The Declaration of Independence Essay Example for Free

The Declaration of Independence Essay The Declaration of Independence maintained that the purpose of government is to protect their â€Å"unalienable rights,† chief among them being â€Å"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. † As such, government is merely an institution crafted by the people, whose existence is entirely contingent upon the people it is designed to serve towards these ends. Therefore it is the responsibility of citizens to be ever vigilant of this government because the Declaration explicitly states that its authority comes from â€Å"the consent of the governed. † Should this government prove to be dysfunctional with regards to the functions it was created for, it becomes the right of these ‘governed’ to abolish the government and institute a new one in its place that fulfills the abovementioned mandate of protecting those rights. It is this fundamental conception of the function of government that maintains relevance in the 21st century moreso, as has been said ad infinitum ad nauseum, in the wake of 9/11. In an attempt to address the security of the nation-space, the government has taken measures that have effectively diminished personal liberties if not curtailed them entirely. As such, the functions of the government have increasingly turned towards protection of the state for its own sake, at the expense of the inalienable rights of citizens. In effect, the government leans towards self-preservation, towards a rigid but abstract notion of patriotism and nationalism and away from empowering those institutions under its jurisdiction whose primary aim is the self-fulfillment of its citizens. More of the budget is geared away from citizen welfare and more towards the military and state controls. This is not to suggest that the government must be abolished with the sheer force of tumultuous revolt, but rather that citizens recognize this disheartening trend and take action to reorient it back towards the purposes it was designed for in the first place. It is through re-awakening interactions that make for a healthy democracy, including the ballot box and beyond it in critical discourse.

Essay on Poetry in Prose in Cold Mountain -- Cold Mountain Essays

Poetry in Prose in Cold Mountain Cold Mountain is poetry in prose, and the examples of this are infinite.   Every character met is described down to the last hair on their head; the war-torn countryside still lives on for Inman to relive and Ada to discover.   The field burning, the sunrises and sunsets, the rivers flowing and the eternal rocks and trees that make up the landscape are all characters in themselves.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The definition of the word ‘poetry’ is allusive to say the least. Those in dictionaries run in circles from defining a poet as ‘one who writes poetry’ to defining a poetry as ‘the work of a poet’. It is more conclusive therefore, to describe what the poets themselves are aspiring to create: Coleridge distinguishes between prose – ‘the best words’- and poetry – ‘the best words in the best order’ – while Wordsworth said that poetry is ‘the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge.’ Therefore it is difficult to distinguish between the exact difference between prose and poetry. In some instances, such as translating foreign poetry, it has proved more satisfying to convert the poetry into prose to convey the meaning without worrying about the metre, which is often lost in translation anyway. However, ‘Cold Mountain’ is clearly one of the chosen few novels written in prose with poetic style. By describing scenes, be they uplifting or disturbing, in an innovative, different, detailed style, Frazier succeeds in surpassing other novels in library brilliance and ingenuity. From the first few words of the first chapter, the reader is captured. Different, or unusual words are used to describe what they do not usually do – morning ‘gesturing’, for instance, morning is not normally thought of as a gesture, b... ...head; the war-torn countryside still lives on for Inman to relive and Ada to discover.   The field burning, the sunrises and sunsets, the rivers flowing and the eternal rocks and trees that make up the landscape are all characters in themselves.   Frazier conveys his love of the land through every word of ‘Cold Mountain’ and uses unusual adjectives or verbs to explain his sight from a different angle.   (This is illustrated on page 215 as Inman is wedded to Lila; she ‘described little delighted circles in the dirt’.)   Matthew Arnold states that ‘genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul’, and Frazier has simply shared this genuine classic to give a hauntingly true-to-life insight in to the search for the American Dream, based on his own experience of the Appalachian Mountains. Works Cited: Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

Mri Notes

Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital A Community Hospital White Paper 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 1 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital CONTENTS Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Making the Business Case †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 The Business Plan †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 Reasons for Bringing MRI to your Hospital†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Financial Considerations †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 3 Selecting the Equipment †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Comparing Te chnologies †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 8 Equipment Features †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Search Process †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 11 Managing the MRI Program †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 Operations †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12 Staffing†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12 Siting †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 13 Marketing the Program †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 14 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 15 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 3 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital 1 INTRODUCTION MRI is one of today’s fastest growing imaging modalities, spurred in part by rapid advances in technology and important new applications in patient care. Recent statistics also suggest that expanding Medicare reimbursements and the growing demands of an informed and aging population for healthcare services are elevating MRI utilization to new levels.Is your community hospital considering adding this exp anding and often lucrative modality? This paper will help you answer that question. It looks at the business and financial aspects of an MRI program, reviews MRI technologies and features, and discusses management of an MRI program. Overall, it shows how implementing an MRI program will enhance existing medical services and better meet community needs. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 1 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital 5 ProfitabilityPerforming a number of standard financial analyses will help determine the potential profitability of your proposed MRI program. Generally, the financial analyses should cover the first five years of your program. The standard financial analyses are: Breakeven analysis. A breakeven analysis will show how many examinations must be performed to cover MRI program costs. The specific breakeven point is calculated by dividing the fixed costs (such as equipment, space, personnel, maintenance, and utilities) by the payment per exam minus the variable costs (such as supplies, fees, and billing costs) per exam.It may turn out that your breakeven point is 1,000 exams, but your market analysis indicates demand for only 700 exams. In this case, you may want to analyze growth trends to determine when or whether your MRI program could break even in the future. You may also want to look at restructuring your proposed program to make it financially feasible. Return on investment (ROI). ROI is one of the most common measures of profitability and can indicate whether spending money on an MRI program is a good use of your hospital’s resources. It is calculated by dividing net income by the cost of the investment.Net income can be approximated by looking at the demand, payer mix, and utilization rate for various MRI procedures in your market and estimating your revenues. The investment number includes not only the cost of the equipment under each financing option, but also the costs of running the program (includin g the costs of staffing, marketing, any needed construction, and administration). Given the number of variables contributing to the ROI calculation, changing the structure of your proposed MRI program can increase your return on your MRI investment.Internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV). IRR and NPV are commonly used to analyze whether a capital expenditure (such as the purchase of MRI equipment) will yield the revenue wanted in the future; they can also be used to choose among various investment proposals (such as different types of MRI equipment or different financing options). Net present value is calculated by a mathematical process involving the estimated revenues and expenses of an investment. The calculation can help determine whether the anticipated cash flows 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. xd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 5 6 A Community Hospital White Paper will cover the cost of capital and recover the costs of the investment. IRR (defined as the rate of interest at which the incremental NPV of a proposal is zero) is another way to look at the value of a capital expenditure – by looking at the rate of return on the investment. If a calculation shows that the IRR is above the cost of capital, the proposed investment should be profitable. These two calculations help determine whether the investment is economically feasible for the hospital.Again, the information needed for these analyses can be obtained from equipment vendors, commercial databases, and outside suppliers. Financing Options Hospitals can use a number of methods or creative hybrids from these methods to acquire both fixed and mobile MRI. Deciding how you will pay for your MRI system requires achieving the right balance between using available cash and accessing debt. Using available cash may make sense if there are few other capital projects on the horizon and cash flow from operations is strong.Using debt instruments, such as bonds, bank loans, or leases, however, may pr eserve available cash for other capital projects, provide a better financial return on the capital project, or simply make the project affordable by reducing the capital outlay to a monthly operating expense. Consider the following options: Cash Purchase. The main advantage of a cash purchase is that your hospital would own the equipment outright; the equipment becomes an asset on your balance sheet and no debt or liability is created.Making the purchase, however, would involve the use of a significant amount of available cash, which would then no longer be available to support other projects or for future financial needs. Leasing. Leasing moves much of the funding to your operational budget and minimizes credit requirements. In addition, it provides better matching of revenues and expenses on a monthly basis. Some types of leases allow you to build equity into the lease and purchase the MRI equipment for a small capital outlay at the end of your agreement. