Why IFRS?
Even though some global companies in India are unsure whether to adopt IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) or not, they are aware that it could become a mandate in global reporting procedures in the near future.
There are many obvious benefits of IFRS, some of which include:
• Same accounting standards can be applied to all worldwide subsidiaries of a global company.
• A company’s performance can be easily measured with its global competitors.
• It will help in forging worldwide partnerships and alliances, as well as enable cross-border acquisitions and mergers.
• Consistent financial reporting across a global company.
• Easy access to all the worldwide stock exchanges.
• Practising a single standard vastly reduces cost to the company.
• It will enable better risk evaluations and assessment.
• Maintaining audit trails throughout a global company becomes easy.
• Having the same standard also cuts down the risks and issues that might otherwise crop up in a global company.
Challenges to Adopting IFRS
For any company, adopting a new standard across its subsidiaries can prove to be a humongous challenge. In addition:
• New standards introduces new discrepancies
• IFRS is still evolving and it might bring in new challenges
• There might be a requirement for multi-GAAP reporting as apart from IFRS, a company might also have to comply with other accounting policies and procedures
• Adopting a global standard across the company and its subsidiaries are never easy
How IT can help
The benefits of adopting IFRS outweigh the challenges posed by it. IT can definitely go a long way in smooth adoption of IFRS, and help in the creation of reporting tools and dashboards which can allow management to understand, track, monitor, control and report performances based on IFRS and whatever associated set of standards they choose. IT can also help in creation of databases to help out in maintaining audit trails and transparency, generate reports as required and respond to new challenges and requirements of IFRS and any other global standards and policies.
Oracle's Solution For Healthcare Orgs Can Cut Data Loss
The biggest challenge experienced by healthcare organizations is the integration of data from complex and diverse systems. This leads to loss of patient data, mishmash of information and majority time of there is no dependable central repository to store the data or from where reliable information can be retrieved. As a result, organizations end up losing tons of money and customers.
Oracle’s Healthcare Transaction Base 6.1 has come as a blessing to cover that base. Using this solution’s multiple-use data repository, the organizations can not only make their administrative, clinical and financial data easy to understand; but can also help reduce costs and improve patient care.
It enables the integration and operation of different healthcare application. It also ensures that correct data is available at the central depository and that the data is not lost. Having a single source of data can be helpful in making effective decision which can be critical for the survival of a healthcare organization.
It enables the creation of a complete, centralized, and normalized data source from which data can be viewed via a portal or other healthcare applications. It can also help develop data entry applications.
Besides improving customer relationship and management, it can help the organizations cut cost. Additional benefits are as listed below:
• Availability of reliable data due to interoperability of the diverse applications across the organization
• Availability of improved data quality which can be used multiple times
• It supports IHE XDS.b web services because of which customers comply with IHE architecture do not have to create custom web services. This greatly reduces the total cost of ownership.
• As a part of its design principles, it is engineered with healthcare-specific regulations
• It supports current guidelines for data exchange and interoperability. This help create the foundation platform to support quality reporting
“The ability to aggregate patient information into a comprehensive data repository, and access that information in near real time to improve decision making, is a critical differentiator for healthcare organizations,” said Neil de Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base helps organizations address their interoperability challenges head on and is designed to help reduce costs, improve time to market and enhance operational efficiency.”
Oracle’s Healthcare Transaction Base 6.1 has come as a blessing to cover that base. Using this solution’s multiple-use data repository, the organizations can not only make their administrative, clinical and financial data easy to understand; but can also help reduce costs and improve patient care.
It enables the integration and operation of different healthcare application. It also ensures that correct data is available at the central depository and that the data is not lost. Having a single source of data can be helpful in making effective decision which can be critical for the survival of a healthcare organization.
It enables the creation of a complete, centralized, and normalized data source from which data can be viewed via a portal or other healthcare applications. It can also help develop data entry applications.
Besides improving customer relationship and management, it can help the organizations cut cost. Additional benefits are as listed below:
• Availability of reliable data due to interoperability of the diverse applications across the organization
• Availability of improved data quality which can be used multiple times
• It supports IHE XDS.b web services because of which customers comply with IHE architecture do not have to create custom web services. This greatly reduces the total cost of ownership.
