British Governments Promotion of Disarmament and...

British Governments Promotion of Disarmament and International Harmony One of the core aims of British governments throughout the 1920s was the prevention of war. After the First World War it became a widespread opinion that weapons and possession of weapons were the causes of war; without weapons, war would become very difficult. For this reason much energy was devoted to disarmament, or at the very least arms limitation amongst the great military powers of the time. In this regard, there was very limited success by British governments, and for every successful disarmament treaty, there were many failed ones. ‘International Harmony’ is defined as a state in which countries have reached mutual†¦show more content†¦The Locarno treaty has been referred to as ‘the greatest achievement of British diplomacy between the 2 wars,’ for good reason. Whilst the agreement itself (the guarantee of borders) was far from earth-shattering, the so-called Locarno Spirit which was imbued upon the years after the treaty was highly sig nificant. At the time, it was felt that the Locarno Spirit was the ‘dawn in new international relations,’ in which war would become extinct. In retrospect, obviously this view was rather optimistic, as the treaty of Locarno contained many major omissions. The treaty failed to secure Germany’s eastern borders, and whilst Arbitration agreements were signed with its eastern neighbours, the door was left open to the adjustment of borders, in breach of the Treaty of Versailles. The Kellogg-Briand pact was another agreement which promoted international harmony in the wake of the Locarno Spirit. The treaty was initially intended to be a matter between France and the United States; however on the suggestion of the Americans all countries were involved. Whilst the reinstated British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was initially sceptical about the pact, he wished to preserve the tenuous Anglo-American relations and thus accepted the terms of the pact, whichShow MoreRelated International Free Trade and World Peace Essay6197 Words   |  25 PagesInternational Free Trade and World Peace When analyzing trade’s effect on state behavior, it is not the mere existence of trade between countries that should be central, rather, the nature of trade that is crucial. This distinction will be explored by studying the arguments of key economic and political thinkers of both the 18th and 20th centuries. The general nature of trade, the role of national government regarding trade and security, trades capacity to befriend belligerent nations, andRead More The Diversity Myth Essay5534 Words   |  23 PagesJohn Jay gave thanks that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people, a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs . . . . This is not exactly a celebration of diversity, nor was Jay an eccentric. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson were all explicit about wanting the United States to be a whiteRead 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 Pagesand Adam McKeown 9 †¢ 2 Twentieth-Century Urbanization: In Search of an Urban Paradigm for an Urban World †¢ Howard Spodek 53 3 Women in the Twentieth-Century World Bonnie G. Smith 83 4 The Gendering of Human Rights in the International Systems of Law in the Twentieth Century †¢ Jean H. Quataert 116 5 The Impact of the Two World Wars in a Century of Violence †¢ John H. Morrow Jr. 161 6 Locating the United States in Twentieth-Century World History †¢ Carl J. Guarneri Read MoreBric Analysis Essay11111 Words   |  45 Pages(2010) 42, 14–37. doi:10.1057/pol.2009.15; published online 7 December 2009 Keywords BRICs; Brazil; global governance; democracy; power transition; emerging powers Leslie Elliott Armijo is a visiting scholar at the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University. The editor of Financial Globalization and Democracy in Emerging Markets (1999), Debating the Global Financial Architecture (2002), and a special issue of Asian Perspective on the BRICs countries (2007), she has published

Analysis of Trainspoting Essay - 1566 Words

Analysis of Trainspoting Make a close analysis of a film segment you have viewed and describe the use of mise-en-scene and editing. I have chosen to analyse a small segment of the film Trainspotting. The particular scene I have chosen is called Spuds Interview and shows a character (Spud) attempting to appear as if he is trying to earn the placement at a leisure facility. The catch is he is trying to appear to be trying without actually having to get the job and therefore work. Spud appears to be drugged and his hyper-active, exuberant personality which does a little more than simply shine through shows. The most important aspect of this segment is the mise-en-scene as it is this which†¦show more content†¦(Spud looks at the mural on the wall for a few seconds the sits upright as if an idea has come to him) Spud PLEASURE! I mean, my pleasure, of peoples like leisure, like its Their pleasure! Although the answer is not the best, the safety the wall has provided shows us that the idea of the sea works. The mural is only seen by the viewers as they see the interviewers and cannot be seen before that, the only background for Spud is the bare wall, this suggests that he himself is stripped of ideas for his answers to the questions he is presented with until the mural is seen by the viewers and he is given ideas from the location he is in. The characters are set up in a teacher to class style with the interviewers at the top of the room with a large desk and Spud at the bottom. This could also be compared with a courtroom set-up, in both cases the way the characters are placed suggests authority to a child. Spuds behaviour is childlike also as we see later in the interview. The props used in the scene also support the language used. For instance, because he is nervous, Spud is using lists of three to fill his answers out, he does this because to list something is an empty piece of evidence which Spud presents in the form of his intelligence. As a

Writing as an Artist Free Essays

â€Å"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. We will write a custom essay sample on Writing as an Artist or any similar topic only for you Order Now Use all the colors.† Rhys Alexander makes an interesting connection between authors and artists in his quote about writing. The idea that writers are indeed artists of a sort, gives us the opportunity to think about how words can become like paint applied to a canvas. The canvas, when one looks further, is actually our reader’s mind. This happens because the reader’s mind becomes the dwelling place where the full color and texture of our written ideas are absorbed and understood. Taking this idea of the artistic endeavors of writing a step further, a writer, like an artist, is most often influenced by the environment around them. Would Monet’s painting of water lilies have turned out so ascetic if the day had been dull and rainy, thus altering his mood to reflect a dull and listless pond? As writers our environment touches on our senses and perceptions, altering our mood and also our writing; thus adding to our strengths and weaknesses, and giving our words the vibrancy and hues we need to paint our â€Å"canvas†. A bedroom is a wonderful safe haven from the chaos of everyday life. In this room we rest, dream and spend time with our own being in simple comfort. These sensations of relaxation and solitude form the basis of why I choose it as my primary writing environment. Here I can mix the ideas, opinions and data I have collected from the outside world and make a work of art that reflects my own inner thoughts of the experiences of which I write about. In my room I can be as creative as I like, without others to criticize or influence my words. Granted, people will do that later once the work is complete; but while it’s being created, it’s completely my own. The comfort of my room strengthens my writing because it adds to my feelings of comfort and security. These perceptions allow me to search deeper and possibly write with more courage about how I feel. If I were to do this anywhere else I would fear that others would judge my words and ideas even before the writing is finished. Then I might not find the nerve to write my own thoughts and opinions, but rather someone else’s. In this sense, solitude and comfort help me paint my verbal canvas with clarity. Solitude and comfort in a bedroom can however be a weakness due to the fact that it at times feels like the â€Å"same old thing† and induces writer’s block. Sometimes the feelings of our surroundings â€Å"lock† us into a repetitive pattern, and soon we find that all of our writings begin to take on similar qualities with no unique flare to make them original. For this problem, sometimes it is best to escape to the outside world and gather more data, or try and capture someone else’s enthusiasm for a topic. When this is not available however, altering a writing environment can help. Open the blinds, let some sunshine in, or maybe even close them and try writing by candle light. These are ways that can improve if not the writing environment itself, at least the writer’s mood. Hanging inspiring paintings or photos on the wall may or turning on music that suits the feelings we are trying to convey may also be helpful. Sometimes writers have to be as creative with their environment as they are with their words. Thus far we have seen that a writer’s environment touches on their senses and perceptions, altering their mood and also their writing; thus adding to their strengths and weaknesses, and giving their words the vibrancy and hues they need to paint their â€Å"canvas†.   I have only minimally explored and shared with you what my environment means to me and how I can improve it if needed. However, I hope that you as the reader have gotten a glimpse of where and why I create my art the way I do. I believe that each of us is inspired by the environment around us, whether it be the crashing of a thunderstorm or the slow steady roll of the ocean waves lulling us to sleep. Works Cited Alexander, Rhys. (author of webpage unknown). How to cite Writing as an Artist, Essay examples