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR 5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 6 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital Bonds. Using bonds allows your hospital to raise significant capital to fund long-term and short-term projects through one debt issue. The bond offering can be made on a tax-exempt basis, so the interest due on the principal is typically calculated at a very attractive rate. A bond offering may take six to nine months to execute, however, and may involve significant costs. More importantly, including assets that have economic and useful lives shorter than the term of the bond in a bond issue produces debt without any continuing benefit to your hospital; there would be a mismatch between revenues and expenses.Bank Loans. If your hospital has an existing relationship with a bank, it may be quickest and easiest to fund your technology acquisitions through a bank line of credit. Given banks’ size and access to capital, they typically offer attractive finance rates for full payout loans. Your hospital may be r equired to keep a compensating balance at your bank, however, and one technology purchase may consume available credit lines that your hospital may need for other capital projects or working capital needs.Another drawback to using a bank loan is that banks will only finance the technology acquisition itself; they will not pay for the installation or the costs of professional services associated with the equipment. Your hospital may want to purchase MRI equipment independently to meet your own imaging needs. You could then lease access to the equipment part time to other facilities at fees that could help pay for the purchase. Your hospital may also consider a shared purchase of MRI equipment.Partnering with other local hospitals or independent imaging centers offers the advantages of sharing financial burdens and risks, while acquiring the ability to provide MRI services. Frequently, the participating facilities form a partnership or limited liability corporation to serve as the umb rella for the purchase, and the financial arrangements and responsibilities would be specified in the formal agreement. This arrangement reduces the costs and financial risk for each partner, while allowing each partner to provide MRI services. Co-funded MRI acquisitions may be either direct purchases or leases. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. xd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 7 8 A Community Hospital White Paper SELECTING THE EQUIPMENT Rapid developments in MRI technology mean that your hospital will be faced with an array of equipment and features. Your selection will depend on your business objectives and clinical requirements. Your goal is to select the equipment most appropriate and cost-effective for delivering the high-quality images you need today, while allowing for new applications and upgrades in the future. Equipment vendors can help you sort through your options to acquire the capabilities you need without paying for features you will not use.The sections below discuss some of the basic technologies and features available to you. Comparing Technologies Magnet Given the growth in the number of MRI applications and rapid advances in MRI technology, MRI may become your radiology department’s workhorse. Therefore, your hospital should start with a solid, proven platform. While some applications still use a sub-1T magnet, a 1. 5T magnet is now the standard, because it can both handle current applications and accommodate future applications and upgrades. A 3T magnet is available, but it represents truly innovative technology and might be more powerful than most hospitals need.Mobile vs. Fixed MRI As noted above, mobile MRI is housed in a specialized van and can readily be shared among hospitals and healthcare facilities. Mobile MRI is frequently acquired when a hospital expects a small volume of exams, when the hospital wants to test an MRI program before leasing or purchasing, or when the hospital does not have the financial resources to purchase fixed equi pment. Some hospitals use mobile MRI to supplement overburdened fixed MRI equipment, provide capacity while waiting to purchase additional fixed equipment, extend radiology services into other geographic areas, or maintain service during building projects.A main drawback of mobile MRI is its accessibility – the equipment may not be available when it is needed. Patients and referring physicians may have to wait for several days or even weeks for procedures. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 8 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital 9 Fixed MRI may be located inside the hospital or in a nearby building. Because it is right at the hospital, it is very convenient to use. Patients may be able to get their exams within a day, emergency room doctors can get studies the same day, and diagnoses can be made or confirmed very quickly.Physicians can use in-house equipment to confirm results and to make sure that proper care is given and they can draw on the medical s ervices provided by other departments in the hospital, if needed. Fixed MRI facilitates patient care. It is easier to move seriously ill, elderly, or emergency room patients to an in-house MRI than to transport them to mobile or distant equipment. In-house and fixed facilities also tend to be more comfortable and attractive than mobile ones and patients can use other hospital services and facilities at the same time. Open vs. Closed MRIApproximately 28% of MRI installations are of open MRI (according to the IMV 2002/03 MRI Census Market Summary Report ). Open MRI is considered more comfortable for patients, particularly children, the elderly, the obese, and the claustrophobic, and may thus reduce the need for patient sedation and the number of incomplete exams. Until now, the strength of the magnet in most open MRI systems has been comparatively weak (no more than 0. 7T), which has limited the quality of the images and has not supported a full range of applications. A new class of M RI systems was introduced in the summer of 2004, called Open Bore MRI, with stronger 1. T magnets and the ability to offer 60% of exams with the patient’s head outside the magnet. These new systems have the same image quality as closed MRI systems and are able to support as many applications. Closed MRI has traditionally used a stronger magnet, which has led to clearer images and has allowed closed MRI systems to support a broader range of applications and many new technological advances and upgrades. Some newer closed MRI equipment has been designed to be more comfortable for patients and to reduce the acoustic noise level by up to 97%. The technological advances in open MRI may reduce the differences in technological capabilities between open and closed MRI systems. *Results may vary. Data on file. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 9 10 A Community Hospital White Paper Equipment Features Image Quality Image quality is one of the primary MRI consideratio ns. Factors affecting quality include strength of the magnet, high field computer performance, sequence selections, and 3D postprocessing. Differences in image quality can be seen by comparing sample images produced by all the equipment being considered.Workflow and Productivity MRI benefits from a broad range of new productivity-enhancing tools that may allow you to serve more patients and make the best use of your equipment and staff. Advanced scanners have the ability to do seamless whole-body imaging with a single coil, eliminating the need to reconfigure coils and reposition patients. These can cut scanning time by as much as 50% to 75%. * Others allow simultaneous scanning of more limited anatomical areas with up to four integrated coils, delivering similar benefits.Both allow the user to select exams, not coils, and provide the highest acquisition speed without image artifacts, while promoting patient comfort. This enhanced workflow enables more patients to be seen during a d ay and often paves the way for handling of a greater patient volume and increased profits. Additionally, recent advances in MRI technologies allow the processing of MRI images during, rather than following, the ex amination, which produces results faster. Others automatically position slices for reproducible, consistent results.New developments also promote clinical efficiency by improving workflow and eliminating duplicate tasks. This includes reducing examination set-up time through single-mouse-click coil positioning. Another new technology eliminates the need to reenter patient exam parameters by allowing existing images to be dragged and dropped onto the