Assignment

Assignment/Marking Comments_Assignment-1/Assignment-1_Report_CIS8000.rtf

S1,2014

CIS8000

Assignment 2

Global Information Systems Strategy

Comprehensive Analysis of Wearable Tags

Executive Summary

This report throws light on the various methods used by the organizations in order to track the work of the employee and the work hours of every employee. The various ways with which the wearable tags can help the organization improve the employee productivity has also been discussed as well.

The advantages and disadvantages of the wearable tags for the employees have been discussed as well. The hardware and software infrastructure required for implementing the solution and rules of the organization have been discussed as well.

The best practices for managing these devices and tags have been discussed in this report as well. Finally, a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis has been conducting with the help of net cash flow statements, financial capital budgeting models. Sensitivity analysis will be useful to understand the market scenario and how the feasibility of the project changes with the change in cost factors.

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Contents

Executive Summary 2

Letter of Transmittal 4

Part 1: Research of the background for wearable identification tags 5

Introduction 5

Utilisation of the wearable tags 5

Risks of the wearable tags 6

Advantages of the Wearable tags 6

Disadvantages of the Wearable Tags 7

Infrastructure required 7

Hardware Infrastructure 7

Software Infrastructure 8

Best practices for managing the wearable tags 8

Part 2: Develop the excel model of the case 9

Part 4: Sensitivity Analysis 11

Conclusions and Recommendations 18

Activity A: Journal 20

List of References 23

Turnitin Screenshot 24

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Letter of Transmittal

Student Name

ABC Consultancy Services

To,

The Manager,

ABC Consultancy Services

New Jersey, USA

Respected Sir/ Madam,

Enclosed here is a report on the usage of the new wearable identification tags which will be used by the employees at our organization. Our organization has been problems for maintaining the time-sheet data and hence here I present you with the solution of identification tags which will automatically clock the timings of the employee’s hours for any given day.

The main purpose of this report is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the usage of the wearable tags in our organization to track the employee’s working hours. In addition to this, a comprehensive Cost/Benefit Analysis which displays the costs and the benefits of implementing this project over a period of six years has also been explained.

I hope that the report will be useful to you and will help you in making quick and informed decisions for the future.

Yours Sincerely,

Student Name

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Part 1: Research of the background for wearable identification tags

Introduction

Nowadays, it is difficult to track the amount of hours any employee has worked for any particular day. Sometimes, it happens that the employee has worked only for a few hours of the day and the client has been charged for the entire day. This results in an increase of the cost to the client and less work has been performed in the day thus resulting in frustration of the work not being done on time from the client. Now, with the help of wearable technology it is now possible to track the amount of hours worked by any employee in any particular day.

With the help of the wearable tags, it is possible to track the amount of work done in a day. There should be confined spaces set up in the office locations which can be only accessed with the help of this wearable tags. Tags will only give access to the workplace and hence when the employee goes to his/her workplace using the access tag, that much amount of time has been captured as the work time and only those hours will be recorded in the time-sheet of the employee and only this time will be charged to the client.

Utilisation of the wearable tags

The wearable tags can be used by the employers in order to track the employees and the amount of the work which has been done by the employees in a particular day. Wearable tags can also be used to access any client desktop. Wearable technology such as Citrix tags which are used to generate 6-digit pins which can be used to access the client database and this can be helpful in tracking the problems faced by the client which may be stopping their critical business.

The wearable tags can also be used to access any training material for which the organization wants the employees to undergo any training for the client. Thus, with the help of the wearable tags, the organization can also save much time which the employees spend in travelling to and from the location just only for training in any technology.

Wearable tags when used to access the confined spaces of the office, the time for which the employees enter and leave the office will be clocked and hence the amount of hours the employees stay in the office will be known. Using the wearable tags will also improve the security of the organization and no unauthorized person will be able to access the office locations.

Wearable tags can be either manual i.e. the employees use the tags to manually against the sensors placed outside the confined space. Or else there might be sensor tags which are

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activated when the employee enters the office and so the time will be clocked in the system as well and the employee will not have to worry about the sign-in and the sign-out time of the office.

Risks of the wearable tags

There are several risks involved in the usage of the wearable cards for tracking down the employee’s work timings. With the wearable cards, it is possible for the office authorities to track the exact location of the employee in the office. Hence, the employee may become very conscious of their surroundings and may not trust their office technology. Such kind of consciousness may also affect the health of the employees.

Other biggest risks of the wearable tags are that the exact location of the employee will always be displayed on any of the social website. Thus, each and every aspect of the employee’s life will be virtually captured which puts the life of any individual at risk itself.

The other risk that the employees face by wearing the wearable tags is the obvious exposure to the electromagnetic waves. Recent researches show that these tags are of electromagnetic nature which may response when any other electromagnetic device is brought near these cards. This also has impacts on the health of the individuals. Sometimes these cards are GPS enabled and the same can be used to track down the details of the employees who are registered with any particular card.