• As a part of its design principles, it is engineered with healthcare-specific regulations
• It supports current guidelines for data exchange and interoperability. This help create the foundation platform to support quality reporting
“The ability to aggregate patient information into a comprehensive data repository, and access that information in near real time to improve decision making, is a critical differentiator for healthcare organizations,” said Neil de Crescenzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base helps organizations address their interoperability challenges head on and is designed to help reduce costs, improve time to market and enhance operational efficiency.”
iPad to Hit US Stores on April 3rd
iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models by late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. It will ship to additional countries later this year.
“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”
The company informed that the App Store on iPad will let you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world's largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch. In addition, the new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore that will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.
Apple further added that the iTunes Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.
iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing will be announced in April.
PS: Additionally, you can read Apple's iPad Unleash Fear and The Tablet War.
SLM—Is a Process Not Simply a SLA
Simply creating a SLA (Service Level Agreement) does not constitute the whole SLM (Service Level Agreement) process; it is only a part of it. Many companies think that creating a SLA is good enough, and does not want to spend much time on the SLM process. But SLM is an ongoing process, and it also includes measuring, reporting, reviewing and taking corrective action; in nutshell SLM continues even after the SLAs & OLAs are signed and locked. Yes, creating the whole process is tedious and time consuming but the end result will be worth the while.
The SLM Process Includes: Defining the Process (Planning & Implementation), Executing the Process (Negotiate, Define Agreement, Monitor, Report & Review), Controlling the Process (Verification
& Actions)
The Approach To Implement SLM Process
As mentioned earlier--SLM is the process of planning, coordinating, drafting, agreeing, monitoring and reporting on SLAs, and the ongoing reviewing of service achievements to ensure the required and cost justifiable service quality is maintained or where necessary improved. To ensure success, the following is a recommended approach (by Pink Elephant):
1. Promote and entrench a business, quality and service culture
2. Identify services and customers
3. Identify current contracts and agreements
4. Define current IT capabilities (People, Processes & Technology)
5. Produce a Service Catalog
6. Define and Document Process
7. Prepare SLAs/OLAs and include all details (like Description of service, Service hours & Service availability, Support levels, Performance & Functionality, Charges, Contingency& Backup and Recovery, Growth& Restrictions, Training, Report Distribution, Amendments & Supplements, Expiry Date, Signatories, Date of next review; Date of previous amendments)
8. Implement Pilot SLA, OLA
9. Establish and formalize roles
10. Publicize the existence of SLAs, OLAs
11. Rollout remaining SLAs, OLAs
12. Analyze, Report, Review
Necessary Documents For Success of SLM (courtesy Pink Elephant)
Service Catalog
A document that describes the services provided and/or brokered to customers by the IS/IT Division. This catalog forms the basis for an understanding of all services offered, their form, fit, functionality, features, components, charges, etc.
Underpinning Contracts (UCs)
A formal signed agreement(s) which defines external support requirements between the IT support organization and external vendors and channel partners. UCs are required to ensure both OLA and SLA targets can be achieved.
Service Level Requirements (SLRs)
A document that describes the service demands and specifications gathered from direct consultation with the customer which when defined and delivered meets the customer’s business process productivity needs.
Operational Level Agreements (OLAs)
A formal signed agreement(s) which defines internal support requirements between the IT support organization sub-groups. OLAs are required to ensure that SLA and UC (Underpinning Contracts) targets can be achieved. The objective of the OLA is to present a clear, concise and measurable description of the service provider's internal support relationships. OLA(s) are not a substitute for an SLA. The purpose of the OLA is to help ensure that the underpinning activities that are performed by a number of support team components are clearly aligned to provide the intended SLA.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
A formal signed agreement between a customer and a service provider (IT) in which service provision (responsibilities) is described and achievable targets are stipulated and bounded. Any SLA management strategy considers two well-differentiated phases: the negotiation of the contract and the monitoring of its fulfillment in run-time. Thus, SLA Management encompasses the SLA contract definition, SLA negotiation, SLA monitoring, and SLA enforcement, according to defined policies.