patient list and even to be transferred from images on email or CDs. Some manufacturers provide a common interface across all modalities and applications, including MRI, to reduce learning curves and facilitate practice management. *Results may vary. Data on file. 4-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 10 Bringin g MRI to Your Community Hospital 11 Patient Comfort Some new technologies make MRI procedures more comfortable for patients, which in turn makes clinical time more productive. These technologies may reduce noise level, eliminating the need for ear protection; reduce scan time, which makes the procedure less stressful for patients; allow for more comfortable horizontal loading; or allow patients to keep their heads outside the bore, minimizing claustrophobia. Open MRI technology accommodates anxious, obese, or claustrophobic patients, particularly children.Search Process A multifunctional search team, including radiologists, technologists, administrators, and IT professionals, should be appointed to analyze the equipment options and make recommendations. The search should be driven by the goals of your program in terms of improved patient care and financial feasibility, the technological features specified by radiologists, and the procedure needs of referring physicians. The search p rocess should include detailed comparisons of the features and image quality of the equipment made by different vendors.Members of the team should visit sites where the equipment is used, interview radiologists and technologists working with the equipment, and request and review a range of images made by the equipment. Some equipment vendors may allow a short-term trial of the equipment or special features before purchase. Many hospitals consider it important to purchase as much equipment as possible from the same vendor. For smaller hospitals, where technologists may perform many different types of procedures, having one vendor makes cross-training on different modalities easier.The relationship with a single vendor may also contribute to the efficient running of the radiology department and may expedite repairs and other needed services. At the end of the search process, the team should make recommendations on which specific equipment and features to purchase. The team may also se t out a schedule for making regular upgrades to the equipment or for purchasing additional features or applications. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 11 12 A Community Hospital White Paper MANAGING THE MRI PROGRAMWhen bringing MRI to your community hospital, you will have to make decisions about overall management of the program. Planning should cover four areas – operations, staffing, siting, and marketing. Operations Patients and physicians both want the MRI program to run smoothly, efficiently, and in a timely manner. When implementing the program, the hospital will have to keep an eye on the scheduling of patients for efficient utilization of equipment, patient throughput, patient comfort and education, efficient handling of paperwork and archiving of images, and timely communication.A Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) has become a necessity in managing an MRI program. The hospital should plan on monitoring the operations of the progr am and should expect to make changes to increase operating effectiveness. For example, the hospital may find that it wants to extend hours of service or hire additional personnel to handle paperwork and scheduling. Staffing For a community hospital, an MRI program requires one or more radiologists, technologists, administrators, and possibly also technologist aides.There is currently a shortfall in the number of available radiology professionals, so it may be necessary to develop a recruiting program that sets out how the hospital supports and meets the needs of its employees. Radiology professionals will look for a competitive salary and benefits, good working conditions, flexible and reasonable schedules and workloads, and opportunities for growth and development within the profession. They are particularly interested in keeping up with technological advances and in having opportunities to learn new modalities.During recruiting visits and interviews, most radiology professionals c heck whether a hospital has the latest technologies and equipment. Many radiologists look for the use of a nighthawk service at night or over weekends to make their workloads manageable. Nighthawks, who can be located anywhere in the world, are sent images digitally over the Internet for remote reading. A PACS system facilitates the sharing of images betw een the hospital and the nighthawks. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 12Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital 13 The hospital may also need to consider whether it will be able to pursue a number of the standard options for making sure that it has sufficient staff: Using temporary or short-term workers, provided by a healthcare staffing company or recruited from locum tenens services Sharing radiology professionals among joint venture partners or local radiology practices Using creative scheduling, such as job-sharing or part-time arrangements Cross-training technologists on different modalitiesGiven the shor tfall in available radiology professionals, a hospital will want to pay attention to retaining its staff. An effective retention program must be built into the staffing plan for the MRI program. Retention strategies may include giving staff opportunities for career growth through learning new technologies and modalities, creating a supportive work environment, and following through on all the commitments made during the recruiting process. Siting Given the physical requirements of fixed MRI equipment, administrators will have to decide where they want to site the program.Existing vs. New Space An MRI’s powerful magnetic field limits the possible locations for the equipment. The magnet room must be built with specific construction materials and can contain only certain fixtures and additional equipment. An existing site within the hospital will need significant structural renovation to eliminate all ferrous metals to ensure patient safety and protect your equipment. It is nece ssary to compare the costs of renovating and of building new space to help contain expenses associated with the program.Equipment vendors are a good source of information on the requirements of a magnet room and the work needed to create a safe and comfortable site for your MRI program. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 13 14 A Community Hospital White Paper Inside-the-Hospital vs. Freestanding Outpatient Facility MRI exams are frequently outpatient procedures. Locating your MRI program in an outpatient facility has the obvious advantages of reducing hospital crowding, enhancing throughput, and reducing the complications of hospital visits for ambulatory patients.Other outpatient facility siting benefits include flexibility in financing, through joint ventures and shared equipment, and larger physical space with the possibility of expansion. However, if your primary goal is to meet in-patient imaging needs, an inside-the-hospital location is safer and easier, pa rticularly for critically ill patients. Other advantages are the availability of the full range of on-site medical services and the proximity to in-house physicians and referring physicians with offices near the hospital.Marketing the Program A community hospital can best market its new MRI program by involving the community during the development of the program and by using specific marketing techniques. Community Involvement Many community hospitals have found that creating strong community involvement in the program leads to high patient volume. It may be effective to: Draw local businesses and business associations, such as a Chamber of Commerce, into the planning process and any necessary fundraisingCreate a hospital website that keeps the community informed about progress, educates potential future patients about your new services and the benefits of MRI, shows pictures of the new equipment, and links to the equipment vendor’s website for additional information Speak ab out the program and MRI to local community groups and at school programs Hold an open house and give tours of your new facilities Media Relations Given the strong popular interest in healthcare issues, it may be possible to interest local newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations into reporting on your new MRI program and its benefits.Distributing a press release describing your program, making hospital administrations and radiology professionals available for interviews, and hosting media events may be effective in publicizing your program. 04-201-XO-491_Bringing_MR5. qxd 12/10/04 10:05 AM Page 14 Bringing MRI to Your Community Hospital 15 Marketing Communications Some hospitals have found it effective to develop written materials that explain and publicize their program and the new MRI technology.These materials can include brochures that educate patients and answer questions about MRI technology and benefits, brochures for referring physicians that describe the new im aging services, handouts with contact and procedural information, and print advertisements for local media. Equipment manufacturers are a good source of cost-effective assistance in developing marketing communications. CONCLUSION MRI technology can provide numerous benefits to your hospital by enhancing the speed and accuracy of diagnoses, facilitating earlier and more accurate treatment of medical conditions, and generating additional revenue.Making the decision to implement an MRI program involves analyzing the marketplace and the financial aspects of the program and planning for managing and marketing the program. A critical decision is which MRI equipment and applications will meet the needs of the hospital and the community. Many of the newest technologies provide significant benefits in terms of quality, efficiency, and patient comfort. Given the cost of the equipment, the hospital should compare various financing options, including direct purchase, leasing, and joint ventures .