Crohns Disease Essay Example For Students

Crohns Disease Essay Crohns DiseaseCrohns disease is a debilitating disease that can affect your entire life and lifestyle if you allow it to. It affects someone that is very dear to me, my best friends mother, Stephanie. I see her live through this day in and day out, and it has raised many questions in my mind. Questions like how you get it, why you get it, and what you really go through when you have it. It is something I have little knowledge of, and by learning more information on it, I feel as if I can possibly help her cope with it in the future. I know that Stephanies intestines are severely affected by it, and I think the disease eats away at your intestines. You can only imagine how painful that sounds, and this woman experiences it. Certain foods can trigger a flare up, such as peanuts, sometimes chocolate, and so on. This becomes a hassle and an unwanted burden when you are trying to enjoy quality time with your family. I know that it gives you chronic diarrhea and unbearable stomach cramps. I have even seen her lay out of work for days due to extreme pain and flare ups of the diarrhea. She has also been hospitalized because it became so severe at one time. It can control your life, and you sometimes have to plan your activities around it. For example, when we go on trips, we always have to stop frequently at a rest area when it becomes bad. In order to fight the disease, Stephanie takes numerous amounts of pills and medicines, and she has even taken up to 25-30 pills a day. In order to answer the questions I have about Crohns disease, I have looked through the books and web articles to try and satisfy my need for understanding it. But still, there are many things that I dont know about it, things beyond what I physically see Stephanie experience. I have often wondered how she got Crohns disease. Is it something that you can catch, or can it fully develop and mature at any point in your life? Also, what are the ways in preventing yourself from getting it, if any? I thin k one of the main questions is what happens to your body and can the affects be deadly? Another thing I wonder about is whether or not it will ever go away, or is it just going to take her on a roller-coaster ride, up and down, up and down?Crohns disease is something that I want to know more about so I can help a victim of it. I feel that the next time Stephanie has a bad experience with it, I can understand what is going on instead of wondering what is wrong. The more I know about it, the more I understand what is happening to her and if there is anything I can do to help her. It is painful to watch someone go through it, but she has become accustomed to it and has learned to include it in her daily life. I admire her strength and it has inspired me to pursue a search in finding as much information as I can about it. For my interview, I asked Stephanie questions concerning her disease, Crohns. During our talk, she informed me that the hardest part is the pain and the fatigue. Sometimes she feels depressed due to the constant pain and fatigue. She also stated that it can be extremely embarrassing at times, and she has trouble planning activities because she never knows when the painful diarrhea will set in. Diarrhea has been and is a normal part of her life for the past 8 years. When she was first diagnosed with Crohns, she had accidents on herself as a result of the uncontrollable bowel movements. You can become dehydrated, and lose lots of blood with this disease. She has been out of work for up to three months at a time. Aside from the pain and embarrassment, one of the biggest drawbacks for her is being looked upon as handicapped. Right now, the disease is in remission, but she is one of the lucky ones. Some people diagnosed with Crohns never go into remission. In many cases, people decide to undergo surgery to remove the diseased area, but Stephanie and her doctor made the wise decision to wait it out. Her current medication is Prednisone. The side affects are swelling and weight gain, but she prefers that to extreme weight loss and excruciating arthritis. Crohns disease causes inflammation in the small intestines. It usually occurs in the lower part of the small intestines, called the ileum, but it can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus. The inflammation extends deep into the lining of the affected organ. The inflammation can cause pain and can make the intestines to empty frequently, causing diarrhea. Crohns disease is also called Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD. The exact cause is unknown but it has been linked to heredity, immune system disorder, or can be drug induced. Crohns affects males and females equally and seems to run in some families. About 20 percent of people with Crohns disease have a blood relative with some form of IB D, most often a brother or sister and sometimes a parent or child (National Institutionno p). There are many theories about the cause of Crohns disease but none have been proven. The most popular theory is that the bodies immune system reacts to a virus or a bacterium by causing ongoing inflammation in the intestine (NIDDKno p). People with Crohns tend to have abnormalities of the immune system, but doctors dont know whether these abnormalities are a cause or a result of the disease. The most common symptoms are pain in the lower right area of the abdomen and diarrhea. Rectal bleeding, weight loss, and fever may also occur. When children have Crohns, they may suffer delayed development and stunted growth. Mycobacteria are a group of organisms that have been studied as possible causes of IBD. This disease may result as the bodys defenses respond abnormally to a toxic agent. Abnormality decreases the immune response so that a developing infection cannot be controlled the body, resulti ng in IBD. Another theory is that an abnormality creates an excessive immune response so those cells lining the intestine are destroyed. Some patients with IBD have complications with organs outside the bowel. These usually disappear when the bowel disease is treated (National Foundationp 44). There is no definite cure for Crohns disease, but it can be managed and controlled. The key to successfully controlling this disease is you controlling it, instead of it controlling you. Managing this disease as soon as possible should be a persons first goal. It is easy for depression to set in because Crohns disease can be so embarrassing for those who have it. It is very difficult to explain this to someone who doesnt know, and from outward appearances, a person may look like there is nothing wrong with them. Usually, the first thing a person fighting this disease looks for whenever they go to a public place, is where the restroom is located. There are many scientific studies and tests done with medications and treatments to find a cure. The most important thing is finding a compassionate physician who specializes in gastrointestinal disorders or diseases. Numerous tests are conducted, such as blood work, gastrointestinal x-rays, and a colonoscopy is performed. This procedure entails a flexible scope being inserted into the entire colon after the patient takes a strong laxative cleansing agent. The physician will see tiny, multiple ulcers located on the wall of the colon. There can be as many as a hundred small ulcers located on one spot of the colon wall. These ulcers are what cause the intense pain and bleeding. Once diagnosis is made, the treatments consist of medications, which include steroids or chemotherapy. .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .postImageUrl , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:hover , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:visited , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:active { border:0!important; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:active , .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8b16254acccf1cbaec249a0738e1260d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Drunk Driving EssayGetting plenty of rest is vital to the treatment of this disease. Eliminating stressful factors in ones life is very beneficial. It is not proven that stress alone causes this disease, but it can contribute to its problems or lack of control. Learning to realize when to cut back or eliminate any unnecessary stress does help prevent flare-ups. Until August 1998, treatment for Crohns has relied on surgery and antiflammatory and other drugs also used to treat other conditions. The FDA licensed the first treatment specifically for Crohns disease. Remicade (infliximab) is a genetically engineered antibody that blocks inflammation caused by a protein called tu mor necrosis factor. After clinical trials showed benefit from Remicade treatment within in two-to-four week period following a single dose, FDA approved the drug for patients with moderate to severe Crohns disease who have not found relief with other treatments (Lewis no p). The drug blocks the action of a natural protein that can promote inflammation. The drug also is being tested for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, a bone deterioration disease. Infliximab was developed by Centocor Inc. of Malvern, Pa (Recer no p). Throughout my research, I found a very interesting fact. I contributed my new knowledge of Peppermint Oil to Stephanie. I found a very intriguing article about Peppermint Oil soothing Crohns symptoms. Throughout the article, this woman discussed her remedy that has helped her through her struggle with Crohns disease for 22 years. She mentioned that it relieved her abdominal cramping. It is a non-traditional medical treatment and it does not hold promise for relief of some symptoms. A drop of Peppermint Oil in a cup of warm water with a little sugar releases its soothing affects in as little as a few minutes. This process can be done 15-30 minutes before a meal or at the onset of symptoms. You can drink up to four cups of this daily (Goldstein no p). Crohns disease is a very stressful disease to have and throughout my research I have learned this. I sympathize for the victims battling this horrible disease being as there is no cure and there is no reassurance that medications will work. I have gathered that it takes a tremendous amount of self-control and inner strength to live daily life as normally as possible while still coping with Crohns. Although I have been thoroughly informed of this disease and all the affects and the information that goes along with it, I will never completely understand this disease. Unless one experiences this first hand and actually has this disease, as well as any other disease, the realization can never be grasped efficiently. I hope, in the near future, the fight for the cure will end in a victory and victims everywhere will be allowed their normal lifestyles back. Works CitedGoldstein, Laura. Peppermint Oil May Soothe Crohns Symptoms. Prevention, Mar. 2001. 5 Apr. 2001. Lewis, Carol. Crohns Disease: New Drug may help when others fail. Food and Drug Administration. Sept./Oct. 1999. 5 Apr. 2001. National Foundation of Ileitis Colitis. The Crohns Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Fact Book. Macmillian: USA 1983. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Crohns Disease. Feb. 1998. 5 Apr. 2001. NIDDK. Crohns Disease. 12 Apr. 2001 http://www.webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1680.50985Recer, Paul. Drug for Crohns Disease OKd. (News). News Observer (Raleigh, NC), August 25, 1998. 29 Mar. 2001Works ConsultedBiologic Therapy Helps Fight Crohns Disease. USA Today; New York; Feb. 2001. 5 Apr. 2001. Bland, Elizabeth L.; Lisa Granastein. Health Report. Time, 10/20/97. 16 Apr. 2001. HealthCite Physician Staff. Crohns Disease. 2001. 29 Mar. 2001.