With the help of card details, hacker can get access to the systems and get their details which may also lead to identity theft. In order to avoid such problem, after the termination of the employment the card will be destroyed and the details associated with the card will be deleted.

Since the card tags have limited access to the processing capabilities and they have very limited storage capacity, it will be very difficult to enforce the security procedures on the cards. For e.g. the card if lost by any employee it will be very easy by other individual to gain access to the office premises by using these cards. These cards will have to be deactivated when the employee reports the card to be lost. Hence, these are some of the risks associated with the wearable technology which are mentioned above.

Advantages of the Wearable tags

Some of the biggest advantages of using the wearable tags can be given as follows:

• It is very easy to determine the location of the employees and keeping the track of the hours becomes very easy.

• Improves the security of the organizations and will prevent unauthorized entry to the office premises.

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• It improves the productivity of the employees since they know that the organization is tracking their location and the amount of work hours.

• Wearable tags will also increase the flexibility of the working hours of the employees. If the cards are pre-programmed for specific number of hours for a week, then the employee ca come and visit the office during the hours they are comfortable working in and hence they can login the system which is beneficial to the employees.

Disadvantages of the Wearable Tags

There are several disadvantages of the wearable tags being used in the office environment:

• There is no privacy for the employee since the office can track the current location of the employee in the office.

• If the employee loses the cards, there will be a security issue as anyone who has the access to the card will be able to access the office premises.

• There is privacy issues as well; since the cards are allocated to the individual employees, it is possible to gain access to the system and get the access to the personal details of the employees as well the organizational data are at risk.

• Access tags/ Wearable tags are electromagnetic in nature and hence if any electromagnetic device is brought near them, then it will be harmful for the health of the employees.

Infrastructure required

There are two types of infrastructure required for developing the wearable tags technology in the offices: Hardware and Software infrastructure.

Hardware Infrastructure

For the development of the new hardware infrastructure of the wearable tags, the organization will have to buy electromagnetic cards which are not cheap. They must be linked to the central tracking of the system which will be monitoring the location of the employees.

The office confined spaces must also have sensors which can only be accessed by the employees having cards. Hence the sensors will also be linked with the central tracking systems. Any forced attempt to access the confined spaces of the office will immediately alert the concerned authorities of the organization and appropriate action will be taken for the same.

Each and every card will have an unique ID number associated with it and the card will be registered with the employee’s details such as the employee name and number. When the office space is accessed with the help of the card, the sensors will read the card and the associated number of the cards. Thus, once when the card has been swiped across the sensors the login time for the employee has been recorded and the time sheet for that particular employee will be automatically updated.

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Software Infrastructure

There will be a software system which will be keeping the track of the number of the cards which are currently active and how they can be used and what are the procedures when the access card has been lost by the employee. The interaction of the system with the other systems such as the human resources and the payroll systems will also have to be decided over here.

The software will be developed using a programming language which uses object oriented approach to the system. Each and every card which will be given to the employee will act as the information card for electronically storing the information of the employee. Each and every card number will have an automatic link to the system containing the details. Whenever any administrative employee enters only the number associated with the card in the system, they will get the entire details of the employee.

Thus every card number will act as an object which has the capability to store the employee’s details. Objects are the programming construct which has the ability to store the data of the employee and also respond to any messages from the system.

Thus, this is the software infrastructure of the system.

Best practices for managing the wearable tags

The best practices for the management of the wearable tags can be given as follows:

• There will be increased security risk for using the wearable tags in the workplace. If the employee loses their wearable tags, any person will gain the access to the office workspace and they may pose a direct threat to the organization. Hence if any employee loses any cards they must immediately report the same to the office administration who would immediately block the cards on the system and remove all the data of the employee associated with the cards.

• The employees must not give their cards to any other unidentified person and hence must not allow tailgating giving access to the office premises.

• The tags must always be kept with the employee and must not be kept loitering the office space.

• The office tags must always be renewed by the administrative employees from time to time.

• The administrative staff has the right to revoke the rights of access to the office by revoking the access from the software systems.

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6. The system must automatically revoke the access rights to the office to the card of the employee when the employee leaves the organization.

Part 2: Develop the excel model of the case

The net cash flow analysis can be given as follows:

Payback period can be given as follows:

Payback Period: 3 years and 11 months

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The net present value can be calculated as follows:

NPV = 4.42 (Positive) => the project is feasible. The NPV profile for different discount rates can be given as below:

The internal rate of return and profitability index can be given as follows: Both IRR and PI are positive. Hence the project is feasible.

