Competitive Benefits Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Competitive Benefits - Research Paper Example Therefore, this discourse kicks off by analyzing the benefits that come with compensation components and ways in which organizations whose employees are unionized can remain competitive. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees who are represented by a union receive higher salary as compared to the non- union workers. Moreover, they have more access to various benefits such as medical insurance, despite the declining rate of union membership. Research shows that in the year 2001, only 18 million workers were under a union as compared to 16 million workers in the year 2011. Nevertheless, it is without doubt that unions have an affirmative effect on various aspects of job quality such as employee benefits and wages (Long, 2013). Therefore, this treatise focuses on analyzing how a firm whose workers are represented by a union can remain competitive against the non-unionized workers. It will also give limelight to the role of benefits and the components of an employee benefit package. It is without doubt that compensation benefits play a major role in reducing turnover, enhancing productivity, and increasing the rate of morale among workers. Employee benefits are non-wage compensation that is offered to workers in addition to their normal salaries. For organizations that endeavor to hire competitive workers, they have an attractive benefits package that is either monetary or non-monetary. For instance, the monetary compensation benefits can include bonuses, profit sharing, and stock options among others. There are also the non-monetary benefits such as health insurance, pension plans, disability insurance, paid holidays, educational assistance, flexible working hours, sick leave, work at home oriented programs, retirement plans, and dental insurance among others. It is to be noted that such benefits are paramount in attracting, motivating, rewarding, and retaining workers (Reddick & Coggburn, 2012). Research shows that

Research paper on mapreduce Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

On mapreduce - Research Paper Example Reduce collects relevant parts from the locations where the map function occurred and return the result to HDFS. IBM defines MapReduce based on its association with Hadoop (IBM 1). The company affirms that MapReduce denotes two distinct roles performed by Hadoop programs. The initial role pertains to map job. It engages data and changes it into another set by breaking down individual aspects into value pairs (IBM 1). Reduce job engages the output generated by a map and engages it to produces smaller value pairs. Based on IBM definition, it is clear that MapReduce is a popular programming technology that allows the use of many computers in order to process huge amount of data. It helps in coordinating tasks in order to avoid issues such as input problems and harmonization delays. One can perform various tasks such as data mining and graph processing using this concept. The concept is popular in industries and conducting complex researches. An example of commonly use MapReduce implementations is Hadoop. Vianna, Almeida & Kuno (1) further define Map Reduce based on its sorting process. The authors indicate that when one has many sets of records and he needs to sort or process them in a specific order, he may use MapReduce. MapReduce is an invention that allows an individual to use Mappers that have sorting keys that dive the data set based on the values associated with them. Vianna, Almeida & Kuno (1) further define MapReduce as a process involving the combination all the sorted data. This concept is usually applied in data analysis. The authors provide an example of MapReduce as used in data filtering. They indicate that when one has sets of records that require arrangements to ensure they meet a certain condition, he can filter them using MapReduce. For instance, one can filter the records using Mappers which produce transformed versions of the

My School Essay Example for Free

My School Essay Today if there is any institution which exerts the greatest influence on us after the family, it is the school. The years that we spend in school are not merely time spent in learning and filling our minds with knowledge, but also time spent in moulding our character, acquiring various attitudes and imbibing basic principles of life. The basic traits of our personality are formed during our school days. The name of my school is Don Bosco Secondary School. It is situated in a town called Tura, W. Garo hills, Meghalaya. It is considered to be one of the finest schools in the state, highly acclaimed for its excellent HSLC results. The school building is an impressive structure. It consists of four floors and has about 25 classrooms. Classrooms are spacious and airy. see more:speech on my school Two staircases at both ends lead to the floors. The school has a