Challenges Facing Hr Service Providers in Outsourcing Recruitment and Selection Essay Example

Challenges Facing Hr Service Providers in Outsourcing Recruitment and Selection Essay According to the research results, the transaction cost theory and the resource based view of the firm theories applied to this study confirmed that most firms use recruitment and selection outsourcing as a way of saving costs and focusing on core competences as majority of respondents said the reasons why most of their clients outsource their recruitment and selection activities are basically geared towards cost savings and focusing on core competences in order to gain competitive advantage. The findings of the research revealed that clients have a lot of expectations from service providers, as majority of respondents interviewed indicated that they expects their service providers to deliver quality services in terms of quality of personnel, time-tohire, cost of savings etc. However, this study showed that there were numerous challenges that confront service providers in their efforts to fulfill or meet the expectations of clients. We will write a custom essay sample on Challenges Facing Hr Service Providers in Outsourcing Recruitment and Selection specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Challenges Facing Hr Service Providers in Outsourcing Recruitment and Selection specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Challenges Facing Hr Service Providers in Outsourcing Recruitment and Selection specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Some of the challenges as revealed by the study included poor management of contract, poor management of relationship between the parties, inadequate communication between the outsourcing parties, and lack of skilled workforce in the Ghanaian labour market. KEYWORDS: HR Outsourcing, Competitive Advantage, BPO, Clients and Vendors 10 11 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background of the Study This study seeks to examine the expectations and challenges that HR service providers face in their recruitment and selection outsourcing activities ithin the Ghanaian labour market. The global market today is highly competitive and dynamic and so many multinational companies are seeking opportunities to grow, to remains competitive and to meet changing business conditions. Furthermore, the labour market today is increasingly also becoming competitive; many companies feel the pain of mounting recruitment costs, time to hire cycles, as well as the longer time and effort burden that recruitment activities plac e on hiring managers and HR leaders. Multinational companies around the world are therefore taking advantage of the global market environment and are constantly seeking for opportunities in economies where cheap and readily available skills and expertise can be employed to improve their companies performance. The concept of outsourcing â€Å"non-core† HR activities including recruitment has been adopted by some MNCs as a strategic management tool to assist them to have competitive advantage. As Robert (2003) suggests, HRO as a business model offers human resource management professionals a significant opportunity to focus on activities that really add value to the organizations operations and reduce costs. Recruitment Outsourcing is a business strategy that most multinational companies have adopted as a means of gaining competitive advantage by delegating their recruitment or staffing functions to third party entities. The outsourcing of non-core operations or jobs from internal production (in-house) to external entity that specializes in such activities is thus changing the landscape of businesses across the globe. In most advanced economies, companies are taking advantage of cheap and readily available expertise in developing countries such as India China, South Africa and Ghana to strengthen their competitive advantage through off-shoring of their BPO including HR activities. 12 Franceschini et al, (2003) suggests â€Å"Outsourcing† is defined as the process of transferring the responsibility for a specific business functions or a set of related business functions to an external operator or agent. According to Greer et al (1999), HRO takes place when a company contracts with an HR vendor to perform an HR activity previously performed by the company in-house. HRO can therefore be defined as the delegation or transfer of HR activities that are traditionally performed internally (in-house) to external third party to perform such activities. HRO is a strategic management tool that deals with delegating the operational responsibility for processes or functions that were previously delivered internally to external agents. HRO occurs in both the private and public sectors and consists of different types. These include primary and secondary value chain outsourcing, strategic and tactical outsourcing, selective and full outsourcing, business process outsourcing, off-shoring, near shoring, co-sourcing, in-sourcing and geo-sourcing, and outplacement. There has been much debate over the definition of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). This is because the industry is still growing; hence a widely accepted definition remains elusive. Some are of the view that any service provider offering services in a number of functional areas should be considered an RPO. For instance, if a service provider conduct candidate searches, performs pre-interviewing screening, set up interviews, and helps to hire the employee may be viewed as an RPO firms. Others contend that the provider should go beyond this to cover the entire candidate lifecycle, including, in some cases, making long hiring decisions. For the purpose of this research study, RPO is defined as â€Å"the contracting out of a company’s recruitment activities which are traditionally performed in-house to an external or third party HR service provider for a consideration which is normally the payment of a contract fee. According to Dell (2004) HRO has been identified as the fastest growing sector within business process outsourcing and all of the major service providers are pushing hard to develop and increase their share of this potentially huge market. The Outsourcing Institute, 1994/95 industry surveys’ report view â€Å"outsourcing† as essential to competitiveness and that significant capacity and quality improvement is achieved through outsourcing. Some analysts predict that HRO will continue to grow by more 13 than 30% so that global expenditure on HRO in the US alone will reach $14billion by 2009. (Yankee Group, 2005). HRO involves more than outsourcing HR services such as retirement benefits and payroll administration. HRO plays a strategic role as organizations are outsourcing HR activities such as payroll, training and development, recruitment, pension benefits and in some cases, the entire HR functions (Adler, 2004; Cook, 1999; Greet et al, 1998) in order to have competitive advantage in the global market environment. Ulrich (1998) argues that there has been serious debate about the contribution of human resource functions to organizational performance. This is due partly to the inability of the human resource functions to demonstrate or show concrete value of its contribution at the strategic level in most organizations. In an effort to address this concern, HRO have been adopted as strategic tool that business executives use as a way of adding value to or enhances organizational performance. Most companies make the decision to outsource for variety of reasons; however cost reduction tends to be one of the most important reasons. Proponents of HRO have argued that many companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the work at considerably less costs, they don’t have to provide benefits to their employees and have fewer operating cost. According to them, it also enables firms to focus on their core business, gain access to new technology and expertise which otherwise cannot be obtained in-house. Other benefits of HRO include freeing internal resources for other purposes; accelerate reengineering benefits and the sharing of risks. Critics have, however argued that HRO rather leads to increased costs, loss of control and data insecurity, as well as conflict between service providers and outsourcing company, and serious disruptions of the business should the contract be abrogated. Cooke et al (2005) pointed out that although HRO as an organizational strategy has increased substantially over the last decade; this trend has attracted less academic research with regards to how outsourcing decisions are made, the manner in which those decisions are implemented, how the outsourcing effectiveness is measured, and most importantly the expected benefits or outcomes of outsourcing decisions on organizational performance. 14 As a result, empirical evidence on the reasons and outcomes of outsourcing HR activities is both fragmented and inconclusive. There are differences in opinion as to the real benefits of HR outsourcing. For instance, some authors see HRO beneficial in terms of the delivery of services and the enhancement of the strategic position of human resource (Brenner, 1996; Laabs, 1993; Switser, 1997). Others on the other hand, consider HRO as concession and that human resource function no longer has a strategic significance (Baker, 1996; Caldwell, 1996). According to a report carried out by Yankee Group (2005), on HR business process outsourcing, only 48% of key decision makers agreed that HRO had delivered on the promised return on investment they expected. Kakabadse Kakabadse (2003) note that although the outsourcing debate involves, what and how to outsource, the most sensitive issues concerns what to outsource, the impact of outsourcing on organizational relationship, the client/supplier interface, performance management, and client satisfaction/dissatisfaction with outsourcing. They refer to a new outsourcing paradigm in which competitive advantage is achieved through good relationships with business partners and customers. This can only be achieved if service providers are in a position to meet the expectations of their clients. However, many business leaders are beginning to question the extent to which HR service providers meet their expectations in HRO. It is against this background that this study seeks to investigate empirically the expectations and challenges faced by HR service providers in their recruitment and selection outsourcing activities in the Ghanaian labour market in order to gain a deeper insight into the challenges they encounter in their effort to meet these expectations from their clients. 