Are the government officials good stewards of public funds? Essay

The parliament should play an active role in ensuring the availability and credibility of fiscal information. There should be clear procedure for budget execution, monitoring, and reporting. The accounting system should provide a reliable basis for tracking revenues, commitments, payments, arrears, liabilities, and assets, writes M S Siddiqui A budget is a government’s plan on the use of public resources to meet the citizens’ needs. Budget Transparency (BT) means that ordinary citizens can access information about how public resources are allocated and used. Budget Transparency is defined as the full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner. â€Å"BT is a precondition for public participation in budget processes. The combination of BT and public participation in budget processes has the potential to combat corruption, foster public accountability of government agencies and contribute to judicious use of public funds† (OECD, 2002). BT enables citizens to assess whether the government officials are good stewards of public funds. BT is a fundamental precondition for accountability and public participation in governance processes. Representatives of civil society and social organizations in our country have long been demanding ofthe government to initiate budget formulation from the district level to make the national budget a democratic and pro-poor one. The government has also promised to decentralize the authority to district level but has yet to initiate the process. The Washington-based Open Budget Initiative is a global watchdog of budgets of different countries of the world. The Open Budget Index (OBI), prepared with the help of local partners, provides ratings of the openness of budget materials of different countries. The Department of Development Studies of the University of Dhaka was the local partner for OBI for the Bangladesh budget for the fiscal year 2010-11. The Index assesses the availability of key budget documents, the quantity of information they provide, and the timeliness of their dissemination to citizens in order to provide reliable information on each country’s commitment to budget transparency and accountability. The average OBI score of the countries surveyed in 2010 is 42. According to published reports, only 20 of the 94 countries included in the 2010 Open Budget Survey had OBI scores above 60 and can be characterized as providing their citizens with enough budget data to enable them to develop a comprehensive analysis and understanding of their national budgets. About one-third of the countries (33) provide some information and scored between 41 and 60. In a plurality of countries (41), the amount of information provided was acutely inadequate. Of these, 19 countries provided minimal information and scored between 21 and 40), and 22 countries provided little to no budget information and scored 20 or less. The 22 countries are: Algeria, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Honduras, Iraq, Kyrgyz Republic, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Vietnam. Only 17 of the countries surveyed provided comprehensive budget information on policies intended to alleviate poverty. 41 countries provided no information on extra-budgetary funds in their budget proposals even though extra-budgetary funds account for nearly 40 per cent of central government’s expenditures in transitional and developing countries. In 52 countries, the legislature had no power to prevent the executive from moving funds between administrative units. Legislatures in only 26 countries provided the public with formal opportunities to provide testimony during budget discussions. In 35 countries, all discussions about the budget between the legislature and theexecutive , including hearings, were entirely closed to the public, including the media, and no public record of such meetings was subsequently provided. Bangladesh scored 39, 42 and 48 in 2006, 2008 and 2009 respectively. Bangladesh’s performance indicates that the government provided only some information to the public in its budget documents. Bangladesh would greatly strengthen public accountability by producing and publishing pre-budget statements, citizens’ budgets, mid-year reviews and year-end reports, and empowering the audit institutions to publish summaries of audit reports. The government enacted a law titled ‘Public Money and Budget Management Act 2009’. As per clause 15(4) of the law, the finance minister shall place a quarterly report before parliament explaining the budget status effective from FY 2009-2010. Two quarterly reports have already been published. These reforms have apparently increased transparency of the budget and this will hopefully improve Bangladesh’s score in the next Open Budget Survey. In terms of adequacy and availability of eight key budget documents, Bangladesh now publishes only three documents -executive’s budget proposal, enacted budget and in-year reports. A non-transparent budget can neither be properly analyzed nor can its implementation be effectively monitored. Transparency allows citizens to provide inputs into the budget process and to assess whether a government executed the development plans in accordance with budgetary allocations. There is no practice of disclosure of information about implementation of the budget and the administration can transfer fund from one account to another account and legalize such actions through ‘approval’ of supplementary budget at the end of the year. The parliament and civil society must have the opportunity to influence the budget and assess whether the government executed what it planned. The control over government finances is complicated in part by the exclusion of the local governments from fiscal management system. The central government has full control over the administration in all tiers causing weak administrative capacity at the local levels. Moreover, the structure of intergovernmental fiscal relations in Bangladesh has served to discourage local governments from raising their own revenues. The situation has aggravated due to recent amendment of laws giving more authority to the law makers over supervision and policy matters of upazilas. The authority of local governments are shared by law makers, bureaucrats and local public representatives making the process almost ineffective. Under these circumstances, the opportunities for duplication of responsibilities and unclear assignment of authority and revenue income and expenditures make the development function difficult and complex. Decentralization of government has become