well equipped library, a well- established science laboratory and an excellent computer room, all of which are situated on the third floor. The schools auditorium situated on the top-most floor is said to be the finest hall in the region. The Principal’s office, clerk’s room and the Staff Room are on the ground floor, close to the entrance. The school canteen is another important part of the school complex. It is situated on a separate wing close to the ground floor. Two cemented basketball courts stand in front of the Principal’s office, while the school’s football field lies at the far end of the compound. A small garden full of flower plants surrounds the school building adding to the charm and beauty of the entire complex. My school has over 1500 children studying from nursery to class X and a staff of over 45. Our headmaster is an experienced and a very efficient person, who has been at his job for the last 15 years and more. Under his able direction, the school has been obtaining cent percent HSLC results over the last 10 years. The teachers are well experienced and well versed in their subjects. My school has also made a name for itself in the field of cultural pursuits and  sports activities. The school band is considered to be one of the best bands in the whole region. The principal celebrations in my school are School Annual Sports Day, Parents’ Day, Teacher’s Day, Children’s Day, Anniversary Day, Founder’s Day, etc., which are celebrated in a grand manner. Co-curricular activities, such as, scouting, N.C.C., Eco- Club, School band, etc. have contributed in making my school an excellent educational institution of the region. What I like most in my school, is the discipline that exists there. The headmaster as well as the teachers are disciplined and men and women of character. They do not allow any untruly behaviour or any undisciplined activities by students. A lot of emphasis is given to character formation, moral education and acquiring good values of life. Although the school ambient is rather strict and time-table based, yet there is lot of fun and joy in the school. Matches, tournaments, cultural shows, competitions, outings, etc. make my school life lively, interesting and enjoyable. I am proud to be a student of Don Bosco Secondary School, Tura. As I glance back at the bygone school years, my heart swells up with gratitude and thanks giving for the twelve wonderful years that I spent in the school. My school has profoundly shaped and moulded me more than any other factors in my life. School is a temple of learning and a training ground for future citizens. The name of my school is JB High School. It was set up in 1943 by a land-lord in our area. He donated land and money for the school. The atmosphere in which our school is situated is very pleasant. It is surrounded by a play ground on one side and a garden with a small pond on the other. The school has two rows of big buildings. The name of the school is written on the front building. There are ten class rooms in the front building. Other ten rooms in the back building are used for different purposes such as the Head Masters Office, Library, the Clerks Office, the Science Laboratory, the Teachers Common-room, the N.C.C. and Scout Room, etc. There is also a hostel in our school campus. There are twenty teachers, a PET, a librarian, a clerk and two peons in our school. All the teachers are qualified and experienced. The Head Master is a learned man. He teaches Science and Geography. He also teaches English. The total number of students of our school is about five hundred. We go to school in uniform. The uniform for boys consists of blue half-pant and white half shirt. For girls it consists of blue skirt and white blouse. The school functions from 10.30 A.M. to 4 P.M. classes begin after a mass prayer. During the recess hour we go to play ground. Some students also go to library and read newspaper there. In games period we play football, volley ball, etc. Girl students play ring ball too. The library of our school is a big one. There are about two thousand books on different subjects; we have a library period in our weekly routine. We borrow books from our library and refund them after a week. We observe the Republic Day, the Independence Day, the Teachers Day in our school. We also celebrate the Ganesh Puja and the Saraswati Puja in our school. We also hold debate competitions and games and sports every year. The school magazine named the Shree is published every year. In annual examinations the students from our school show brilliant performance. Many students from this school have occupied glorious position in our state. The District Science Exhibition is also held in our school. Two years ago a classical teacher from our school won the Governors Award. The discipline, the study atmosphere and the brilliant academic result of our school attract many meritorious students from distant parts of our state. It is an ideal school in all respects.