The SLA records a common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and warranties. Each area of service scope should have the "level of service" defined. The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service, such as billing. The "level of service" can also be specified as "target" and "minimum," which allows customers to be informed what to expect (the minimum), whilst providing a measurable (average) target value that shows the level of organization performance.
Types of SLAs used in the IT world: Application Support SLA, Network Performance SLA, Help Desk, System Availability & Site Availability.
SLAs ensures a smooth relationship between the customer and the provider. A major benefit of SLA is that it enables the quality of service to be benchmarked with that agreed to across multiple locations or between different business units. This internal benchmarking can also be used to market test and provide a value comparison between an in-house department and an external service provider.
Examples of SLA Metrics
Service-level agreements can contain numerous service performance metrics with corresponding service level objectives. Some of metrics, mainly for Helpdesk Metrics, are:
· ABA (Abandonment Rate): Percentage of calls abandoned while waiting to be answered.
· ASA (Average Speed to Answer): Average time (usually in seconds) it takes for a call to be answered by the service desk.
· TSF (Time Service Factor): Percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe, e.g., 80% in 20 seconds.
· FCR (First Call Resolution): Percentage of incoming calls that can be resolved without the use of a callback or without having the caller call back the helpdesk to finish resolving the case.
· TAT (Turn Around Time): Time taken to complete a certain task.
The SLM Process Includes: Defining the Process (Planning & Implementation), Executing the Process (Negotiate, Define Agreement, Monitor, Report & Review), Controlling the Process (Verification
& Actions)
The Approach To Implement SLM Process
As mentioned earlier--SLM is the process of planning, coordinating, drafting, agreeing, monitoring and reporting on SLAs, and the ongoing reviewing of service achievements to ensure the required and cost justifiable service quality is maintained or where necessary improved. To ensure success, the following is a recommended approach (by Pink Elephant):
1. Promote and entrench a business, quality and service culture
2. Identify services and customers
3. Identify current contracts and agreements
4. Define current IT capabilities (People, Processes & Technology)
5. Produce a Service Catalog
6. Define and Document Process
7. Prepare SLAs/OLAs and include all details (like Description of service, Service hours & Service availability, Support levels, Performance & Functionality, Charges, Contingency& Backup and Recovery, Growth& Restrictions, Training, Report Distribution, Amendments & Supplements, Expiry Date, Signatories, Date of next review; Date of previous amendments)
8. Implement Pilot SLA, OLA
9. Establish and formalize roles
10. Publicize the existence of SLAs, OLAs
11. Rollout remaining SLAs, OLAs
12. Analyze, Report, Review
Necessary Documents For Success of SLM (courtesy Pink Elephant)
Service Catalog
A document that describes the services provided and/or brokered to customers by the IS/IT Division. This catalog forms the basis for an understanding of all services offered, their form, fit, functionality, features, components, charges, etc.
Underpinning Contracts (UCs)
A formal signed agreement(s) which defines external support requirements between the IT support organization and external vendors and channel partners. UCs are required to ensure both OLA and SLA targets can be achieved.
Service Level Requirements (SLRs)
A document that describes the service demands and specifications gathered from direct consultation with the customer which when defined and delivered meets the customer’s business process productivity needs.
Operational Level Agreements (OLAs)
A formal signed agreement(s) which defines internal support requirements between the IT support organization sub-groups. OLAs are required to ensure that SLA and UC (Underpinning Contracts) targets can be achieved. The objective of the OLA is to present a clear, concise and measurable description of the service provider's internal support relationships. OLA(s) are not a substitute for an SLA. The purpose of the OLA is to help ensure that the underpinning activities that are performed by a number of support team components are clearly aligned to provide the intended SLA.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
A formal signed agreement between a customer and a service provider (IT) in which service provision (responsibilities) is described and achievable targets are stipulated and bounded. Any SLA management strategy considers two well-differentiated phases: the negotiation of the contract and the monitoring of its fulfillment in run-time. Thus, SLA Management encompasses the SLA contract definition, SLA negotiation, SLA monitoring, and SLA enforcement, according to defined policies.
The SLA records a common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and warranties. Each area of service scope should have the "level of service" defined. The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service, such as billing. The "level of service" can also be specified as "target" and "minimum," which allows customers to be informed what to expect (the minimum), whilst providing a measurable (average) target value that shows the level of organization performance.