a popular strategy based on the premise that lower levels of government can better respond to local demands and needs at lower cost. A proper decentralization may introduce new legislation regarding tax sharing and intergovernmental transfers to address complex authorities and inequalities in development programmes. The effectiveness of this strategy critically depends on the ability of citizens to hold local government officials accountable. The more decentralized the revenue and spending decisions, the more important it becomes to ensure that lower levels of government also follow good practices on fiscal transparency under direct supervision of local governments. The Constitution of Bangladesh defines the roles of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government clearly. Articles 81-92 of the Constitution lay down the basic principles of fiscal management and Articles 127-132 the role of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (C&AG). The Additional Functions Act of 1974 (as amended in 1975 and 1983) allocates the accounting function to the C&AG. The accounting function has now been transferred to the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance. However, in practice, the relationship between the different branches ofthe government, particularly between the executive and legislature, is widely seen as confrontational. Non-financial public corporations provide non-commercial services, usually by being required to charge less than cost recovery prices (e.g., pricing electricity below cost to domestic consumers). These non-financial public corporations have also been required to provide social services. These non-commercial activities may be financed by cross-subsidization between different groups of consumers and/or by incurring losses that are financed from the budget or by borrowing. There are three categories of the prices of electricity, gas and water based on domestic, commercial and industrial consumer segments. In some instances, certain non-financial public corporations may charge excessive prices and transfer the supernormal profits to other corporations or to the budget. This practice confuses the fiscal responsibilities of government and the commercial role of non-financial public corporations, makes relationships between government and non-financial public corporations nontransparent, and creates difficulties in holding managers of non-financial public corporations accountable for their performance. The government remains heavily involved in commercial and financial sectors of the economy and provide support to the enterprise sector through a complex nexus of direct subsidies and quasi-fiscal activities of non-financial public enterprises and the nationalized commercial banks. Lack of clarity in reporting either direct or indirect support to enterprises makes it difficult to assess either the industry policy or the sustainability of fiscal policy. In addition to lack of transparency in reporting, the lack of clarity of managerial roles between commercial activity and provision of subsidized services or goods to the public is a major factor contributing to widely acknowledged failures of management, corruption, and poor industrial relations in these sectors. The fiscal powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government should be well defined. The powers and limits of each branch with respect to changes in the budget during the fiscal year should be clearly specified in the legal framework. The draft budget submitted by the executive to the legislature as well as the final budget approved by the legislature should be made public to enable the people to hold each branch accountable for its part in the budget process. The parliament should play an active role in ensuring the availability and credibility of fiscal information. This would include having an active committee of the legislature to oversee the conduct of fiscal policy and to facilitate civil society input into budget deliberations. The relationship between the government and public corporations should be based on clear arrangements. Fiscal transparency requires that the financial relationships between the government and public corporations be clearly stated. In particular, because public corporations are owned in whole or in part by the government, there should be clear expectations of how profit transfers or dividend payments to the government will be determined. The annual reports of the public corporations should provide details on total profit, retained earnings, any other uses of profit, and the amount transferred to the budget, and this information should also be included in the annual budget documentation. For purposes of fiscal transparency, all payments by public corporations, including taxes, royalties, dividends, or profits, should be reported in the annual report of the corporations as well as in budget documentation. Any payments in kind should be valued at their market value in the budget. Conversely, if the government makes transfers to the public corporation, they should be included in the annual budget. Again, both the budget and the annual reports of the corporations should identify transfers from the government to the corporation. For instance, financial or commercial institutions may be asked to undertake lending at subsidized rates, the subsidy component representing a loss to the institution. However, if the government directly subsidizes the activity, it should appear as subsidy in the government’s budget and the policy cost should be transparent. The fiscal powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government should be well defined. The responsibilities of different levels of government and the relationship between them should be clearly specified. The relationship between the government and public corporations should be based on clear arrangements. Government’s relationship with the private sector should be conducted in an open manner, following clear rules and procedures. There should be a clear and open legal, regulatory and administrative framework for fiscal management. The collection, commitment, and use of public funds should be governed by comprehensive budget, tax, and other public finance laws, regulations, and administrative procedures. Laws and regulations related to the collection of tax and non-tax revenues, and the criteria guiding administrative discretion in their application, should be accessible, clear, and understandable. There should be clear procedures for budget execution, monitoring, and reporting. The accounting system should provide a reliable basis for tracking