see only BIG and eat at McDonald’s. I say â€Å"Americans† because we’re the home of the free, the home of the brave, all that good stuff. Every other country looks up to us for one reason or another – we are the Mother country. Only it takes a true American to actually comment on the facts that really come into play while living in an unmistakable society. I mean kids are still hungry, households are disrupted, yet there’s a working world out there for us all. Jobs should be out there, and I think they may be.

Comparison Essay between the Narrative of Mary Rowlandson

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Rowlandson, 1682/1996) The setting was New England. The English had established settlements in the Eastern board of the present-day United States to expand England’s trade routes in the Americas. The expansion was accompanied by mass conversion of Indians, whom the Europeans regarded as savage or uncivilized heathens. The missionary work though of Puritan pastors in New England was generally unsuccessful. The Indians associated the spread of new diseases   and dissension with Christianity. The Puritan pastors were not prevented from preaching Christianity to the Indians because of military support from the colonial government. In 1675, Wampanoag Chief Metacomet became overcritical of the English over the issues of encroching tribal lands and of course, the preaching of Christianity. He launched a series of raids in New England and captured many prisoners. One of them was Mary White Rowlandson, a wife of a Congregationist minister, and mother of three children. Mary Rowlandson became a prisoner of the Indians for several months. She and her children, while at captivity, were forced to work as members of the tribe. They were ransomed and freed before the end of the war. During her captivity, she wrote a narrative depicted her life as a prisoner of war and member of a tribe. Rowlandson’s narrative depicted first amd foremost the beliefs of the Puritan missionaries. Most of the Puritans in New England lived areligious and humble life. Because of their desire to convert the Indians, they were drawn to the wilderness and the â€Å"wild natives† who inhabit it. This mixture of piety and adventure affected Puritan literature. The Puritans were portrayed as the pious servants of God, the Indians the prospect hostile Gentiles. In many passages of Rowlandson’s narrative, the Indians were depicted as cannibalistic and enchanted. Thus, the narrative of Rowlandson served as a moral guidance to the English Puriatn reader, a form of unwavering salute to God. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Douglas, _/1999) The life of an American slave during the colonial and pre-Civil War America was miserable and degrading. The distance between the white man and the African was so intense that even african language was discriminated. In addition, the increasing complexity of American economic life demanded cheap labor. Here, the Negroes served the purpose. There was no magnanimity on the part of the English and later American settlers to the Negroes. They were seldom treated as human beings. In this narrative, Frederick Douglas showed the sufferings of the Negroes on rational and economic terms. Douglas treated discrimination as a form of social ill experienced by the Negroes. He argued that the properties of the whites were built on slave labor, a form of economic backlashing. In his commentary on slave songs, he maintained distance between himself and slavery. In reality, he did not understand the meaning of the songs although he was a slave. Thus, he interpreted all slave songs as laments. Here, Douglas made an error when he said that all slave songs were born out of hatred and ill comfort. In essence, many of the slave songs were songs of joy, work, and adventure. The physical and social depravity of the Negroes forced them to enjoy work as it may deem fit. The adventures of their ancestors in Africa were told with gestures of joy and respect; a form of cultural appraisal. Thus, when Douglas assumed himself as the mediator between the white and the Negroes, he himself embraced both cultures as if no essential defects were visible. Here, unlike Rowlandson, Douglas played as an objective narrator. References Douglas, Frederick. 1999. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave. Oxford; Oxford University Press. Rowlandson, Mary White. 1682/1996. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs.

Unique Examples of National Pride

Unique Examples of National Pride : In the first story I read â€Å"Cathleen Ni Houlihan† (which was actually an amazing story! ) I felt that before the OLD WOMAN came the family was kind of selfish and greedy (with the whole money thing) and when the OLD WOMAN came they changed and they became instantly unselfish and not greedy they wanted to help her out.And later in the story the OLD WOMAN changed everyone’s prospective at life including Michael who is getting married to Delia and then he totally forgot that he was getting married to her just because the OLD WOMAN changed his way of looking at things including his marriage. And the OLD WOMAN told them how many people died just for her and to get her lands back(Irish). And she had much Pride into getting her lands back and fighting the Irish for taking it. The second story I read is â€Å"Address to General William Henry Harrison† The main guy in the story, Shawnee had very much respect for his country.He said he would do anything for his country ! And he argued with his brother about being better then what he was acting selling the country and then Shawnee said â€Å"Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? † The Red People wanted to take over they’re country and Shawnee’s brother seemed like he wanted to sell the country because he didn’t want to fight for his country. Then Shawnee brought up Jesus dying on The Cross for us.Then he told his brother â€Å"Everything I have told you is the truth. The Great Spirit has inspired me. † How the two are the same or compared†¦ They both had pride and sacrifice for the things they stood up for. They loved there country so much they would die for it. And in the two stories I found that they are very much alike because the. OLD WOMAN and Shawnee are a like they both fought for what the believed in and for there country. They both wanted freedom and they both inspired another person to fight in the war beside them.