Significance of External Factors in Business Economics

Significance of External Factors in Business Economics Contents Introduction Social factors and their significance when it comes to business-economics Legal and Political Legal and Political Factors in the SLEPT analysis Economic factors and their influence on business economics Technological factors and business economics Conclusion References Introduction Maintaining the current market share, or being capable of growing in terms of market share, in this continuously changing world means that businesses cannot afford to stand still. In order to keep ahead in the face of increasing global competition, companies must closely follow developments in their external environment, which consists of: society, legal systems, economic factors, These factors are interrelated and are capable of significant change. The industry chosen in order to analyze these factors and to which extent firms should take these factors into account is the airline industry. The external environment in which airlines operate is particularly volatile and difficult. All the factors mentioned above have a great impact on the airline industry in particular. Therefore the airlines industry is deemed to be an adequate proxy for the analysis. In an attempt to analyze the external factors in order to evaluate how and to which extent companies should assess these external factors the SLEPT method will be used, i.e. an investigation of the Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological influences on a business. Furthermore the reactive and anticipatory approaches will be discussed to evaluate which is more useful. In this report the following airlines will be used to explain the theory supplied: United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. These were chosen, because of the differences in size and ways of operating. Social factors and their significance when it comes to business-economics By Rink Sikkes Social factors consist mainly out of cultural factors and social trends, namely health consciousness or consumer lifestyle. They also consist out of demographic factors, for example age distribution and population growth. Every culture has different wants and needs, so when a business just focusses on only one culture or group of people, other cultures might feel left out and they will be less attracted to the company its service or product. For this reason a business needs to modify its business strategy to a large variety of cultures. To achieve superior customer service Virgin Airlines has done research into cultural diversity and they offer their staff training in cultural awareness. This way they are able to identify every cultural nuance affecting customer satisfaction.[1] This suggests that businesses have to put a substantial amount of effort into focusing on cultural diversity as they can increase customer satisfaction when they do that. It is crucial that businesses make their customers feel save when they use their products or services. Businesses can lay emphasis on their safety in order to attract more customers. When businesses are struggling to guarantee safety they attract fewer customers; the 9/11 attacks had a sizable impact on Virgin airlines and United Airlines, as the public was frightened to travel by airplane as there was a serious terrorism threat. Especially US domestic flight revenue decreased enormously right after these attacks, but when the threat decreased the revenues increased again.[2] This shows that security has a significant effect on business economics. When a lifestyle of a substantial amount of consumers shifts into a new phase, a company might suffer a severe drop or a sudden surge in market share depending on how the company focusses its product or service. For instance; Virgin Airlines offers the option to hire an extra seat for extra personal space. This is a great opportunity for couples who want some privacy during a flight, or families who demand extra space for their children. There are also certain shifts that cannot be influenced, but have a large influence on business-economics, For example the increased popularity of traveling abroad has been very beneficial for British Airways and Virgin Airlines, but they have not had any influence on this sudden shift in lifestyle, so lifestyles of consumers have a large impact on business economics A business can focus its services and products on people that have a certain amount of health consciousness, but it can also alter its products so they are attractive for any customer regardless of their health consciousness. For example; Virgin airlines and British airways have to account for obese customers that might take more room and more fuel. To remain profitable, they are obliged to either induce a so called fat tax, where customers have to pay more when their weight is above a certain level, or sell the customer a second seat because they do not fit in a single seat. As we have demonstrated, every single one of these factors has a major of impact on business-economics. They are also essential for the success of businesses since the lives of customers revolve around these factors. A business should adapt its strategy proactively to these factors in order