15 1. 2 Research Problem According to Greaver (1999), even in the best of outsourcing situations problems arise. New innovative management strategy can produce unexpected problems, it is therefore important to investigate whether such problems and mediocre outcomes of outsourcing implementation are due to inherent flaws in the concept or whether they are as a result of poor management practices(Lonsdale and Cox,2000). This research therefore originated in the context of growing concern among business managers in recent times about the failure on the part of HR vendors to meet the expectations of outsourcing firms. As earlier on stated according to a survey report carried out by Yankee Group in 2005, on HRO, only 48% of key decision makers agreed that HRO had delivered on the promised returns on investment expected. This survey finding implies that most decision makers are dissatisfied with the expected outcomes from their HRO service providers. It is in this light that this study seeks to uncover the factors behind this state of affairs, thus this study tries to investigate what are the expectations and the challenges that service providers face in their effort to meet their clients demands. Theoretically, not much information exists in the literature from the academia and researchers on recruitment and selection outsourcing in the Ghanaian labour market. Much of the theories on outsourcing HR activities have focused generally on why firms outsource their HR functions, the arguments for and against HRO particularly in the Advanced economies of Western Europe and United States. Hence this study can provide useful information to the academia. Practically too, business leaders have not focused much attention on the strategic risks and the vulnerability that the outsourcing of their HR functions can pose to their business. Most business leaders have been lured into outsourcing their HR services due to the much trumpeted expected benefits that it’s brings to organizational performance without analyzing the implications of such decisions and the challenges it entails. Hence most business leaders lack knowledge about the risks or challenges that HRO involves. It is to address these knowledge gabs that this research study tries to find out or investigate the expectations and challenges HR service providers (vendors) face in recruitment or staffing outsourcing in the 16 Ghanaian labour market. Hence the research problem being posed is: What Expectations and Challenges do HR service providers face in the outsourcing of recruitment and selection activities in Ghana? The significance of this study is first and foremost to serve as learning process or useful lesson for companies that intend to use HRO as a business strategy to accelerate and enhance the development of the organizations. Secondly, it is to serve as a source of information to students and business managers who lack relevant information on the subject matter. Furthermore, it is to contribute to the intellectual debate on the expected outcomes and challenges facing HR service providers in their effort to meet organizational performance especially in this particular subject matter, but which have received very little attention from academia. In addition, it will serve as bases for future studies on the role of key players or actors such as line managers, employees, and senior management and the clients or vendors to the success of HRO. Finally it will provide useful information to guide policy makers to fashion out policies that would engender the growth and development of the HRO business in Ghana. . 3 Research Questions In order to dissect the research problem for easy analysis, the statement of the research problem has been subdivided into two sub-questions as follows: a. What are the expectations of MNCS (Clients) which outsource its recruitment and selection functions to HR service providers in Ghana? b. What challenges confront HR ser vice providers’ in Ghana as they try to meet these expectations? 17 1. 4 Scope of the study This research work is based on a study that attempt to investigate and analyze the challenges and expectations that HR service providers or vendors face in Ghana. First of all, this study is limited in scope to only the Ghanaian labour market and deals with recruitment and selection outsourcing activities and not to other areas of HRO such as retire benefits, pay roll administration, training and development etc. In addition, to theoretically appraise all theories that might explain HR outsourcing decisions is beyond the scope of one research work. In applying theory for this research study, this study limits itself to only two theories i. e. TCT and RBV. This underscores the extent to which a study of this kind involves somehow arbitrary decisions with respect to scope. The selection of only the TCT and RBV that have been applied to this study should not be taken as an inference that other theories may not also prove useful in understanding why firms decide to adopt HR outsourcing as a strategic management tool as other theories also assist to explain the motivation for HR outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, the research is mainly limited in scope to multinational companies and do not include State Owned Enterprises and Government Agencies. Lastly, the research seeks to investigate and analyze the challenges and expectations HR service providers or vendors’ face as they undertake the outsourcing of recruitment and selection activities in the Ghanaian labour market. 1. 5 Structure of the Study The research study has been divided into five sections. The first section, which is an introduction to the research study, covers the background of the study, research problem, research questions, scope of the study, and significance of the study and the structure of the study. Section two takes a look at the literature review of the study which focus on some definitions and trends in HR Outsourcing, types and process of HR outsourcing, Motivation for HRO, TCT and RBV theories and their limitations, relate the HRO decisions to TCT and RVB theories, Outline other arguments for and 18 against HR outsourcing. Section three covers the methods and research strategy used in the study. This section consists of the research design, data collection, data analysis, reliability and validity of the study and an overview of the business environment in Ghana and HR Outsourcing Activities. The section four covers the empirical findings, operational areas of HR service providers in Ghana, the expectations from MNCs from TCT and RBV perspectives as well as the challenges facing service providers from the interviews conducted and the last but not the least section consist of the discussion and conclusion, the managerial implications of the study well as areas for future research. 19 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1 Definitions and HR Outsourcing Trends Outsourcing HRM activities by multinational companies has become popular way of improving basic services as it allows professionals time to play a more strategic role in the organization. In recent times, HRO has attracted a lot of attention by business managers, financial analysts, scholars and the media. Many articles have been written on the subject and a lot of research work carried out on several aspects of HRO such as managerial motivation, human resource management business processes, the relationship between the outsourced company and the vendor or service provider etc. Cook and Gilder (2006) defined HRO as having a third- party service provider or vendor administer on an on-going basis, an HR activity that would normally be performed internally. According to Greer, Youngblood Gray (1999) HRO occurs when a company contracts with an HR vendor to perform an HR activity previously performed by the company. Domberger (1998) argues that â€Å"Outsourcing† is the process whereby activities traditionally carried out internally are contracted out to external providers. Greaver (1998) also stresses that outsourcing is the act of transferring some of the organization’s recurring internal activities and decisions rights to outside providers as set forth in a contract. Turnbull (2002) also points out that HRO is defined as placing responsibility for various elements of the HR functions with a third party. For the purpose of this study HRO is defined as the delegation or transfer of HR- related activities that were normally performed internally (in-house) by an organizations HR department to an external third party. Some analysts suggest that outsourcing certain business process including human resource, procurement, financial and accounting functions to IT consultants and service providers is growing in popularity as companies seek to reduce their operating costs. The HR business process outsourcing service sector grew 8% worldwide last year to $405billion, according to market research firm (Framingham, MA). The sector is expected to grow at 11% per year to reach $682billion in 2008, as companies strive to 20 reduce costs further. For instance Procter Gamble signed a 10-year, $400million contract last year to outsource its HR functions to IBM Business Consulting Services (Chemical Week, September, 24, 2003:14). Dearlove (2003) predicted that business process outsourcing was estimated to yield $50billion in revenue worldwide by the end of 2004 and according to a survey carried out by the Society for Human Resource Management; according to the report currently 58% of companies outsourced at least one of their human resource management activities. (HRM Outsourcing Survey, SHRM, 2004). According to IDC research, spending on HR services is forecast to reach 126billion US dollars worldwide by 2010. The United States which is the largest portion of the market is forecast to reach 68billion US dollars by 2010, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10. % over the 5year period i. e. 2005-2010 (IDC Research, 2005). The origin of HRO can be traced back to the definite work of Micheal Hammer and Jim Champy in Re-engineering the Corporation. This transcends the business process reengineering (BPR) industry in the early 1990,s. It is not bizarre to find out that HRO is being referred to as off-shori ng, business process outsourcing (BPO) business transaction outsourcing (BTO), near shoring, or on-shoring in management literature. This shows that HRO calls for a more carefully defined definition. (Corporate Research Forum, 2006). According to Schumacher, (2005) Outsourcing first appeared in the IT industry in the 1980,s at the time when companies recognized the benefits of having IT service partners in order to develop complex systems, and enhance the way that a business process or service is managed. The outsourcing industry has taken different dimensions since then, with HRO assuming a dominant role in the business process market. As a result of increased globalization and high pressure to innovate, most business managers are compelled to adopt business strategies and tactics that would enable them have sustained competitive advantage over their rivals. HRO has been adopted as a strategic management tool by which business managers intend to increase their competitiveness in today’s global market environment. Outsourcing HR activities can 21 be a way to quickly gain competitive advantage by reducing costs, improving quality, and concentrating on core business. The outsourcing of human resource services has emerged as a front runner in the ever growing business process outsourcing market. The demand for greater corporate productivity and profitability as well as the potential efficiencies that is likely to be derived from the combination of human resource services across a host of enterprises, have fueled the pace at which HR transactions are contracted. The human resource departments of major US corporations have moved strongly to outsource key functions. According to a 1994 survey of 400 corporations conducted by the Olsten Corporation, 45 percent of firms outsource payroll management, 38 percent outsource tax administration; 53 percent outsource benefits management and 34 percent outsource their workers compensation. In a 1995 survey of 121 businesses, HR Magazine found that 91% outsource one or more of their HR functions, and 16% outsourced more than $1million annually. Functions most outsourced included outplacement, (64%) training delivery (46%) and training development (40%) Information Technology and management information Systems led the way in outsourcing, but recently outsourcing has been extended to other operations. Outsourcing is now one of the major significance in the HRM area. It has come to the front line as the role of HRM in contemporary business environment has gained particular prominence. HRM is the second most likely corporate business function to be outsourced, according to a study by American Management Association (HRM Focus, 1997). Outsourcing activities initially comprises only a small segment of HRM such as payroll functions (Adler, 2003) but has grown gradually to encompass many HR functions. Today, HR outsourcing involves more than outsourcing HR services such as payroll administration. Instead, HR outsourcing also play a strategic role as organizations are outsourcing HR activities such as training and hiring, and in some cases even the entire HR functions. Adler, 2004; Cook, 1999; Greer et al, 1999, Lepak and Snell, 1998). As pointed out by Woodall, Gourlay, Shorts, (2000) evidence from professionals and publications from practitioners have shown that HR has increased considerably over the last decades. For example qualitative and quantitative reports from a range of sources 22 such as People Management and the Cranet Survey (Vernon et al. , 2000; Pricewat erhouse (2002) provide further proof of this growth. 2. 2 Types of Outsourcing There are different types or categories of outsourcing. Some of them are information technology outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing and business process outsourcing. Others include primary and secondary value chain, selective and full outsourcing, tactical and strategic outsourcing, off-shoring, near shoring, in-sourcing, co-sourcing, geo-sourcing, and outplacement. 2. 2. 1. Primary and secondary value chain outsourcing According to Porter (1985) the value chain is described as a model that outlines the value activities performed or undertaking in a company and their linkages to the company’s competitive position. In the process of converting inputs into outputs companies undertake many different kinds of activities which can either be defined as primary or auxiliary or secondary activities. The primary activities link the supply side (raw materials, inbound logistics and production) to the demand side (out bounded logistics, marketing and sales). The primary activities create and bring value to the customer and they form part of the value chain that deliver the market offering. Supporting (auxiliary) or secondary activities assist and improve the performance of the primary activities. They constitute an infrastructure base that allows the primary activities to be carried out. The margin which is described as the difference between the total value and the total cost of performing all activities in a company is determined by how the activities are carried out, how they interact and how the links among the activities are managed. The management of these activities influences the costs and efficiency of other activities. One way of describing outsourcing in a company is through their primary and secondary value chain activities. For instance, in a company the primary value chain activities such as manufacturing and advertising can be 23 outsourced. In the same vain the secondary value chain activities such as payroll, research and development (RD) and PC support can also be outsourced. It must be noted that HRM activities including recruitment outsourcing, payroll administration, compensation, Procuments falls under the secondary activities in the vain chain. The figure1 illustrates this point. Figure 1: Distinction between Primary and Secondary Chain activities Source: Adapted from M. E Porter (1985) 2. 2. 2. Tactical and Strategic Outsourcing Tactical outsourcing is often used to resolve practical problems such as filling a vacancy. Strategic outsourcing on the other hand involves outsourcing that is linked to a company’s long-term strategy and is expected to have effect on the company for a long time, for instance the outsourcing of RD. Strategic outsourcing has more influence than tactical outsourcing on areas like core competency, future costs, current and future competitive advantages. Strategic outsourcing can be implemented within a year; however it takes a longer time to see its full impact. According to Greaver (1999) the risk with strategic outsourcing are higher, because it involves a greater part of the organization than tactical outsourcing. 24 2. 2. 3. Selective and full outsourcing Another means of distinguishing between types of outsourcing is selective and Full Outsourcing. Outsourcing can be described through a continuum ranging from selective to full outsourcing. In selective outsourcing the company decides to outsource a discrete activity like security or cafeteria rather than doing it in-house. In full outsourcing a whole function or process like IT or HR is outsourced to a vendor. The figure2 in the next page illustrates this. Generally the risk involved in selective outsourcing is lower compared to full outsourcing. Figure 2: Continnum describing Selective and Full Outsourcing Source: Adapted from Hakan Borg (2003). 25 2. 2. 4. Business Process Outsourcing According to Gartner Group (2000) BPO is defined as the delegation of one or more IT intensive business processes to an external provider who in turns owns, administrates, and manages the selected process and processes based upon defined and measurable performance metrics. Business process utsourcing includes outsourcing services related to accounting, Human resource, benefits, payroll administration, finance, sales and marketing, legal services etc. BPO is based on the principles of re-engineering, but also combines them with the ownership and management of processes on behalf of a client by an outside vendor. Business process outsourcing has been applied to many transactional processes that can be easily defined or scaled and transferred to third party owners who have deeper expertise than the outsourced company. The management of the IT systems has been the only major element of outsourcing market until recent times. The figure 4 below gives examples of the traditional outsourcing activities that have change to what now constitute business process outsourcing. Figure 3: Traditional Outsourcing changes to Business Process Outsourcing Source: IDC, Human Resource Service Marketplace, Part 1 US forecast and analysis, 2000-2005. 26 2. 2. 5 Off-shoring, Near-shoring and On-shoring Off-shoring occurs where business operations are subcontracted out to companies in distance countries where taxes, savings and low cost of labour provide necessary incentives for companies to farm –out some of the in-house processes. Near-shoring on the other hand is a situation, where work is done or services are performed by people in neighboring countries instead of the domiciled country. Whiles On-shoring occurs where in-house processes are subcontracted out to domestic companies. 2. 3 HR Outsourcing Process HRO process is a very complex activity which involves details and sensitive decisions affecting the company’s employees and assets. In order to guarantee the successful implementation of the company’s HRO decision, the company’s management is assisted by consultants at various stages of the outsourcing process. The outsourcing institute, based on a survey it conducted in 1995 on 30 outsourcing firms, identified the key phases of the outsourcing process, and the average amount of time required for each phase. According to the report the outsourcing process is broken down into seven distinct steps, which can be grouped into three main categories: The pre-solicitation phase, the solicitation phase and the implementation phase. On the average firms required 14. 6 months to complete outsourcing process, ith the fastest outsourcing action taking six months and the most prolonged requires twenty four months. The pre-solicitation phase involves the assembly of internal project team, the identification and evaluation of candidate functions for outsourcing, and the development of the request for proposal (RFP). These steps need 4. 5 months or about 30 percent of the total process time. According to the survey, the Chief Financial Officer typically spearheads the outsourcing team and exerts top-down l eadership. 27