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Part 4: Sensitivity Analysis

Case 1: When the maintenance and Support Cost increases by 50% every year

Cash Flow Statement

Payback Period : 4.2 years(approx)

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Payback period is positive. Hence the project is feasible. Net Present Value : Positive

NPV Profile

IRR and PI

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Case 2 : When software acquisition cost increases by 60% every year

Net Cash Flow Analysis

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Payback Period : 4.8 years(approx)

NPV :

NPV is -2.07 which is negative and the project is not feasible

NPV Profile

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Internal Rate of Return and Profitability Index

The IRR, PI and Payback period is positive. But the NPV is negative. Hence this case is not feasible.

Case 3: When the hardware costs decreases by 30% by every year

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Net Cash Flow Analysis:

Payback Period:

Payback period is 3.5 years(approx); hence the project will be feasible.

Net Present Value : Net Present Value is 7.21(positive) ; hence project is feasible

NPV Profile:

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Internal Rate of Return and Profitability Index

IRR and PI are positive and NPV and Payback Period are also positive. Hence this project is feasible.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

Thus, from the above research performed, we can say that the new wearable tags will help the employers to track the work performance of the employees and will also increase the productivity of the organization. It will also help the organization to maintain the time-sheet of the employee of the organization.

There are several security problems as well; but with exercised caution and proper training to the employees these security problems can be avoided as well. With the cost/benefit analysis performed, we can be sure that with the current approximation of costs and benefits, implementing the wearable tags for the systems will prove very useful and beneficial to the - organization.

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Activity A: Journal

18th April 2014

I visited the samanage blog to check the latest trends on the wearable technology which can be worn on the workplace. It explains the concept of what technology can be used on the workplace and also explains how IT can cope from it.

The link is: http://www.samanage.com/blog/2014/02/wearable-tech-in-the-workplace-what-it-means-for-it/

21th April 2014:

I visited the Auto-ID website and read a concept about wearable RFID which explains how the tracking of the person can be done with the help of RFID technology combined with the clothes people wear.

The links is: http://autoidlab.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/research/wearablerfid

25th April 2014:

I visited the website http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/wearables-at-work-hello-big-brother/d/d-id/1114083 which explained in detail how the different type of tags is currently being used. The example of Google glass has been explained in detail.

25th April 2014:

I visited the website http://www.cnbc.com/id/101335438. Which explained the various factors such as how wearable tech helps in improving the productivity of the employees?

26th April 2014:

I visited http://www.computerworld.com/slideshow/detail/141686#slide9 which explained in general the various dangers in using wearable technology.

26th April 2014:

I visited the website of University of Delaware which explained in detail the facilities and procedures for the university cards issued to the students. I got the idea of returning the cards to the university once the employee has terminated their employment at the university. The link is: http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/facilities/2-20.html

26th April 2014:

I visited http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/2508129/security_challenges_for_wearable_computing.pdf. And checked out the various security issues and challenges associated with the wearable computers.

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26th April 2014:

I visited the website http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/opinion/2329804/wearable-technology-in-business-big-data-benefits-bring-legal-and-privacy-risks. To check for the various risks, advantages and disadvantages associated with the implementation of wearable technology.

26th April 2014:

I visited the website http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~rhodes/Papers/wearhive.html to check the problems with ubiquitous computing and found that the similar problems are being faced in the wearable technology domain as well.

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List of References

Samanage BLOG. 2014. Wearable Tech in the Workplace: What it Means for IT . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.samanage.com/blog/2014/02/wearable-tech-in-the-workplace-what-it-means-for-it/. [Accessed 24 April 14].

Auto-ID Labs. 2013. Wearable RFID. [ONLINE] Available at: http://autoidlab.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/research/wearablerfid. [Accessed 24 April 14].

Neill,S. 2014. Wearables At Work: Hello Big Brother?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/wearables-at-work-hello-big-brother/d/d-id/1114083. [Accessed 25 April 14].

CNBC. 2014. Can wearable tech boost business productivity?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101335438. [Accessed 25 April 14].

COMPUTERWORLD. 2014. 7 hidden dangers of wearable computers. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/slideshow/detail/141686#slide9. [Accessed 26 April 14].

University of Delaware. 1980. Facilities Policies. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/policies/facilities/2-20.html. [Accessed 26 April 14].

Lindstorm, J. 2014. Security challenges for wearable computing a case study . [ONLINE] Available at: http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/2508129/security_challenges_for_wearable_computing.pdf. [Accessed 26 April 14].

Taylor, L. 2014. Wearable technology in business: big data benefits bring legal and privacy risks. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/opinion/2329804/wearable-technology-in-business-big-data-benefits-bring-legal-and-privacy-risks. [Accessed 26 April 14].

Rhodes, B, Minar, J & Weaver, J . 1999. Wearable Computing Meets Ubiquitous Computing. [ONLINE] Available at: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~rhodes/Papers/wearhive.html. [Accessed 26 April 14].

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