revenues, commitments, payments, arrears, liabilities, and assets. A timely midyear report on budget developments should be presented to the legislature. More frequent updates, which should be at least quarterly, should be published. Supplementary revenue and expenditure proposals during the fiscal year should be presented to the legislature in a manner consistent with the original budget presentation. Audited final accounts and audit reports, including reconciliation with the approved budget, should be presented to the legislature and published within a year. The public should be provided with comprehensive information on past, current, and projected fiscal activities and on major fiscal risks. The government should publish a periodic report on long-term public finances. Fiscal information should be presented in a way that facilitates policy analysis and promotes accountability. A clear and simple summary guide to the budget should be widely distributed at the time of the annual budget. During budget formulation, the executive should issue two documents with at least a one-month gap between them: the pre-budget statement, which presents the assumptions used in developing the budget, such as the expected revenue, expenditure, and debt levels, and the broad allocations among sectors; and the executive’s budget proposal, which presents the government’s detailed declaration of the policies and priorities it intends to pursue in the upcoming financial year, including the specific allocations to be made to each ministry and agency. All Ministries should hold pre-budget consultative meetings with their stakeholders. These meetings should be presided over by the concerned Ministers. These meetings should be held before they start consultation on budget with the Ministry of Finance. All standing committees on different ministries should hold on a regular basis pre-budget consultation with stakeholders. Decentralization process should be strengthened for empowerment of local governments. The writer, a part-time teacher at The Leading University, is pursuing PhD in Open University, Malaysia. He can be reached at e-mail: shah@banglachemical.com

Cross Cultural Field Experience

Cross cultural experiences can be defined in many different ways. Some people view these experiences as a way to interact with individuals who are diverse, often experiencing things one would not typically experience within their own culture. A cross cultural experience allows someone to share within another’s culture. These experiences can enrich the lives of those who participate by offering experience, knowledge, patience and an understanding into ones culture. Jesus Power Assembly of God I had the pleasure of attending a Sunday worship session on June 2, 2013 at Jesus Power Assembly of God. This church is a bible based and primarily immigrant church located in Columbus, Ohio and founded by Pastor Bismark Osei Akomeah. Reverend Akomeah is the Senior Pastor of Jesus Power Assembly of God church. He has planted four other Assemblies of God churches in Cincinnati and Georgia. He has also created French and Swahili speaking churches. First Impressions My daughter arranged this visit for us since she has a friend that attends the church. As soon as my daughter and I pulled into the parking lot I realized that this was going to be cultural experience for us. We were the only people in the whole church that were not dark skinned. We were starred at. There were whispers behind our backs. We were approached almost immediately by Pastor Bismark Osei Akomeah with welcome arms. I am sure he was wondering how we ended up finding our way into his church as the first thing he asked was if we were invited by a member. Hailey and I found our way into the sanctuary and took a seat in the back. Truthfully I wanted to make sure I could make a break if we needed to. The music and the singing were phenomenal! There was a choir and a band and there wasn’t anyone sitting in their seats. All were up and praising the word of God. The singing went on for a good amount of time before we actually started the sermon. The people were friendly and welcoming. We were approached several times and encouraged to move up closer to the front of the church. Many people came by and shook our hands and spoke to us. In fact, I actually felt more important and â€Å"loved† at this particular church than I have ever felt at any other church I have attended. The Sermon The sermon itself was given in both English and Swahili. The church has large screens in which the words to the sermon were put on so that people could follow along. It was an active service. I was especially surprised at the events for the day. The service started at 10 am with an opening prayer. There was praise and worship for 45 minutes which consisted of a combination of singing and talking. For about 10 minutes following the initial sermon there was time set aside for the welcoming of visitors. Each person took the microphone and said their names and identified how they came into the church. Hailey and I declined to take the microphone and all were understanding and sympathetic. Following the introductions of visitors, there were announcements for the church, more songs and music. The Pastor took the stage at about 11:15 with the sermon for the day. The sermon lasted for about an hour and a half. This was an extremely long service compared to what I am used to at a typical church service. When the sermon was completed there was an additional hour of praying, singing and the passing of the offering plate. The entire service from start to finish was 3 hours long! The one thing that was surprising to me was the difference in the length of the service compared to what I have experienced in the past. The longest service I have ever been a part of was an hour, at the most. These people spent almost the entire day together. Once the service was completed they went into another room in the basement and had a huge spread of food they shared. Church to this group of people was a family event. They prayed together, sang together and broke bread together. There is a clear difference between a Swahili service and a Lutheran or Christian service. Conclusion This experience was an emotional and eye opening event for me. I was able to share in another cultures religious experience and the group welcomed me with open arms. Sharing this experience with my teenage daughter was a valuable lesson for her as well. Although I have always raised my daughter to be accepting of all people regardless of color, religion or culture, she was able to immerse herself in another’s culture and see what it was like.