Editing Style in Crash Essay

Paul Haggis’ 2003 film Crash is about Los Angeles citizens with very separate lives. They go through interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption. It shows us how we connect or disconnect with other people. Although we feel separated by a number of factors such as race, class, status or gender we are more connected than we think. The editing used in this film contributes to the over-all theme. Characters involved are a black detective estranged from his mother, his criminal younger brother and gang partner, a white District Attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white police officer who disgusts his more younger partner, an African American Hollywood director and his wife, a Persian-immigrant father who is distrustful and vigilant of others, and a locksmith who is a Hispanic hard-working family man. A lot of cross cutting is used to connect the different characters together. For example in the end of one scene the door slams. The sound of the door slamming is used to wake up the other person in the next scene. The ending of one scene is pushing a door, and a door opening leads to the next scene. The ending of a scene is a close up of the black detective putting groceries away in his mother’s fridge; the next scene is the District Attorney’s wife talking about grocery shopping. This film uses montage shots so that the overall effect is greater than the individual parts. The length of each shot determines the pace of the action including the change of pace and that affects the mood. The shot of the introduction of each character lasted about the same time. That way we saw the general type of person or attitude each character has. When shots were used to show emotion, the shot lasted a bit longer so that the viewers are able to connect and understand the character. Especially in the scene when the Persian father shot the Hispanic man’s little girl. That went into slow motion and the shot lasted long. The music was sad and dramatic and that shot personally made me cry because I can really feel the pain of the tragedy that just occurred. A scene that sends a message through editing is when the black Hollywood director and his wife were stopped by the white police officer. The white police officer molests his wife and that hurts the couple in many ways. They both become very affected by what happened. Later on in the film the wife gets into a car accident where her car flipped over and gets stuck but needs to get out of the car before it explodes. That event became a turning point in the white officer’s life and changed him. He became the opposite of the man that was introduced to us. This editing plays an important role because it shows us that the same person who hurt us would be the same person that is there in your time of need. The editing used in this film definitely portrays the theme. The techniques used show that all the major events that happened in their lives were caused by each other. People that think that they have no connection with each other actually are connected. The editing used in this film had an important role in sending an important message to the viewers. There may be differences between us but we are all the same, we are all human with feelings and emotions. We are all connected.

Enterprise Resource Planning Essay Example

Enterprise Resource Planning Essay Example Enterprise Resource Planning Paper Enterprise Resource Planning Paper Group Project I Evaluation of an Enterprise Application : ERP Systems of Volkswagen and Nestle Executive Summary Enterprise resource planning integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization, coupling finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application, facilitating the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and managing the connection to outside stakeholders. Although ERP systems offer a bird’s eye view in the working of the company and allow users to cross-reference business functions, implementing an enterprise resource system (ERP) project in the estimated time, for the estimated cost, and with satisfying results is a rare occurrence. Most organizations do not understand the costs associated with ERP implementation when they first embark on the project. While the benefits are usually well understood, the costs do not surface until well into the implementation. When everything goes smoothly with ERP resource planning projects, the ratio of savings to dollars invested typically increases over time. As the streamlining efforts start and stall and start again, however, resulting in disastrous detours and cost overruns, savings if they come at all, occur many millions of dollars and many months later than planned. Too many executives see ERP solely as a technology project, believing that if they buy a new software system, inefficiencies will magically disappear. Unfortunately, for companies such as Volkswagen and Nestle, a hiccup in ERP implementation in the pursuit to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals can be disastrous in the short and long term. 1. Case Study 1: Volkswagen The Volkswagen Group is Europe’s largest car maker and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automobiles. In 2009, according to data published by all three companies, Volkswagen was the third biggest motor vehicle manufacturer, with 6. 29 million units delivered to customers,  after Toyota Group with 7. 23 million units and General Motors, with 6. 0 million units. Although the company offers a variety of mobility-related services in addition to being a leading carmaker, combining all of these subsidiaries and their individual portfolios, brands, missions, and visions under one umbrella is a big challenge for Volkswagen. Through ERP implementation, Volkswagen reasoned that contributions can be made by all the brands and companies of the VW Group without compromising the individual identity of these brands. This would result in added value to the common stream of interest and help the group achieve significant milestones moving forward. Volkswagen Accessories is a VW subsidiary that provides more than 8,000 accessory parts for virtually every model in its parent company’s range of automobiles. These include communication components, car maintenance and fashion products, specially styled rim-and-tire combinations, and other optical enhancements. Until recently, Volkswagen Accessories’ 200 employees analyzed data from the company’s individual SAP ERP modules  by hand before entering them into Excel files. Due to the considerable demands of the Volkswagen group’s internal reporting, this involved a tremendous amount of effort and tied up significant resources. As Project Manager Bjorn Lange states: â€Å"Besides taking far too much time, this method simply couldn’t meet our current requirements anymore. Shorter development cycles are constantly demanding new reports that employees need available on an ad hoc basis whenever possible. † For this reason, Volkswagen Accessories decided to implement a modern business intelligence solution. â€Å"Our goal was not only to establish a uniform basis of data, but especially to ensure our ability to distribute information in a flexible, largely automated way,† Lange explains. From a macroeconomic perspective, the automotive industry has had a number of challenges to overcome in recent years, from  surpluses  in production and  plunging revenues  to  protectionism. Specifically, this means that the industry needed to get a grip on excess capacity in automobile production and the associated revenue shortfalls. As far as choosing the right ERP system, all automotive companies had to deal with three key issues. First, they needed to look at containing costs through standardization. Second, organizations had to have a clear view of all their stock. And third, companies needed to strive for innovation and sustainability. SAP Business Suite 7 seemed to be able to achieve all of these demands by improving business processes internally and across company boundaries. To support this approach, upgrades can be performed during production operation in the form of  SAP enhancement packages. By implementing a  responsive production system, companies could tackle the pressure of competition from increasing globalization. Thanks to flexible and cost-effective production, lead times can be cut and stock levels reduced. As a result, companies will spend less while increasing their ability to deliver. With an ERP system in place, Volkswagen would be able to efficiently deal with business obstacles and drastically