SAT for Early Admissions Deadlines

When's the Last ACT/SAT for Early Admissions Deadlines SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When’s the latest you can take the SAT or ACT if you’re submitting an early decision college application? You might be surprised by how late some colleges accept SAT and ACT scores- and how early others require them! Read on to find out the latest dates on which you can take the SAT and ACT, and get specific dates for top colleges. What Is Early Decision and When Are Applications Due? Early decision gives you the chance to apply to your first-choice college early and get an admission decision before winter break. Early decision application deadlines tend to be on or around November 1. Schools with early decision typically promise to have results sent to applicants between December 1 and December 15. Some early decision deadlines are even earlier in October, meaning that your application will be evaluated during a pretty narrow window in November. As a result, usuallythelast ACT date you can take for early decision is in October and thelast SAT date is in November. Scores from these test dates should arrive in November, just in time for early decision. (For the 2019-20 school year, this means you can take either the ACT on October 26 or theSAT on November 2.) This is just a general rule, however, sodon't automatically assume that these dates will work for the school you’re applying to early decision! For some colleges,the last possible dates that can work for early decision are even earlier: the September ACT or the October SAT. (In other words, you can take, at latest, either the ACT on September 14, 2019, or the SAT on October 5, 2019.) If you’re taking the last possible ACT or SAT and applying early decision, make sure to mark that school down to receive your test scores when you sign up for the test. Don’t wait to see your scores first before sending them, as they won't arrive in time to be considered! If there's a problem with your SAT/ACT score reports (for example, they get delayed), colleges will sometimes accept a screenshot or printout of the reportsent from your guidance counselor as a provisional result. That said, they will still want the official report eventually. Once again, don't assume this will be the case for your particular school, so always plan to get your SAT/ACT scores in by the application deadline- if not earlier! General Advice for Applying Early Decision If you’re reading this as a junior or younger and you’re planning to apply early somewhere, aim to have your testing done before senior year- ideally by June. Remember that if you’re applying early decision, you'll need to work on your college applications earlier than normal. And studying for the ACT/SAT while applying to college can be stressful. (The College Board says thatOctober should be your last possible SAT date but recommends taking the test by June.) Getting your testing done by June will free up the whole summer before your senior year- and also free up your senior fall to give you time to work on your early decision application. With this time, you can write your best possible college essays, come up with astute answers for smaller application questions, and decide who will write you the most effective letters of recommendation. As you can see, if you also had to study for the SAT or ACT, you'd waste valuable time that would be arguably better spent improving your college applications. Summer means sun, sand, surf ... and college application essays. Plus, if you’re sending scores from the last possible test date, you’re taking a pretty big risk.If it’s your first SAT/ACT and your scores aren't within the school’s average scores range, your chances of admission could be compromised. If it’s a retakeand your score drops, that won't look great either. Though most colleges focus on your highest scores, some schools require all SAT scores or all ACT scores and will evaluate every test result they receive, high or low. Ideally, you should have already achieved scores within your school’s score ranges by your senior year. Taking the ACT or SAT during your junior year or summer before your senior year (the December, March, May, June, or August SATs or theDecember, February, April, June, or JulyACTs) is best. Waiting until the September/October ACTs or October/November SATs your senior fall will only create a serious time crunch. Nevertheless, if you do need to take the SAT or ACT during your senior fall (either for the first time or as a retake), don't stress out. You can still study enough to get a high score and put together a great application- just be prepared to be busy during the fall! Latest Early Decision ACT/SAT Test Dates for Top Schools In this section, we take a look at theACT and SAT dates and deadlines for popular schools' early decision plans.We also show you how to look up this info at any school you might be applying to in case your college didn't make our list. You don't have to panic if your top school is on this list. But you should plan ahead! Schools With Earlier Than Usual SAT/ACT Deadlines The following colleges haveSAT/ACT deadlines that are earlier than the common November SAT/October ACT rulediscussed above. If you're applying to any of these schools early decision, try extra hard to complete your standardized testing as early as possible. Amherst Here's what Amherst says about its early action deadlines: "Applicants should schedule standardized testing so that scores can be submitted by the appropriate application deadline (either ED or RD)." Since Amherst’s early decision deadline is November 1, you can take the October SAT or September ACT at the latest. Caltech Caltech'sstandardized testingdeadline for early action applicants is October for both tests. This means you can take the SAT or ACT in October of your senior year, but no later. Georgetown Here's what Georgetown says regarding early action deadlines (bold emphasis mine): "While we recommend that Early Action applicants complete testing requirements in their junior year, scores from the September and October test dates will typically arrive in time for consideration at Early Action. Students should make certain to request that scores be sent to Georgetown well in advance of the deadline to ensure timely receipt." Princeton Here's how Princeton handles early action deadlines (bold emphasis mine): "You are strongly encouraged to complete your standardized testing before the Nov. 1 deadline. If you take standardized tests in November, you should have your scores sent directly to Princeton." This means that they likely won’t get scores from the November SAT in time to consider you for admission.So to be safe, submit test scores from October of your senior year or earlier. Stanford According to Stanford's undergraduate admission website, its last ACT date is in September and last SAT date is in Octoberfor restrictive early action. Vanderbilt Here areVanderbilt's test deadlines for early decision applicants(bold emphasis mine): "For students applying to Vanderbilt under Early Decision I (submission deadline November 1), the October administration of the SAT or ACT is the final opportunity to take the exam." Washington University in St. Louis Here's what Washington University's FAQ page says about early decision deadlines (bold emphasis mine): "The last [SAT] test date accepted will be the December testing (October if applying Early Decision)." Note that this October deadline is for the SAT, not ACT. Because the Early Decision application deadline is November 1,you should aim to take theACT by September. Williams College Williams requires applicants to take the ACT or SAT by October. The early bird gets the ... early application review? Schools That Follow the October ACT/November SAT Rule These next schools stick to the October ACT/November SAT rule we found when researching early decision testing deadlines. Still, whenever possible,try to submit scores from earlier test datesto ensure that your application is reviewed on time. Brown Here is an overview of Brown's standardized test deadlines for early action applicants(bold emphasis mine): "Early Decision applicants should complete all required testing by the October test date and arrange for results to be sent directly to Brown on or before the November 1 Early Decision deadline.You may also submit additional test scores