The Effects Of Music Therapy On Children With Health And...

There s nothing like a good night of sleep. It s a wonderful feeling to wake up the next morning rejuvenated and refreshed. But even though we love our sleep; it can sometimes be very hard to fall asleep at times. I know that I personally struggle with this a lot. One thing that I found helps me go to sleep better is listening to music. For my research I will share how the sound of music can help you fall asleep and make you feel better. With the help of music I believe we do not need to prescribe drugs for something that can be cured in a natural way. Music is used for many different things. It is just not for personal enjoyment anymore; it is a part of everyday life. There are now a lot of research that shows that music therapy is new way to help with health and personal problems. The benefits are great and there are slim to none risks involve. â€Å"The most prominent shortcoming of drug treatment is its side effects.†( Blanaru, Monica) Which is why I encourage music therapy, because in my opinion I think it s safer than trying out medicine. Medicine is good; it helps save lives but why use it when it s not really necessary. I’m the type of person where my mind is constantly in thought. It s never at rest even when I m tired. All of those thoughts usually keep me up at night a lot. â€Å"A number of studies conducted in clinical settings have suggested that sedative music may have positive effects on sleep via muscle relaxation and distraction from thoughts.† (Mornhigweg Show MoreRelatedMusic And Its Importance On The Human Brain1605 Words   |  7 PagesPartida Ms.Ponder English IV, 6 Pd. 28 February,2015 Music And Its Importance On The Human Brain Music affects people of all ages developmentally , intellectually and medically as well as it affects their social , personal lives. In other words, music affects the way in which we think , behave and feel. Music tends to have a positive effect on the transfer of learning. 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Earth Is A 1998 Indian Period Drama Film Directed By Deepa...

EARTH Earth is a 1998 Indian period drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947. The film recounts the holocaust of Partition through the eyes of Lenny, a crippled Parsi girl. Lenny s parents live in Lahore with an army of servants, including the delectable ayah, a beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta. The movie starts with Lenny revisiting her childhood days as a student coloring her drawing, and remembering the downfall of British Empire in India as she states something which indicates the theme of story that it will portray for next 101 minutes and upon which the story will build around. The words she stated accounts as- â€Å"Hindu, Muslim and Sikhs who had lived together as one entity for centuries suddenly started to clamor for pieces of India for themselves. The arbitrary line of division the British would draw to carve up India in August of 1947 would scar the subcontinent forever.† This dialogue clearly states that India was very near to getting its independence from the British Rule and for the final time the nation might have to become a victim to British’s much famous â€Å"DIVIDE RULE† policy which will blow the nation into partition forming 2 separate countries- INDIA PAKISTAN and in the dialogue she clearly predicts the ill effects people will have to face at the time of partition as she says that it would scar the subcontinent forever. Such a line of difference would beShow MoreRelatedEarth Is A 1998 Indian Period Drama Film Directed By Deepa Mehta2713 Words   |  11 PagesEarth is a 1998 Indian period drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947. The film recounts the holocaust of Partition through the eyes of Lenny, a crippled Parsi girl. Lenny s parents live in Lahore with an army of servants, including the delectable ayah, a beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta. The movie starts with Lenny revisiting her childhood days as a student coloring her drawing, and remembering theRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesopening decades of the twentieth century and a major break from the prevailing dynamics of the cold war. In addition to the problems posed for conceptualizing the twentieth century as a discrete era of world history due to overlap with the preceding period and disconcertingly radical shifts in the course of global development in the 1900s, contradictory forces and trends, which perhaps more than any other attribute distinguish this turbulent phase of the human experience, render it impervious to

Social Stratification Is Affected By The Interactions Of...