to increase its profit and market share. Legal and Political Legal and Political Factors as external factors By Catello Alvino Political and Legal factors Political and legal factors (which are closely related to each other) heavily affect businesses, profoundly influencing their modus operandi. When new laws and regulations are approved, companies and corporations are forced to change their business strategies, sometimes with considerable effects, sometimes with almost any consequence. In the following paragraphs, some example of laws and regulations affecting businesses are being analyzed. Tax policies Tax policies can seriously change the amount of profits that a firm is able to make. It is well known that each country applies a different tax policy, thus offering endless possibilities for a firm to choose its headquarters location, considering the pros and cons of each single situation. Firms having strong relationships with their national government, might be able to get tax exemptions and improve their competitiveness towards their international rival; In fact, in the Russian Federation, in 1997, the flag carrier Aeroflot enjoyed a tax exemption by their government on the purchase of four Boeing aircrafts. This for sure reduced the operating costs for Aeroflot and increased their competitiveness towards the other Eurasian companies who may not have enjoyed the same privilege. Another example of tax policies affecting the businesses is the tax increase on the airlines industry that occurred through the years, especially in the US. It is shown in table 1 that taxes have considera bly gone up, thus increasing the ticket price and losing some customers who cannot afford a flight ticket to certain destinations anymore, often deciding to switch to train travel. Table 1, source: http://www.airlines.org/Pages/Government-Imposed-Taxes-on-Air-Transportation.aspx Trade Unions Trade Unions are a great achievement conquered by the working class in the last two centuries but a sometimes, unpredictable danger for companies. If not handled carefully, working class leaders, especially in western countries where concepts of democracy hold, can seriously damage a company performance. Companies need to engage into a stable relationship with them in order to avoid sudden stoppages of their services, which can lead to serious profit losses. For example in 1985, United Airlines experienced a 29 days long strike which resulted in huge losses in revenues. The company negotiators were able to restore the firm normal functioning only after multiple discussions and trade-offs with the workers’ representatives. This of course could have been avoided with a proactive behaviour, making sure that working conditions were optimal, or moving the company to a country where trade unions are easier to manipulate. Wars and changes in international relationships For companies operating outside their national borders, good and stable relationships between countries are crucial. A war or a diplomatic misunderstanding can turn into a forced exit from some markets or in a loss of revenue. Before deciding to operate in a certain foreign country, a firm should deeply analyze the on-going relationship with its government. Moreover, once they decide to be in business with this hypothetical country, they should be ready to react to any possible event modifying the national political situation. This can turn extremely necessary for companies operating in unstable countries like Southern American, or Eastern European countries. For example, with the recent outbreak of a serious protest in Venezuela, potential airlines passengers may think twice before deciding to travel there. This change in public opinion has for sure reduced the revenue of many companies, including United Airlines, which provides flights from the US to the capital city, Caracas. Economic factors and their influence on business economics By Sybren Dijkstra The economic factors constitute a highly important phase of strategy development for business economics, since economic factors have direct impact on the potential attractiveness of various business ventures. It is highly likely that the economic factor will have a substantial effect on business economics, however it is very hard to take all the variables into account. A direct reactive approach is considered wise when it comes to the economy. Multiple variables, which cover a large part of the economy will be discussed in this section in order to test the hypothesis: personal wealth, competition and governments. The effects of changes in personal wealth can have a substantial effect on business economics globally. Personal wealth is a combination of multiple variables, such as GDP per capita growth,interest rates, inflation rate, unemployment rates, fiscal policy, and monetary policy. Personal wealth can therefore be used as a proxy for the economy. For example, when the interest rates rise people are more likely to safe their money and that affects to which extent people are willing to consume. When comparing the amount of passengers carried (figure 1) and the world GDP per capita (figure 2) they seem to be correlated. The image is confirmed by the revenue stream in figure 3.The hypothesis that a decrease in