improve service-delivery to end user and business cycle performance among many other areas. SAP was designed to make sure that the critical data, analytical tools and applications are readily available and accessible by the employee while simultaneously supporting the organization’s model for different process of shared services. From a business cycle standpoint, the complete end-to-end cycle of business processes for procurement and logistics can be managed with the ERP module available for care business operations. Furthermore, in context of the VW Group, the entire life cycle processes of product manufacturing and development in real time can be effectively managed by delivering high quality products, directly increasing customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, although SAP implementation is good in theory, if implemented incorrectly, the platform can be disastrous for the company, as Volkswagen found in 2000. In 2000, Volkswagen had trouble delivering spare parts to some car dealers in Germany after turning on SAP AG’s R/3 software- enterprise resource planning software produced by SAP AG and designed to coordinate all the resources, information, and activities needed to complete business processes such as order fulfillment or billing- in its central parts warehouse. The error occurred when the ERP vendor had assigned 13 employees to help Volkswagen fix the problems, which were forcing some owners of VW and Audi automobiles to wait several weeks for needed repairs. One of the main problems in ERP implementation is customization. The R/3 applications being used at the parts warehouse were heavily customized to fit Volkswagen’s business needs. The system was so complex however that what seemed like a benign change, upset operations downstream. In this case, system problems delayed shipments to customers and caused product inventories to build up. With the proper ERP implementation, however, Volkswagen could have realized the benefits of a more integrated, single, low cost system. The Future Looking ahead, Volkswagen plans to develop a set of ERP systems by 2015 in order to improve the quality and speed of information sharing between its manufacturing and management departments. The IT processes and organization strategy aims to maximize the effectiveness of the ERP system by giving IT departments a greater say in how they are used by the business. The IT function will also have a say in how staff that operate the ERP systems should be organized. Volkswagen predicts that by 2011 the strategy will allow it to design new ERP systems and integrate them with business processes much more quickly, giving it an edge over its competitors. The pressure to reduce production costs and complexity by increasing the efficiency of our IT applications is a key driver for our IT function being able to influence business processes, said CTO Stefan Ostrowski. According to Ostrowski, the IT function would become a co-designer of the business processes. Steering committees, consisting of both business and IT representatives, would be formed to take joint responsibility for IT budgets. Although companies have seen the errors of their ways in managing ERP systems and have taken small, but important corrective actions for the future, the above examples illustrate the impact that ERP mismanagement may have on the organization in both the short and long-term. As Eric Kimberling, president of Panorama consulting, states: â€Å"The amount of ERP implementations that are meeting or exceeding corporate expectations is distressingly low. To best manage implementations, companies need to plan every detail up front, focus on business operations, secure strong project management and ensure that every key staff member is adequately trained and completely committed to the process. † 2. Case Study 2: Nestle Nestle, headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland is the largest food and beverage company in the world. With 250,000+ employees, stationed in 500 facilities in over 80 countries, its annual revenue is more than $70 billion. Despite its large operation, Nestle was faced with the task of deciding â€Å"how to operate as a single unit on a global scale. † With an ERP system in place, Nestle would be able to standardize their business processes, resulting in more efficient operations for the company and greater realized benefits for the customer. IT Situation before ERP Before its ERP Implementation, Nestle ran a very inefficient, high cost operation due to the lack of standard business processes in place. Local units throughout the world conducted business operations based on their own conditions and cultures. To support this decentralized strategy, Nestle has had 80 different information technology units that ran nearly 900 IBM AS/400 midrange computers, 15 mainframes, and 200 UNIX systems, enabling observers to describe its infrastructure as a veritable Tower of Babel. Nestles management had found that allowing these local differences created inefficiencies and extra costs that could prevent the company from competing effectively in electronic commerce. The lack of standard business processes prevented Nestle from, for example, leveraging its worldwide buying power to obtain lower prices for its raw materials. Even though each factory uses the same global suppliers, each negotiated its own deals and prices. For example, Nestle USAs brands were paying 29 different prices for â€Å"vanilla† to the same vendor due to the fact that each of Nestle’s divisions had assigned a different name to â€Å"vanilla. † In order to resolve the aforementioned inefficiencies, Nestle implemented an SAP’s R/3 ERP software which enables a company to standardize and coordinate its information system and business processes. While not fully realized company-wide, Nestle is working on extending its enterprise systems to all of its facilities to make its 500 facilities act as a single-minded e-business. Once this project is completed Nestle will able to use sales information from retailers on a global basis to measure the effectiveness of its promotional activities and reduce overstocking and spoilage caused by having products sit around too long on grocery shelves. The experience of Nestle USA illustrates some of the challenges Nestle had to face in implementing enterprise systems. In 1991, Nestle USA reorganized itself and brought together the disparate rands under one umbrella with ultimate control to the parent. However, the Nestle division headquarters were still dispersed, and each division was still free to make its own business decisions, with all reporting to Nestle headquarters in Glendale, California. The arrival of Jeri Dunn in 1997 as vice president and CIO of the American company sparked chan ge. Dunn had been familiar with Nestle due to her prior association with the company, for in 1991, as associate director for application systems at Nestle-owned Stouffers Hotels, she was sent to Switzerland to attend meetings whose intentions were to establish a common methodology. Later, in 1995, Dunn was promoted to assistant vice president of technology and standards for Nestle SA, and it is during that point in her career when she fully grasped the unequivocal value of establishing common systems for Nestle worldwide. Embarking on such a wholesale change would facilitate group buying which would reduce overall costs. In June 2000, Nestle SA contracted with SAP to purchase and roll out the new version of their software: mySAP. com. The new system standardized the companys information systems and business processes, and extended SAPs enterprise software to the Web. In addition, the new system allowed each Nestle employee to log on to a personal web computing space tailored to his job function. The employees job is structured to conform to the best practices defined by SAP for 300 work roles. Nestle has created up to five computer centers around the world to run mySAP. com enterprise financial, accounts payable, accounts receivable, planning, production management, supply chain management, and business intelligence software. The SAP contract would cost $200 million, which was the largest software purchase in ERP history at the time, plus an additional $80 million for installing the software system for the global company. The Implementation Processes: Main Difficulties The major problem that Nestle faced in the United States was that both the CEO and most of the key stakeholders failed to realize how much change they had effected with the SAP contract. Their business processes would change and problems mounted atop