Types of SLAs used in the IT world: Application Support SLA, Network Performance SLA, Help Desk, System Availability & Site Availability.
SLAs ensures a smooth relationship between the customer and the provider. A major benefit of SLA is that it enables the quality of service to be benchmarked with that agreed to across multiple locations or between different business units. This internal benchmarking can also be used to market test and provide a value comparison between an in-house department and an external service provider.
Examples of SLA Metrics
Service-level agreements can contain numerous service performance metrics with corresponding service level objectives. Some of metrics, mainly for Helpdesk Metrics, are:
· ABA (Abandonment Rate): Percentage of calls abandoned while waiting to be answered.
· ASA (Average Speed to Answer): Average time (usually in seconds) it takes for a call to be answered by the service desk.
· TSF (Time Service Factor): Percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe, e.g., 80% in 20 seconds.
· FCR (First Call Resolution): Percentage of incoming calls that can be resolved without the use of a callback or without having the caller call back the helpdesk to finish resolving the case.
· TAT (Turn Around Time): Time taken to complete a certain task.
Google Picnik--A Photo Editor's Dream
With an obvious attempt to further strengthen Picasa (Google’s own photo-editing solution), the company bought the popular online photo editing service Picnik. Seattle based Picnik and its current employees will be incorporated into Picasa department. This dream combination can prove to be the worst nightmare for other online photo services.
About Picnik
As per Picnik officials, “Our endeavor is to help everyday people break the shackles of retail photoediting software and enjoy the freedom, ease of use, and simplicity that is Picnik.com. Picnik combines the power of desktop software with the ease and convenience of the Web. With Picnik, anyone can quickly and easily edit, enhance, share and print photos from any Internet browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Mozilla, etc.) on any computer platform (PC, Mac, Linux)."
They further informed that Picnik delivers the one-click auto fixes, basic editing tools and special effects as well as sophisticated photo tools. Picnik also integrates seamlessly with popular photo-sharing sites like Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Picasa Web Albums, Photobucket and anywhere else a user’s photos are stored.
In addition, Picnik supports image sizes up to 4000 x 4000 or a variation that is fully integrated with a wide variety of Web sites including Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Photobucket, MySpace, Webshots, Box.net, Picasa Web Albums and Lexmark.
Picnik plug-ins are available for Firefox, Internet Explorer, WordPress, Movable Type and Yahoo!
The Acquisition Excitement
As per Google, this current acquisition is creating excitement within Google as well among the user community because until recently one had to edit their photos using client software on their computer but Picnik is one the first sites to bring photo editing to the cloud. In addition, using Picnik you can crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without leaving your web browser.
"We're not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we'll be working hard on integration and new features. As well, we'd like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo-sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks," says Google product management director Brian Axe in a bolg
About Picnik
As per Picnik officials, “Our endeavor is to help everyday people break the shackles of retail photoediting software and enjoy the freedom, ease of use, and simplicity that is Picnik.com. Picnik combines the power of desktop software with the ease and convenience of the Web. With Picnik, anyone can quickly and easily edit, enhance, share and print photos from any Internet browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Mozilla, etc.) on any computer platform (PC, Mac, Linux)."
They further informed that Picnik delivers the one-click auto fixes, basic editing tools and special effects as well as sophisticated photo tools. Picnik also integrates seamlessly with popular photo-sharing sites like Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Picasa Web Albums, Photobucket and anywhere else a user’s photos are stored.
In addition, Picnik supports image sizes up to 4000 x 4000 or a variation that is fully integrated with a wide variety of Web sites including Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Photobucket, MySpace, Webshots, Box.net, Picasa Web Albums and Lexmark.
The Acquisition Excitement
As per Google, this current acquisition is creating excitement within Google as well among the user community because until recently one had to edit their photos using client software on their computer but Picnik is one the first sites to bring photo editing to the cloud. In addition, using Picnik you can crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without leaving your web browser.
"We're not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we'll be working hard on integration and new features. As well, we'd like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo-sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks," says Google product management director Brian Axe in a bolg
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