personal wealth directly affects revenue, hence business economics An equally important part of the economic assessment is identifying potential competitors and ascertaining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and possible strategies. Knowing your competitors, remains to be one of the key factors to success. Weaknesses of competitors can signify external opportunities, while major competitive strengths can pose key external threats. The more competitive information is collected, the easier it becomes to outsmart the competition. Virgin Atlantic proved this point. It had a marketing budget less than a third of what British Airways had for marketing, due to focused advertising and outsmarting the competition Virgin Atlantic was able to publish a profit of 68 million pounds, while British Airways had to report a 401 pound operating loss in 2009. Governments form the last, but equally, important part of the analysis, since they have the power to implement and alter economic policy. Governments create the legislation and frameworks in which businesses compete with one another. From time to time the government will change these rules and frameworks forcing businesses to change the way they operate. Business is thus keenly affected by government policy. The airline industry for example had to cope with higher landing charges as well as additional taxes imposed on the air—travelling public directly affecting the revenue and profit. Combining these three factors in the economic assessment in the SLEPT analysis suggest a confirmation of the hypothesis stated at the beginning of this section. Personal wealth, used a proxy for state of the economy, might be directly affecting business economics. Competitors and governments are also capable of directly affecting business economics. This suggests that the economic factors require a pro-active attitude, since it’s crucial to stay ahead of competition and that this can only be done by staying up to date on the new policies and the state of the economy. Technological factors and business economics By Ewan Tauran Technological factors affect business economics in a wide variety of ways. They play a strong role in the external environment of a firm and should be carefully assessed. Technological progress can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments generally benefit both firms and consumers. However, the effects of technological progress can be very diverse. Failing to keep up with technological trends can cause serious economic damage. The assessment of technological factors is crucial for high-tech industries such as the airline industry. The constant development of technology caters to the growing need of firms to meet issues of sustainability and safety. As mentioned earlier, there are increasingly strict legal rules regarding the materials that need to go into aircraft construction in order to make them safer and more resistant to fire hazards. The rules regarding emission and climate effects are also becoming increasingly strict. Due to technological progress, airline industries can adopt newly developed technologies and conform to these new laws and regulations. As mentioned before, airline industries also encounter another issue; that of increased safety needs and wants by consumers resulting from the terrorist attacks of 9/11.[ET1] In this specific case, adopting new air transportation security technology can help airline industries address these safety issues. Though[ET2] it is the case that the airline industry employs technology extensively in its operations, they rely on aircraft producers such as Boeing and Airbus for their aircraft. With respect to aircraft technology, airline industries are limited to these aircraft producers. Therefore it is important for firms to take advantage of technological advancement in other elements of their operations. An example could be to employ more advanced technology in the front office of an airline industry. This can improve customer service which can result in an increase in ticket sales and consequently overall revenue. Another factor that should be taken into account by firms is technological advancement with respect to social media. Currently, social media is becoming increasingly important to firms all over the world as an effective marketing tool. Airline industries should realize this and adapt to the changing circumstances regarding this global trend. Technological advancements do not always have positive effects on business economics. For example, technological progress with respect to communication and the exchange of information can have serious effects on the demand for air transportation. Technological innovations such as videoconferencing limits the need for face-to-face meetings in business, consequently making the need for air travel obsolete. Individuals who live far apart geographically no longer have to visit each other physically when the opportunity to communicate digitally presents itself as a decent low-cost alternative. Due to the rapid development of technology, firms should stay focused and adapt quickly in order to survive in an increasingly competitive economic climate. At the moment, technology progresses so fast that it is becoming increasingly