Social Stratification in Our Community People in our society are often judged, consciously or unconsciously, by the way they look. How someone presents and carries themselves says a lot about them. For this assignment, I chose to go out and judge strangers based on their appearance. The reason I chose to do this was because it was something that I constantly do. Every time I go out, I analyze what class I think a person belongs in and why. In order to come up with accurate predictions, I use the symbolic interactionist view point, which is a framework for building theory that sees how society is affected by the interactions of individuals (Macionis 2014:20). This theory is focusing on the interactions of individuals instead of society as a whole, and why they react in certain ways. I pay attention to the smallest details about that person in order to come to a conclusion. I went out to three different locations and analyzed the seventh person I encountered in each. 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Nike ERP Implementation free essay sample

1. What are the failure factors for the first NIKE-i2 ERP-SCM implementation? All ERP implementations have risks associated that can lead to failure situations. The complexity of ERP systems together with demanding business environment, represent big challenges for companies when implementing an ERP. In the case of Nike, the situation is even more challenging because of the worldwide ERP deployment, and the large and complex scope of the project. Inevitably, and like all ERP implementations, Nike-i2’s project faced complications at the different stages of the implementation cycle but those complications could have been minimized if the so called â€Å"Critical Success Factors† (CSF)1 had been planned and managed properly. Using the 5 stages structure proposed in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†2, the failure factors are analyzed in detail in the following sections. First stage of implementation (project preparation): ? One of the failures in the Nike-i2 ERP implementation was the lack of Formalized project plan/schedule. We will write a custom essay sample on Nike ERP Implementation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Feeling the market pressures, Nike did not commit to a disciplined plan and rushed up ERP’s implementation, by â€Å"began to input data for its forthcoming Spring 2001 line when the system was still to stabilize†3 , giving reason to the opinions that projects cannot be driven by external deadlines4. Industry experts also warned about the boomerang effect (tight and unrealistic deadlines would come back in low quality results in the future) but Nike felt â€Å"i2 technology was smaller and therefore easier to implement†. The result was the project failure and a financial storm (reduced profits) in the following financial periods. ? The executive team as the responsibility to define the mission and scope of the project by analyzing the project business benefits and goals, and aligning them with strategic business goals. It is clear that in this case, Nike’s executives were too ambitious by trusting blindly in a forecast system that was not completely adequate to Nike’s business model (model was order based and not demand forecast oriented). As stated in Cnet â€Å"I2 had past success projects with big clients such as Boeing, Nortel Networks, Raytheon and WalMart.. proving that i2 software is not perfect, but if implementation is done correctly, with proper planning, investment and scheduling, it will work well. 5 Implementing software is not a goal by it itself, remaking the business with the help of software is. Nike business goal was to create an efficient global supply chain by reducing inventory and manufacturing cycle, and this was a large and complex goal, thus, the software implementation could not be taken as simple and easy as Nike’s executives toke it, failing to give Sustained management support to the project. In the second stage of implementation (Business Blueprint) the failures were: ? Nike relied too much in the (supposed) power of the forecasting technology and underestimated its impact on the business processes changes such as orders processing, raw materials purchasing, fabric production, and demand management. That impact also affected the way employees and partners used to work. Anytime companies changes employee’s working habits, it can get difficult to them to adapt to the new reality, thus, an Effective organizational change management is critical. Nike failed ensuring that this complex change got the right results by not integrating properly people, process and technology. ? Nike’s business context was very complex (120000 SKUs, operations in all continents, four seasons product turn over and product life cycle very short), thus, a deep knowledge of this industry was critical when implementing new business processes and ERP systems. Despite previous supply chain applications were troublesome Nike hired i2 that was inexperienced in the footwear industry. This situation could have been avoided if Nike had appropriately used consultants by integrating third-party specialists with industry experience in the project’s team. By not managing this factor, Nike took a big risk and increased the probabilities of failure. ? Nike’s business requirements were too complex and over detailed (like footwear’s forecasting for styles, colors, sizes). If Nike had appropriately used consultants and also had promoted User involvement and participation, those experts could had shared their know-how in the definition of business requirements more realistic and aligned with the real organizational needs. The failures in the third stage of implementation (Realization) were: ? â€Å"i2’s software did not offer all the required functionalities†6. Usually, ERP systems do not provide all the functional requirements and i2 system is not an