previous resolutions. The problem began during the early planning stage of the project when the staff that would be irectly affected by changes was not included in the key stakeholders team. By the beginning of 2000 it was obvious that no one wanted to engage the new processes, and that there was resistance to change. There was no preparation or education on the new processes, and the only hope was to call the project help desk. There was frustration at every level and ultimately no one wanted to take the necessary steps to learn. Turnover among the employees who were to use the Manugistics software to forecast product demand reached 77 percent, while those who stayed found it easier to use their familiar spreadsheets. The project was halted in June 2000 as Nestle removed the project co-leader leaving Dunn as the sole project leader. Results To resolve their problems, the team focused on the technology aspect and decided to start anew by first determining the business requirements and then a new completion date. The focus was to integrate the existing components and to complete the work on the sales and distribution modules. It was all agreed upon that all employees will be briefed as to what, why, when and how during each step of the new plan of action. The project team created a detailed design and project road map by April 2001. Nestle named Tom James director of process change, giving him complete responsibility for liaison between the divisions and the Best project. The team even took surveys of the effect of the project on employees and looked for ways to better tackle the issues raised. In addition, more meetings were held with division heads and as a result of the information gathered in this way, James and Dunn determined the manufacturing users were not suited for the forecasted changes and delayed the project an additional six months. The new project seems to be a boon as all of Nestle USA are using the same software and standardized data. The company had already saved $325 million by spring 2002 and Nestle’s global organization benefitted from standardizing its data and business processes as well. By the end of 2004, about ten percent of Nestle’s global food and beverage business was operating with standard processes, data and systems. Within the next few years most of the companys food and beverage business will undergo system implementations to bring them up to these standards. 3. The ERP Market ERP software companies are part of an extremely competitive and complex market; therefore, constant change and improvements are vital in order to remain competitive. After two decades, the raison d’etre of successful ERP software companies have been: 1) Meet and exceed consumer demands and expectations; 2) Invent and enact new technologies; 3) Customer Support; and 5) Remain competitive. The Top Five The five largest ERP software companies are, in no particular order: (1) Oracle (2) SAP (3) Microsoft (4) Infor and (5) Epicor. Oracle is considered one of the biggest and priciest ERP companies and is well-known for its database and hardware solutions. Its solutions are recognized for their great flexibility coupled with the newest technologies as they claim to have the number one share of the CRM market, while holding the number two share of the ERP market. These solutions offer a variety of tasks related to financial management, Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). SAP currently has the number one share of the ERP market with customers worldwide in over one hundred countries. They also have CRM solutions and SCM solutions esteemed in high quality, which allows SAP to charge prices at the top end of the market. Their solutions cover a myriad of industries, which was once astutely focused on Fortune 500 companies. Recently, however, SAP has begun to design their solutions packages to fit mid-sized and smaller companies. Microsoft Corp. is better known for its Windows OS but is surprisingly a â€Å"normal† player in the ERP market. It has, however, like many of its successful counterparts, managed to acquire smaller ERP companies in order to boost its offerings to customers and has traditionally catered to mid-sized and small companies. Its prices range from the moderately to low-priced end of the ERP market. Infor is an ERP company with over 70,000 customers in 100 countries offering a bevy of ERP solutions over a broad range of industries. It is considered the third biggest player of the ERP software companies. Infor has products that encompass the public and private sector, CRM, ERP, finances and expenses, HR functions, SCM, and performance management but essentially competes with Microsoft in the moderately to low-priced product range. Epicor, with 20,000 customers in over 150 countries, has had a long and rich history of quality products. Its primary focus is ERP software and retail software as over 400 of the world’s leading retailers use Epicor’s solutions. It should be noted that Epicor has recently acquired several smaller companies, indicating that it is still in a growth stage. They are also well-known for their moderate to low-priced products as well as excellent after sales support. Market Trends to Watch Tired legacy code-bases and disastrous implementation projects have become standard in the discussion of the ERP software landscape, which suggests that these issues are here to stay. Recent growth has accelerated in the market, which has allowed for a few predictions for 2011. ERP vendors are faced with the reality that cloud-based computing solutions for CRM, HR and other functional areas are gaining market share. As a result, it is suggested that many ERP prospects will ask why they, too, are not able to employ a cloud-based platform. The current technologies for cloud-based ERP are PaaS (Platform as a Service) and BPM (Business Process Management), which are able to facilitate the extension and customization of cloud software. Maintenance of ERP systems is big business, as evidenced by SAP’s large dependency on this type of revenue. However, in light of the $1. 3 billion Oracle verdict in its corporate-theft suit against SAP, third-party maintenance will slow as the litigation process unfolds. As a result, ERP vendors should be forewarned of the impending reduction in maintenance spending. As is the case, with most new technologies, the ERP market will inevitably venture into social media. Social-themed ERP products will present a wealth of opportunities for vendors to capitalize on real-time information, group collaboration and sharing. The research firm, Gartner, released numbers suggesting that 14. 9 percent more will be spent on enterprise social software in 2010 in comparison to 2009. It is suggested that the figure will jump to 15. 7 percent in 2011 to approximately $769. 2 million. As intimated, acquisition of smaller companies has been the modus operandi of the top ERP market vendors. Infor’s current status was achieved through acquisitions and will not stop in 2011, as it is now led by Charles Phillips, who was pivotal in Oracle’s acquisitions in the last decade. It has been suggested that Lawson Software (LWSN) will be Infor’s latest acquisition target, and that SAP may delve into social media. 4. Case Study Analysis While Volkswagen and Nestle come from very different industries, the former being the automobile industry and the latter being the food and beverage industry, the challenges faced by them both with regards to business processes were very similar. Both are global conglomerates with several subsidiaries. Issues such as cost, inefficiencies and centralized management plagued both companies which ultimately lead them to both utilize ERP systems. Using Porter’s five force model, it is clear that using ERP to better their systems would assist Volkswagen and Nestle in thwarting the main five threats to their individual industries. Direct Competition Both companies have several competitors in their respective industries that were likely operating at better efficiencies. Volkswagen has to compete with the top American brands like Ford and General Motors and Japanese brands like Honda and Toyota, which are known in the industry for their efficient assembly lines and advanced business processes. Volkswagen lagged behind, to some extent when it came to end-to-end cycle of business processes. Nestle also has strong competitors in the likes of PepsiCo and Cadbury that are far reaching global companies. However, unlike the auto industry, Nestle might be in a strong position compared to its competitors or at the least in the same position regarding