from the November administration of the SAT; however, we cannot guarantee that these test scores will be received in time to be reviewed with your application.All applicants should have a complete set of test scores sent to Brown prior to theNovember 1deadline." Note that while Brown will accept the October ACT and/or November SAT, they prefer to have at least one set of scores before the November 1 deadline. So do your best to have scores in before this date! Columbia Here's what Columbia says about early decision deadlines for the SAT/ACT: "You must have all standardized testing completed by the November test date." This means that scores from both the October ACT and November SAT would arrive in time to be considered for early decision admission. Cornell Here is Cornell's description of its standardized test deadlines for early decision applicants (bold emphasis mine): "You should plan to take the SAT before November of your senior year, or the ACT no later than October. Early decision applicants are strongly urged to take the SAT Subjects Tests (if required) no later than October, because the scores are used in the selection process." Dartmouth Dartmouth’s admissions website says that the last test date for the SAT is inNovember, and the last date for the ACT is in Octoberfor all early decision applicants. Duke Here's what Duke says about early decision test scores(bold emphasis mine): "Duke is happy to accept scores for Early Decision applicants from the October ACT and the November SAT tests." Harvard Harvard says the following about early action testing deadlines (bold emphasis mine): "If you are applying Early Action, we would like your testing results by the end of October; however, you may submit the November series if needed. Those results will arrive in time for consideration without the need and expense of 'rushreporting.'" Keep in mind that even though you can submit November tests, you should aim to complete your testing earlier so that your application can be evaluated sooner. MIT MIT says the following on its admissions website in regard to early action SAT/ACT deadlines: "In order to apply for freshman admission, you must take the required tests on or before theNovembertest date for Early Action." This means you can submit scores from the October ACT or November SAT at the latest. Northwestern Northwestern requires applicants to submit standardized test scores by November 1,meaning you can take the October SAT or ACT at latest. University of Chicago Here is UChicago's policy on SAT/ACT test deadlines for early action and early decision applicants (bold emphasis mine): "While we would, of course, like to receive your scores before the appropriate deadline, we will accept October ACT andNovember SAT scoresfor Early Action and Early Decision I." University of Pennsylvania For those applying early decision to Penn, the last SAT date is in November and the last ACT date is in October. Yale Yale recommends the last test scores early action applicants submit come from the October SAT and ACT. However, November SAT scores may also be considered: (bolding mine) "SATs ... taken in November may also arrive in time for consideration in Yale's Single Choice Early Action program, but applicants should complete and submit Yale's required standardized testing from previous test dates. For Single-Choice Early Action applicants who plan to take November SATs or SAT Subject Tests, admissions officers will begin the evaluation process with the official or self-reported scores already on file." In other words, the last SAT date is in November, but only if you've taken another standardized test whose scores you can also submit before your November SAT scores come in. How to Find Early Decision Testing Dates for Any School Although we’ve gone over the early decision policies of many top colleges, you might be wondering about the last possible SAT/ACT dates for different schools not mentioned above. To find your school's SAT/ACT testing deadlines, start by searching for "[School Name] early decision" on Google.Here's an example: You can see here that I'm searching for Pomona College's last possible SAT/ACT dates. Now, I'll click on the "Application Deadlines" link since this seems like the most promising page I can use to get information about dates and deadlines. Many colleges have separate sections or pages for early decision/early action applications. This page might list special deadlines for early decision, including the last ACT or SAT test date. If you can't find the deadlines on this page, however, you might instead be able to find a page with overall application dates and deadlines, or an FAQ page with an answer to this question. Check out the page I found for Pomona below: As the screenshot shows, Pomona has clearly laid out its testing deadlines.According to this table, the last possible SAT date for Early Decision I is in October, and the last possible ACT date is in September. If you still can’t find information about a school's last SAT/ACT dates on either an "Early Decision" or "Dates and Deadlines" page, check its FAQ page;you might run across a question about SAT and/or ACT tests. As you skim it, look for common phrases, such as "last time to take the ACT or SAT" or "how long it takes SAT/ACT scores to arrive." If you can’t find a precise date on any of the above pages, call or email your school's admissions office. (Keep in mind that testing information should definitely be on the admissions site, even if it’s buried in an unlikely place!) Ask the admissions representative, "When is the last possible date I can take the SAT/ACT for early admission?" Hopefully, you'll get the answer you want! What’s Next? Not sure when to take the ACT or SAT for the first time? Read more about optimizing your ACT and SAT test dates. How high does your ACT/SAT score need to be for your Early Decision school? Find out so you can decide whether you should retake the ACT/SAT before your applications are due. Still have to make serious changes to improve your SAT/ACT scores? Get the latest strategies for each section: SAT Reading, Writing, and Math;andACT English, Math, Reading, and Science. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT and ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160+ points or your ACT score by 4+ points. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Business Management ( Organizational Behavior ) Essay

Business Management ( Organizational Behavior ) - Essay Example I would show this trait to my boss by making myself indispensable in every difficult situation and by saying â€Å"It’s difficult but it will be taken care of† rather than â€Å"no it is impossible†. Vision: It is necessary that the leader should have the exposure, industry insight and knowledge of what other industry members are doing in similar situations in other parts of the world. This is required in order to be successful and keep the edge as compared to the competitors. For this purpose, I would visit all industry events including seminars, conferences, and exhibitions all over the world in order to keep myself updated and to be able to bring the new technology being practiced successfully in other countries to my organization. Role Model: In a leadership position, one should understand, that you should have personality traits including personal values, ethics and morals and a code of conduct that the other people in the organization and the publics outside the organization including vendors, shareholders, society and government officials not only find acceptable but also such that are desired in a person on the top. In other words, it’s not only your talent and work that matters but also your moral values and ethics that will win you a place at the top by inspiring others. To show this trait, I will strictly keep my religious views to myself, but understand the beliefs of everyone else and will avoid displaying controversial behavior in public including alcoholism, public demonstration of affection and irresponsibility especially in the office and at public areas. Networking: for any organization to be successful, it is necessary that the people leading it should have the necessary contacts and presence in the social and industry circles. To demonstrate this, I will have membership and an important role in industry or trade associations, network with the relevant Government