hard for firms to promptly adapt. Firms who fail to adapt can miss out on all of the potential positive effects from technological advancement and as a consequence lose market share[ET3]. Conclusion When taking all the SLEPT analysis factors into account, they seem to suggest that each and every factors should be taken into account and that each factor requires a pro-active approach. Firstly, the social part of the analysis demonstrates that each and every single one of these factors has a major of impact on business-economics. They are also essential for the success of businesses since the lives of customers revolve around these factors. A business should adapt its strategy proactively to these factors in order to increase its profit and market share. Secondly, the research done on political and legal factors also suggests that these factors require a pro-active attitude towards these factors. Thirdly, the economic analysis suggests that the economic factors require a pro-active attitude, since it’s crucial to stay ahead of competition and that this can only be done by staying up to date on the new policies and the state of the economy. And lastly the technological part of the analysis suggests that due to the rapid development of technology, firms should stay focused and adapt quickly in order to survive in an increasingly competitive economic climate. At the moment, technology progresses so fast that it is becoming increasingly hard for firms to promptly adapt. Firms who fail to adapt can miss out on all of the potential positive effects from technological advancement and as a consequence lose market share[ET4]. However the research for this report does not cover all industries, just the airline industry was used as an example, also the cost of keeping up with all these factors would be astronomical. To come up with a more definitive conclusion more research is required. References IATA. (2014).FACT SHEET: Industry Statistics .Available: http://www.iata.org/pressroom/facts_figures/fact_sheets/Documents/industry-facts.pdf. Last accessed 30 April 2014. Indexmundi. (2011).GDP per capita (PPP) (US$).Available: http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?v=67c=xxl=en. Last accessed 30 April 2014. 1 [1] http://www.intersperience.com/images/Virgin Atlantic Case Study.pdf [2] http://seekingalpha.com/article/120335-domestic-air-travel-lowest-since-postminus-9-11 [ET1]I need to change this sentence. [ET2]Paragraph is missing a proper topic sentence [ET3]Conclusion needs more body [ET4]Conclusion needs more body

Eclecticism: The Melting Pot of Education Essay -- Eclectic Teaching

Eclecticism: The Melting Pot of Education "Plasticene and self-expression will not solve the problems of education. Nor will technology and vocational guidance; nor the classics and the Hundred Best Books" (Aldous Huxley, English novelist, essayist, critic). If this is true, what will solve the problems of education? Hundreds have tried to answer that question and yet have said the same things over and over. A pure philosophy has never solved the problem of what to do about the education of the masses or the education of the individuahls, and because of that fact, I have not chosen any specific philosophy. I can only be described as eclectic, for I have taken different pieces from each of the five major philosophies and blended them into a personalized viewpoint. By drawing from the views of the great minds from the past, I have pieced together a way to describe what was already there: my point of view. Although I am eclectic, I have very strong opinions about what should be taught, and that is where I gather from the Essentialists. One of the basic beliefs of the Essentialists is that every child should, upon graduation, possess a basic body of knowledge. Included in this body of knowledge are such things as writing, reading, measurement, and computing. I agree that the child should have a basic body of knowledge, but I do not concur that it should be merely enormous rather than practical. In addition, I agree with the Essentialist beliefs that the program should be academically rigorous; that the teacher should model the correct behavior and instill such things as respect for authority, perseverance, dependability, dutifulness, consideration for others, and practicality. Traditional values and morals should be upheld ... ...hese various viewpoints has not influenced me to join a particular one, on the contrary they have strengthened my belief that no one person is right and only in a vast collection of cooperating educators and thinkers will the best environment for learning be achieved. Works Cited Donald Simanek's Pages, http://www.lhup.edu/-dsimanek/eduquote.htm Bagley, William C., Education and Emergent Man, Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York, 1934. pp 188-189. Adler, Mortimer J., et al., The RevoJution in Education, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1963. pp. 96. Dewey, John, Dewey on Education: Appraisals, Random House, New York, 1966. pp. 132-133. Kneller, George. F., Existentialism and Education, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1967. pp. 97. Skinner, B. F., The Technology of Teaching, Meredith Corporation, New York, 1968. pp. 148.