business process efficiencies. The food and beverage industry in general is known for its lack of sophistication in operations when compared to the auto industry. Nestle might actually be in a position to be leader in its industries if it can withstand the costs of ERP implementation and make use of this application in centralizing its operations on a global scale. New Market Entrants Volkswagen and Nestle are both top companies in their industries, especially Nestle which is the largest food and beverage company in the world. The threat of new market entrants into the industry is minimal due to the command these two companies have over their respective industries. However, a lack of ERP presence could lead both companies to fall behind their competitors. Lack of efficiencies and resource planning could cut profits and could allow other companies in both industries to assume leading positions over Nestle and Volkswagen. Substitute products and services Both companies’ main needs were centralized planning, which is a natural need since they are both globally based and operate across many continents. ERP systems would help in better managing their procurement and process planning in order to get products to the customer in an efficient manner. While there is no threat of alternative products or services that could arise due to the lack of ERP, there is a the strong possibility that certain subsidiaries that were operating efficiently already, would create their own individual processes, thus resulting in the mushrooming of several mini-business units, with no cohesiveness. This was already a problem at Nestle; where (as mentioned in the case section) Nestle USA was paying 29 different prices to the same vendor for vanilla. If ERP is not implemented, the companies risk uncontrolled growth of their subsidiaries which is detrimental from a global perspective when unified growth is imperative for success. Suppliers Suppliers stand to gain the most when ERP is absent. As in the Nestle example above, the same supplier received 29 different prices for the same product from the same customer. Such mistakes can add up to large losses for companies. In addition, bad ERP could also cause suppliers to terminate their relationship with companies as such inefficiencies on a company’s part could also cause large losses to its vendors. Customers From a customer standpoint, proper ERP implementation is extremely important. As noted in the Volkswagen case, ERP was improperly operated resulting in a back-log of customer parts orders. In all industries, servicing the customer is vital. Causing errors or bad enterprise resource planning could damage customer relations that could ultimately result in losses for the company. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) surround any important decision made in the business world. SWOT analysis on both cases reveal that ERP ultimately is a very important piece in managing operations, as both company operate on such a large global scale. Strengths Proper ERP planning has great strengths. It leads to greater efficiencies, better production, greater employee satisfaction, increased supplier and customer satisfaction, and most of all could lead to substantial firm profits. Weaknesses As seen in both case, lack of proper ERP can be a great risk to costs and customer relationships. In addition, implementing ERP alone is not enough. Managers need to have good foresight. Employees need to be trained appropriately. The ERP systems need to be built with intelligent design so that one small glitch doesn’t lead to a domino effect or magnified problems causing disruption in processes that the ERP was meant to aid in, in the first place. Opportunities ERP allows for great business opportunities. Not only can a firm create efficiencies for its own business model, it can emerge as a leader in its industry, setting benchmarks for its competitors and partners. Innovative ERP can also set benchmarks in areas outside a company’s own industry. Threats While the opportunities are encouraging, the threats are many. Improper use of ERP can cause great damage to processes and incur high costs, ultimately lowering revenue. Bad ERP can also lead to customer dissatisfaction, which is highly cherished in both the automobile as well as the food and beverage industries. As discussed before, both Nestle and Volkswagen are international companies operating on a global scale. It is very easy for such companies to fall into operational traps where different subsidiaries in different countries operate on different scales as well as different management cultures. It is not uncommon for some subsidiaries to embrace high operational standards, while other might prefer a more traditional approach. Such inconsistencies can be difficult to control, which ultimately could affect the bottom line for firms. Proper ERP can aid in creating the operational processes of a global firm to run more smoothly and efficiently so that the company can focus on its main business – innovating ideas for building its core business. References Cruz, Amy, â€Å"ERP Software Companies – Five of the Biggest Players You Should Know,† May 30, 2011, erp. com/section-layout/337-erp-software/10076-erp-software-companies-five-of-the-biggest-players-you-should-know. html May 30, 2011 Editorial Staff Report: â€Å"ERP Implementations Take Longer, Cost More and Yield Less Satisfaction than Expected. † January 2011. sdcexec. com/web/online/IntegrationERP-News/ReportERP-Implementations-Take-LongerCost-More-and-Yield-Less-Satisfaction-than-Expected/35$10956 May 30, 2011 Kamath, John-Paul, â€Å"Volkswagen gives IT staff bigger say in ERP system. June 2007. computerweekly. com/Articles/2007/06/18/224849/Volkswagen-gives-IT-staff-bigger-say-in-ERP-system. htm May 30, 2011 Kanaracas, Kris, â€Å"Top ERP Predictions for 2011. † December 21, 2010. cio. com/article/648524/Top_ERP_Predictions_for_2011? page=1taxonomyId=3000 March 30, 2011. â€Å"Nestle Struggles with Enterprise Systems. † http: //wps. prenhall. com/bp_laudon_mis_9/32/8212/2102272. cw/content/index. html May 30, 2011 Stedman, Craig, â€Å"ERP Problems Put Problems on Volkswagen Parts Shipments. † January 2000. schirtzinger. com/pdf/ERP_at_Volkswagen. pdf Volkel, Frank, â€Å"Processes Keep the Auto Industry Rolling. † December 2009. http://en. sap. info/processes-keep-the-auto-industry-rolling/18079 World Ranking of Manufacturers year 2009. OICA. 2010-07-27. http://oica. net/wp-content/uploads/ranking-2009. pdf. 2011-05-16. [ 1 ]. World Ranking of manufacturers year 2009. † OICA. 2010-07-27. http://oica. net/wp-content/uploads/ranking-2009. pdf. Retrieved 2011-05-20. [ 2 ]. Stedman, Craig, â€Å" ERP Problems Put Problems on Volkswagen Parts Shipments. † January 2000. schirtzinger. com/pdf/ERP_at_Volkswagen. pdf [ 3 ]. Kamath, John-Paul, â€Å"Volkswagen gives IT staff bigger say in ERP system. † June 2007 computerweekly. com/Articles/2007/06/18/224849/Volkswagen-gives-IT-staff-bigger-say-in-ERP-system. htm [ 4 ]. Volkel, Frank, â€Å"Processes Keep the Auto Industry Rolling. † December 2009. http://en. sap. info/processes-keep-the-auto-industry-rolling/18079 [ 5 ]. Ibid. [ 6 ]. Ibid. [ 7 ]. Ibid. [ 8 ]. Stedman, Craig, â€Å" ERP Problems Put Problems on Volkswagen Parts Shipments. † January 2000. schirtzinger. com/pdf/ERP_at_Volkswagen. pdf [ 9 ]. Ibid. [ 10 ]. Kamath, John-Paul, â€Å"Volkswagen gives IT staff bigger say in ERP system. June 2007. computerweekly. com/Articles/2007/06/18/224849/Volkswagen-gives-IT-staff-bigger-say-in-ERP-system. htm [ 11 ]. Editorial Staff Report: â€Å"ERP Implementations Take Longer, Cost More and Yield Less Satisfaction than Expected. † January 2011. sdcexec. com/web/online/IntegrationERP-News/ReportERP-Implementations-Take-Long erCost-More-and-Yield-Less-Satisfaction-than-Expected/35$10956 [ 12 ]. â€Å"Nestle Struggles with Enterprise Systems. † http://wps. prenhall. com/bp_laudon_mis_9/32/8212/2102272. cw/content/index. html May 30, 2011 [ 13 ]. Ibid. [ 14 ]. Ibid. [ 15 ]. Ibid. 16 ]. Ibid. [ 17 ]. Ibid. [ 18 ]. Ibid. [ 19 ]. Ibid. [ 20 ]. Ibid. [ 21 ]. Cruz, Amy, â€Å"ERP Software Companies – Five of the Biggest Players You Should Know,† May 30, 2011, erp. com/section-layout/337-erp-software/10076-erp-software-companies-five-of-the-biggest-players-you-should-know. html. [ 22 ]. Ibid. [ 23 ]. Ibid. [ 24 ]. Ibid. [ 25 ]. Ibid. [ 26 ]. Ibid. [ 27 ]. Kanaracas, Kris, â€Å"Top ERP Predictions for 2011. † December 21, 2010. cio. com/article/648524/Top_ERP_Predictions_for_2011? page=1taxonomyId=3000 March 30, 2011. [ 28 ]. Ibid. [ 29 ]. Ibid. [ 30 ]. Ibid. [ 31 ]. Ibid.