exception. That’s why, ERP vendors offer interfaces to communicate with third-party products. The problem with Nike implementation was that there was not an Critical Success Factors is a concept presented in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†, by Jose Esteves Instituto de Empresa (Spain) and Joan Pastor Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain) 2 ibid 3 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success 4 http://www. cio. com/article/32335/Five_Lessons_Learned_from_Nike_s_i2_Debacle 5 http://news. cnet. com/i2-Nike-fallout-a-cautionary-tale/2100-1017_3-253829. html 6 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success 1 ? adequate infrastructure and interfaces prepared in advance and tested before going live. The result was that the â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate easily†¦ †7. Nike’s demand for high customization was one of the main failures in this project. To Avoid ERP customization, Nike could have appropriately used consultants to reduce the need of very detail level forecasting (style, color, size). Consultants could have brought also an experienced business vision, focus on ERP processes really needed to run Nike’s business, alignment between Nike’s requirements and ERP functionalities, and ERP best practices (including i2’s recommendations and methodology) Forth stage (final preparation) is critically important to ensure the quality of the results, Nike’s failures were: ? To ensure that the ERP accomplishes the business requirements defined at the beginning of the project a Formalized testing plan is mandatory. In theory, this test plan should cover functional tests, data flow between systems, user testing and performance tests. Nike did not perform any of those tests activities and the catastrophic results were: â€Å"System could not process large amounts of info. It was very slow and crashed†, â€Å"System could not handle thousands of variables to generate forecasts†, â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate easily because different data formats. †, â€Å"System sent inaccurate orders to manufactures and errors were not detected†8 ? In this phase, User involvement and participation, Adequate training program and Preventive troubleshooting are critical to guarantee that: the technical staff and end-users know how to use the system; to prepare users to perform tests; and to prevent unexpected situations. These activities were not performed and under-evaluated by Nike as confirmed in the case: â€Å"it would work with requiring a pilot test†; â€Å"i2 application was smaller†9; No communication between forecasting and inputs from sales and marketing; and no super users used in training. ? Data migration and data testing are crucial activities before system go-live because data is what really gives competitive advantage to a company and data is the core foundation for all business decisions, thus, an Adequate data migration process is essential. â€Å"Analysts raised questions about adequacy of information that Nike input into the system. †10, this means that Nike did not planned in advance the data activities (migration, conversion, cleaning, etc. ) and in the end the result was â€Å"Input data was estimated and didn’t reflect the business reality, thus, forecasts could never be accurate†11 For the final stage (go live) Nike failed in: ? Not giving sustained management support since â€Å"Executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results†12. This transmitted a sense of no ownership and no own involvement to employees, resulting in no encouragement of system usage. From other point view, Nike also failed on the study of vendor’s evaluation criteria: ? According to the â€Å"six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software†13, one evaluation criteria is â€Å"Association with or the availability of third party vendor/partners† and other criteria is â€Å"Qualifications, experience, and success in delivering solutions to organizations of a similar size, complexity, and geographic scope†. It was clear that i2 did not had experience on the footwear industry and was not prepared for Nike’s business complexity, so Nike should had decided for another vendor with industry knowledge or as an alternative to integrate i2 with a specialized third-party. ? Nike seemed to desire the best-of-breed for each application area, ex: SAP for ERP, i2 for planning SCM, Siebel for CRM, etc. , which is not always the best option. As for i2, Nike knew that there were many disadvantages to choose this vendor, such as: i2 technology could not met all business requirements; data models were different between i2’s demand and planner application raising integration problems with legacy systems; high effort was necessary to customization; there were 2 development and delivery cycles at the same time (one for i2 and other for SAP); and i2 had no experience in industry. A better option would have been to integrate planning SCM with SAP from the very beginning, which turned out be what exactly happened after the i2 SCM project failure. Conclusion Nike-i2’s ERP implementation failed in all stages of implementation on several CSF and also on the evaluation of the vendor. The failures were related mainly to project management and organizational factors proving that success is much related to people and process and not just technology. 7 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike From failure to success ibid ibid 10 ibid 11 ibid 12 ibid 13 â€Å"A six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software† by Jacques Verville and Alannah Halingten 8 9 2. How do you evaluate the role of i2 in this process? Many factors which Nike failed to manage can also be applied for i2, resulting in a shared responsibility for the project failure. ? i2 did actually recommended Nike to â€Å"minimize customization to 10-15% of the software†14 but at the same â€Å"Nike and i2 worked together to incorporate the desired changes†. 