Women In Corporate America :: essays research papers

The once male dominated, corporate, "white collar" America has seen a phenomenal influx of women within the last thirty years. Although a female lawyer, physician, or CEO is no longer considered a rarity in our times, women still face quite a deal of oppression in comparison to their male counterparts. In retrospect, some professions have always been controlled by women, and men have not made a noticeable advance in these fields. In 1970, finding a female lawyer to represent you would be a difficult task, since less than five percent of the profession were women. Today, that number has risen to almost thirty percent. The percentage of female doctors has almost tripled in the course of thirty years. African Americans have not made such a conspicuous progression within the last fifty years, while women have made a tremendous impact on the corporate world. One may wonder, how did women make these extraordinary advances? For the most part, it is due to the education they receiv e. At the present time young girls are encouraged to enroll in classes dealing with math and science, rather than home economics and typing. As pointed out by Nanette Asimov, in her essay "Fewer Teen Girls Enrolling in Technology Classes", school officials are advocating the necessity of advanced placement, and honor classes for teenage girls, in both the arts and sciences. This support and reassurance than carries over onto college, and finds a permanent fixture in a woman’s life. While women are continuing their success in once exclusively male oriented professions, they are still lacking the respect and equality from their peers, coworkers, and society. The average male lawyer, and doctor make twenty-five percent more money than their female equivalent. Women have always lived with the reputation of being intellectually inferior to, and physically submissive to men. This medieval, ignorant notion is far fetched from the truth. In 1999, high school men and women p osted similar SAT scores, being separated by a only a few points. In addition to posting similar scores on the SAT, the average males score was a mere two-tenths of a point higher than an average females score on the ACT. Even though a woman maybe as qualified as a male for a certain occupation , women receive unwanted harassment, and are under strict scrutiny. A good illustration of this would be the women represented in "Two Women Cadets Leave the Citadel.

Case Study: Active Data Warehousing

1. Describe â€Å"active† data warehousing as it is applied at Continental Airlines. Does Continental apply active or real-time warehousing differently than this concept is normally described? An active data warehousing, or ADW, is a data warehouse implementation that supports near-time or near-real-time decision making. It is featured by event-driven actions that are triggered by a continuous stream of queries that are generated by people or applications regarding an organization or company against a broad, deep granular set of enterprise data.Continental uses active data warehousing to keep track of their company’s daily progress and performance. Continental’s management team holds an operations meeting every morning to discuss how their company is performing in regards to the data collected by their active data warehousing program. The management team believes, â€Å"you can’t manage what you can’t measure,† so they use active data warehou sing to keep track of their customers experience while using Continental Airlines.The information that the management team uses to analyze their company in regards to customer relationship is on-time arrival, on-time departures, baggage handling, and other key performance indicators. Continental also uses active data warehousing for revenue management, revenue accounting, flight operations, fraud detection and airline security. Continental restructured their goals to try to become customers â€Å"favorite† airline to use. They use their active data warehousing to gain as much information about the company’s performance as well as the customers experience.They use this real-time warehousing program to interpret information that is provided and make changes that will better improve their customers experience and help Continental better suit their business in regards to their customers’ needs. 2. In what ways does real-time data warehousing fit with the Continental strategy and plans? Continental Airlines decided to shift their strategy once they went from â€Å"worst to first. † The new goal that they wanted to achieve was making the move from â€Å"first to favorite. Continentals’ new strategy and plan of becoming their customers’ favorite airline could only be achieved by using real-time data warehousing. Continental made plans to become the â€Å"favorite† airline and their strategy involved making business decisions based on information they receive from real-time data warehousing such as: on-time arrival, on-time departures, baggage handling, and other key performance indicators. This information gives the Continental management team the necessary information needed to make corrections or changes in order to better their customers’ experience while using Continental Airlines.Continental’s strategy and plans to become the â€Å"favorite† airline would be much harder to accomplish without real-time data warehousing. They need this information in order to realize what parts of their company need to be tweaked to keep the customer happy. Without real-time data warehousing Continental wouldn’t be able to achieve their goal of moving from â€Å"first to favorite. † 3. Describe the benefits of real-time data warehousing at Continental. Real-time data warehousing has allowed Continental to make significant changes to its business in a variety of ways.According to Continental’s president and COO Larry Kellner, â€Å"Real-time BI is critical to the accomplishment of our business strategy and has created significant business benefits. † There is a wide-range of benefits