Literary Essays and School Essays

Literary Essays and School Essays Literary Essays and School Essays Literary Essays and School Essays By Maeve Maddox As a literary term, essay is defined as â€Å"a short non-fiction composition.† What many people mean by â€Å"essay† these days, however, is quite different from what it means as a literary genre. The Literary Essay The word essay comes from the French word essayer â€Å"to try, to attempt† and still has this meaning in English, both as a noun and as a verb: Thats his first essay into the cattle business. We shall essay to remedy the situation. The first writer to apply the term to the type of reflective and entertaining pieces he liked to write was the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The writer who popularized the essay form in English was Francis Bacon (1561-1626). For the professional writer, the essay is the ideal genre with which to practice the writing craft. It offers the opportunity to focus on a topic and discover what one thinks about it. In a much quoted passage from his Collected Essays, Aldous Huxley describes the essay as a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.† Huxley says that essays can be studied â€Å"most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference† and goes on to identify the â€Å"three poles† as: the pole of the personal and the autobiographical the pole of the objective, the factual, the concrete-particular the pole of the abstract-universal Huxley’s opinion is that most essayists are at home in one, or at most, two, of the three types of essay. The writer comfortable with all three writes â€Å"the most richly satisfying essays.† Montaigne remains a model for modern essayists because he was able to combine the three poles. George Orwell is another useful model. For more recent examples of the literary essay, browse the pages of such publications as The Village Voice and Slate. How Long is an Essay? Although an essay is defined as â€Å"a short non-fiction composition,† in the hands of a professional writer with plenty to say, it can be pretty long. The essays of Montaigne and Bacon, for example, can run to 4,000 words. The famous essay â€Å"Self-Reliance† by American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) exceeds 10,000 words. For the non-professional writer, the high school student applying for college, for example, the â€Å"essay† is quite short. College entrance essays fall in the 500-700 word range. It’s rare that a high school student or college freshman is asked to write an essay any longer than 1.000 words. The greatest difference between the literary essay and the school essay is that the literary essay springs from the interests of the writer and can be a joy to write. The essay written as a school assignment is often regarded by the writer as drudgery. The Essay as Chore Two main reasons that essay writing is perceived as a chore by students are 1) they don’t want to do it 2) they’ve had insufficient reading experience. We learn our first language by hearing it spoken. We absorb the forms of written language by reading it. Students with limited reading experience will find essay writing more difficult than those who are avid readers. They have not internalized the patterns of written English. As a result, sentences written by ill-read students seldom vary from simple or compound. The most common coordinating conjunction found in this type of essay is and. The most common subordinating conjunctions are because, then, and before. The reading level of this type of â€Å"assignment essay† rarely rises above sixth grade. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing within the framework of communication. Much popular material is written at this level. The vocabulary in student essays tends to fluctuate between the elementary and the exotic. Many, if not most, high school students acquire advanced vocabulary by studying word lists, not by encountering them in the context of books. As a result they often misuse words because of insufficient understanding of their meanings. Nevertheless, even without a strong reading background students can master the skill of producing a five-paragraph essay that is acceptable for most school assignments. The Five-Paragraph Essay The five-paragraph essay is often criticized for being too restricted; too cut-and-dried. It is said to inhibit creativity. Perhaps. But not all the young people being asked to write essays are gifted with creativity. And even the creative ones need to learn the basics of composition before soaring off to their creative heights. The five-paragraph essay remains a useful workhorse. Parts of the Essay Every essay has three main parts. In the five-paragraph essay they are arranged this way: Introduction (first paragraph): states the topic and theme; Briefly states three points to be made about the theme. Body (paragraphs 2-4): each paragraph expands and supports one of the points mentioned in the introduction. Conclusion (paragraph 5): restates the theme and sums up the argument in a satisfying way. The Hardest Part of Writing an Essay Essay writing guides can help, but the most important aspect of any writing assignment lies with the writer. Only the writer can answer this most important question: What do you want to say? Time spent in pinning down the topic and theme of your essay is never wasted. Don’t begin writing before you know 1. what you are writing about 2. what you want to say about it 3. to whom you are saying it With school assignments, the essay topic is often part of the assignment, but the student is usually given a choice of more than one. If at all possible, choose a topic in which you feel some interest. Have a destination. It’s not enough to say you’re writing about â€Å"war† or â€Å"civic responsibility† or â€Å"gun control.† What do you want to say about the topic? What do you want your reader to feel about it after having read your essay? One of the most frequent faults of freshman essays is that they leave the reader wondering â€Å"so what?† Who’s your reader? Picturing your reader in your mind as you write will influence your writing style. If a teacher is your target audience, nonstandard vocabulary and grammar are not an option. Supporting Statements A common fault among student writers is the failure to distinguish between a general statement and a supporting statement. Inexperienced writers often attempt to support one general statement with another general statement: My sister is annoying. She really bothers me. I can’t stand some of the things she does. All three of these statements are generalizations. Specific, concrete examples are needed to support general statements. General statement: My sister is annoying. Supporting statement: She eats my favorite cereal on the sly and then puts the empty box back into the cabinet. Some helpful links A good starting place for the insecure writer is Ali Hale’s article on the writing process. A good guide to and discussion of the five-paragraph essay can be found here. A detailed step-by-step guide to writing the student essay can be found here. The steps include pre-writing, outlining, drafting and revising, Finally, here’s an example of a five-paragraph essay Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'ts60 Synonyms for â€Å"Trip†Educational vs. Educative

Meno and Phaedo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Meno and Phaedo - Essay Example The following will present three succinct (and related) arguments which defend the position concerning the immortality of the soul. The arguments in question, are as follows (1) ‘argument from opposites’ [69e-72e], (2) argument from recollection [73-78b], and finally, (3) ‘the argument from affinity’ [84c-88b]. The focus of this analysis will be on the above three sections, however, both a consideration of some of the objections will follow, and finally, the final or summary refutation provided by Plato’s mouthpiece (Socrates). The first position in question, is the argument from opposites. This is an argument which is based on an inference which is an extension of observation. What we perceive around us, is a process in nature where opposites turn into each other. In this section in question, Plato observes the following opposites which typify this process of â€Å"becoming† [72B], namely, the opposites of ‘small/larger’ [70E]â₠¬Ëœfaster/slower’, ‘waking/sleeping’[71D], and ‘hot/cold’[71B]. As mentioned, these are processes whereby opposites turn into one another. There are, however, some problems with this argument. First, the very notion of ‘opposite’ is problematic. ... in Celsius) between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’, but they are not opposites in the contradictory sense of ‘life’ and ‘death’. In other words, ‘life’ and ‘death’ are binary opposites in the sense that a person is either ‘alive’, or they are ‘dead’. A difference in the sense presented by Plato with respect to ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ or conversely, ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ are not binary opposites – the admit of a middle ground, and moreover, they are united or related in some sense. They are related in the sense of being relative to another. While a tortoise is relatively slow when compared with a hare, a hare is slow when compared to the speed of light. Thus, is the ‘hare’ fast or slow? In normal logic, one cannot predicate real opposites of the same thing, this is the law of non-contradiction [Wagner 28] and this is actually that which brings into question some of what Plato is claiming concerning these opposites. This said, Plato is claiming that â€Å"all things come to be in this way, opposites from opposites† [71A]. Further, he infers that among â€Å"all† of these â€Å"things†, must also be the soul and the body. Thus, if everything turns into its opposite, then, the soul must turn into the body, and the body must turn into the soul. Phrased in terms of a syllogism, (1.) if it can be said â€Å"that to be dead is the opposite of being alive† [71D], and (2) â€Å"all things come to be in this way, opposites from opposites† [71A], then, (3) it can be inferred that the body and soul turn into each other. As has been noted, the form of this argument is an inference, and there are some problems, and second, his very notion of opposites includes ‘contraries’ and not just ‘contradictories’ – that is,