15 This means, i2 agreed to do the changes when Nike insisted on high level of customization, thus, i2 also has responsibilities on the high customization failure. Responsibility could be different if the level of customization was written in the contract to be limited by 10%, and above that, i2 would not offer product guarantee. ? The project did not have formal plan and no realistic deadlines. i2 as company, cannot be just a software vendor, it must participate on the plan definition and monitoring. By accepting Nike’s deadlines, i2 was also responsible for the delays and for the low quality of the delivered software. ? Nike began to input data while the system was not yet stable but i2 did not force Nike to stop this. A vendor must deliver his product when it is ready and according to negotiated deadlines. ? i2 did not have footwear industry knowledge but accepted to be part of the project, taking a big risk and being too ambitious like Nike was. The result was that i2 became overwhelmed with the business complexity and in the end the forecasts did not worked out as expected. i2 should had analyzed better Nike’s business and industry, and sub-contracted a third-party specialist in that industry. ? Nike did not use i2’s implementation methodology; executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results; there was no pilot test and no training. A vendor must also be part of the project management team to: define and negotiate formal deadlines, implementation phases, methodologies, tasks, roles, test plans, risk management plans, performance goals, etc. A vendor must assure that the contract is clear about: who owns the project; who is responsible for what; what resources will be available during the project; what are the expected benefits and results. 3. Describe the main problems associated with ERP software modification (short-term and long-term) Short-term ? More time to implement a modified ERP compared with the time to implement an original ERP. ? Higher costs during project’s implementation to pay analysts to define customized business processes and to pay programmers to customize the new functionalities on the system. ? Higher costs to run additional tests to guarantee customized functionalities work as expected and do not affect the original system capabilities. ? Additional costs to train end-users on the customized functionalities. ? Changing an original ERP that is known and proved to work well may create unpredictable instability, crashes and performance problems. ? Original ERPs typically have pre-built connectors to communicate with other systems. Changing an ERP require additional time, effort and cost to integrate those new functionalities with other systems. Long-term ? The bugs, performance problems, etc. on original ERP are responsibility of the vendor. The customization effects on performance, instability, errors, etc. are responsibility of the customer, increasing future maintenance costs. ? Modified systems may output wrong information, because the original system was not built to be modified and results may be unpredictable, leading to high business risks (including wrong ordering, excess of inventory, etc. ) that in the future may lead to big financial impact on profits for long periods. ? An unstable modified ERP may also create unpredictable instability on legacy systems that worked fine previously. Thus, the impact may be multiplied for other systems and create additional problems in the future. ? Who owns the modifications? If the modifications are made by in-house analysts\programmers, the knowledge stays in-the-company but the company as to pay to retain those employees. If the modifications are made by the vendor\external consultants, the company is locked in with externals. In both cases, the costs rise compared with the no-modification option. ? Original ERP will survive future upgrades, and any problem with updates is responsibility of the vendor. For modified ERP, the customizations may not be compatible with upgrades, demanding new investment in retesting or even re-implement the modifications again.

Prison Population free essay sample

Prison Population: Getting in and Staying in Prison is something everyone fears, someplace no one would ever crave to be. When people speak of prison, it is thought of as a ghastly place, a detrimental affluence. With the vast amount of faculties intended for getting populace into prison, one may start to believe that the regime of our country would relatively incarcerate anybody experiencing a lawful crisis, rather than deal with the predicament and allocate them to lead liberated lives.The rising population, of inmates in the United States, is beginning to be an emergent epidemic, and the faculties for getting people into prison are ample. The United States Judicial System should focus further on creating faculties intended for keeping citizens out of prison by creating more sufficient laws, and producing more thoroughly organized correctional faculties. These steps, altogether, will decrease the overall prison population. Before contemporary America, laws created to get someone into prison were abundant. We will write a custom essay sample on Prison Population or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The number of inmates estimated to be incarcerated in February of 2010, compared to the actual number of inmates incarcerated is nearly equivalent. (McNeil, â€Å"Trends in prisons admissions and population†) According to McNeil, a nine month approximation was taken for the number of inmates expected to be incarcerated in 2010. This number was compared to the number of inmates actually incarcerated, and each time the numbers exceeded no difference greater than two hundred and fifty inmates. (McNeil) Annotated Works Cited Butterfield, Fox. Study Finds 2. 6% Increase In U.