that Continental has gained from real-time or â€Å"active† data warehouse in the categories of marketing, corporate security, IT, and revenue management. One key benefit in the marketing field is the average increase of travel amongst Continental’s most valuable custo mers, approximately $800 per customer (35,000 customers).A central benefit in is that all employees have the ability to access important facts and information about its customers and the business in its entirety. This in turn allowed Continental to check passenger reservations and flight manifests by cross-referencing with the FBI’s â€Å"watch† list only hours about the 9/11 attacks, deciding if it was safe to fly. Above all, Continental has recognized over $500 million of cost saving and revenue generation (tracking and forecasting, fare designs and analysis, and full reservation analysis) due to the advantages of the business intelligence. . What elements of the data warehousing environment at Continental are necessary to support the extensive end-user business intelligence application development that occurs? There are numerous elements of the data warehousing environment at Continental that are necessary in the support of the extensive end-user BI application deve lopment that takes place. Two important elements that are necessary to discuss are the systems scalability and data security. Since the real-time data warehousing warehouse never gets rid of information, the amount of data increases exponentially over time.Additionally, with the development of BI application, the number of uses will also increase. To deal with the amount of usage and data, the data warehouse at Continental should have scalability which allows the data warehouse to expand the accessible disc space and throughput. The Continental design team took this into account when going through the architecture design of the warehouse. The other element that is important to take care of is data security. Data security is extremely important when a company handles customer information and personal data.Continentals’ warehouse stores all of the customer’s information that can be accessed by other users in order to gain the data that they need. The customers can rest a ssured knowing that their personal information (i. e. social security numbers and credit card numbers) are protected from being opened by any users that are not authorized to view this sensitive information. 5. What special issues about data warehouse management (e. g. , data capture and loading for the data warehouse (ETL processes) and query workload balancing) does this case suggest occur for real-time data warehousing? How has Continental addressed these issues?Real-time data warehousing creates some special issues that need to be solved by data warehouse management. These can create issues because of the extensive technicality that is involved for not only planning the system, but also managing problems as they arise. Two aspects of the BI system that need to be organized in order to elude any technical problems are: the architecture design and query workload balancing. Architecture design is important because when a company is progressively receiving business and different asp ects of the customers’ usage of the company changes the warehouse needs to frequently be updated.Continental planned for the company to use real-time data warehousing so they structured the design to accommodate for the demand of real-time information. The information then became easier to update the warehouse in a timely manner. Query workload balancing is another important aspect of the warehouse that needed to be addressed in order to fulfill Continentals’ need to use the warehouse for tactical and strategic purposes. Continental would run into issues of backed up query processing in their warehouse if query workload balancing wasn’t introduced.The queries would be processed in a â€Å"first in first out† system and would essentially cause backups. Continental resolved this issue by making the warehouse process queries according to the query type. They set up the warehouse to process the specific queries that access single records first and marked them with high priority. Then they prioritized other queries to either be marked with medium priority or low priority depending on what information they are asking for and for what reason it’s needed.Continental’s utilization of using prioritized groupings of queries has led them to be able to process information in a timely manner that is most convenient for the person trying to access this information. (Information regarding the case as well: not sure which one you wanted so I included both) There are two issues that the case study suggests in terms of data management. The first is to recognize that some data cannot and should not be real-time, for three reasons. The first is that Continental knows that real-time data feed are hard to administer because the constant flow of transaction data must always be supervised.The second reason is the need for extra hardware. The last reason Continental is extremely cautious with the movement of additional data is because real-time data feed is extremely costly to bring about. The second issue Continental deals with when it comes to data warehouse management is having the right people in the right positions. Anny individual who handles any aspect of a real-time warehouse must be highly qualified and knowledgeable in both technology and business.According to the case study, â€Å"At Continental, data warehouse staff members in the more technical positions (e. g. , design of ETL processes) have degrees in computer science. Some of them previously built and maintained reservation systems before they joined the warehouse team. Consequently, they have experience with transaction oriented, real-time systems, which serves them well for real-time BI and data warehousing. The warehouse team members who work closely with the business units have previous work experience in the business areas they now support. †