Are political parties beneficial or detrimental to democracy in Essay

Are political parties beneficial or detrimental to democracy in Australia - Essay Example The fact that they are vehicles for the further development of the Australian society cannot be underestimated because political parties can be said to be the foundation upon which the democratic system as practiced in this country is built and without them, then the democracy which has been long practiced and has become a basic part within Australian life would end up being meaningless. It is a fact that the political parties within Australia have led to the further development of democracy in the country and because of this, Australia can be considered to be among the most democratic countries in the world, boasting of a population that is free to actively participate in politics. Because of the existence of political parties in Australia, as well as the compulsory voting system, there has developed, over the past few decades, a political system in this country where most of the individuals within it have come to participate in politics in one way or the other. ... Australian democracy can be said to be based on its political parties because it is often through them that the Australian people get to express their political opinions as well as ensuring that the changes that they want in their society are implemented. Political parties are extremely beneficial to democracy in Australia because they help in the swift development of the systems which are necessary to sustain the said democracy (Economou, 1997). It is often in the interests of the political parties involved to ensure that they maintain the democratic system in Australia because not to do so would create a situation where the entire state would fall into chaos, since there would be no stabilizing factor in the political sphere of society (Walsh, 2001). This shows that political parties play a crucial role in the society because they ensure that the diverse opinions of its people are represented (Zappala, 1998); hence there are no instances of dissatisfaction within it that may end up leading to revolutions such as the famous French Revolution. The Australian political system has what is considered to be a mild two party system, as seen through the existence of two dominant political groupings which often tend to pursue different political policies altogether. These groupings, namely the Australian Labour Party, and the Coalition, pursue different policies in all the aspects of government at the federal level and this ensures that the democratic system of Australia remains robust. Among the most contested aspects of policy that have often led to the coalition between these two political parties has been on matters concerning the national security of Australia. Over the last few years, there has emerged a great debate between the Australian Labour Party and the

Financial Reporting and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Financial Reporting and Analysis - Essay Example This principle can also be termed as accrual basis accounting. c) Purchase for store equipment or office equipment for less than $25 are entered in miscellaneous expenses. The matching principle is followed here. Expenses and revenues have to be matched if it becomes reasonable to do so. Expenses should be recognized when a particular work or product contributes to revenue. It is not when the work is done or when the product is produced. Income is recognized the same way with the expenses whether it is earned, incurred and received or spent. Consistency is enhanced through this principle. f) Land purchased 15 years ago for $40500 and now worth $346 000 is still carried in the books at $40500 on the basis of the historical cost principle. Land is a long term asset and should be reported in the balance sheet at its purchase cost rather than its current market value. This principle is based It should be based on the cost of acqusation. The information provided by this principle is reliable although lacks relevance and that the reason why Debts and Securities are now being reported at their market values. g) Zero corporation reports the possible loss of $1 million after it was sued for breach of contract in accordance with the principle of full disclosure. This principle ensures that all the important financial information is fully included in financial statements. This principle is important since it ensures that a company reflects even negative information and also highlighting positive impacts (Gibson, 2008). When the financial statements are audited, an opinion is expressed, the opinion of the auditor should be expressed on the opinion that generally accepted accounting principles are followed and applied on the basis of consistency as they were applied in the preceding year (Ramos, 2006). Unqualified opinion –this type of an opinion has no financial statements

The History Of Virtualization Information Technology Essay

The History Of Virtualization Information Technology Essay Introduction Virtualization is one of the hottest innovations in the Information Technology field, with proven benefits that propel organizations to strategize for rapid planning and implementation of virtualization. As with any new technology, managers must be careful to analyze how that technology would best fit in their organization. In this document, we will provide an overview of virtualization to help shed light on this quickly evolving technology. History of Virtualization Virtualization is Brand New Again! Although virtualization seems to be a hot new cutting edge technology, IBM originally used it on their mainframes in the 1960s. The IBM 360/67 running the CP/CMS system used virtualization as an approach to time sharing. Each user would run their own 360 machine. Storage was partitioned into virtual disks called P-Disks for each user. Mainframe virtualization remained popular through the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s, virtualization kind of disappeared. During the 1980s, there were a couple of products made for Intel PCs. Simultask and Merger/386, both developed by Locus Computing Corporation, would run MS-DOS as guest operating systems. In 1988, Insignia Solutions released Soft PC which ran DOS on Sun and Macintosh platforms. The late 1990s would usher in the new wave of virtualization. In 1997, Connectix would release Virtual PC for the Macintosh. Later, Connectix would release a version for the Windows and subsequently be bought by Microsoft in 2003. In 1999, VMware would introduce its entry into virtualization. In the last decade, every major player in servers has integrated virtualization into their offerings. In addition to VMware and Microsoft, Sun, Veritas, and HP would all acquire virtualization technology. How Does Virtualization Work? In the enterprise IT world, servers are necessary to do many jobs. Traditionally each machine only does one job, and sometimes many servers are given the same job. The reason behind this is to keep hardware and software problems on one machine from causing problems for several programs. There are several problems with this approach however. The first problem is that it doesnt take advantage of modern server computers processing power.[11] Most servers only use a small percentage of their overall processing capabilities. The other problem is that the servers begin to take up a lot of physical space as the enterprise network grows larger and more complex. Data centers might become overcrowded with racks of servers consuming a lot of power and generating heat. Server virtualization tries to fix both of these problems in one fell swoop.[16] Server virtualization uses specially designed software in which an administrator can convert one physical server into multiple virtual machines. Each virtual server acts as a unique physical device that is capable of running its own operating system. Until recent technological developments, the only way to create a virtual server was to design special software to trick a servers CPU into providing processing power for several virtual machines. Today, however, processor manufacturers such as Intel and AMD offer processors with the capability of supporting virtual servers already built in. In the virtualized environment, the hardware doesnt create the virtual servers. Network administrators or engineers still need to create them using the right software. [11] In the world of information technology, server virtualization is still a hot topic. Still considered a new technology, several companies offer different approaches to server virtualization. There are three ways to create virtual servers; full virtualization, para-virtualization, and OS-level virtualization. In all three variations there are a few common traits. The physical server is always called the host. The virtual servers are called guests. The virtual servers all behave as if they were physical machines. However, in each of the different methods uses a different approach to allocating the physical server resources to virtual server needs. [11] Full Virtualization The full virtualization method uses software called a hypervisor. This hypervisor works directly with the physical servers CPU and disk space. It performs as the stage for the virtual servers operating system. This keeps each server completely autonomous and unconscious of the other servers running on the same physical machine. If necessary, the virtual servers can be running on different operating system software like Linux and/or Windows. The hypervisor also watches the physical servers resources. It relays resources from the physical machine to the appropriate virtual server as the virtual servers run their applications. Finally, because hypervisors have their own processing needs, the physical server must reserve some processing power and resources to run the hypervisor application. If not done properly, this can affect the overall performance and slow down applications. [11] Para-Virtualization Unlike the full virtualization method, the para-virtualization approach allows the guest servers to be aware of one another. Because, each operating system in the virtual servers is conscious of the demands being placed on the physical server by the other guests, the Para-virtualization hypervisor doesnt require as much processing power to oversee the guest operating systems. In this way the entire system works together as a unified organization. [11] OS-Level Virtualization The OS-level virtualization approach doesnt use a hypervisor at all. The virtualization capability is part of the host OS, instead. The host OS executes all of the functions of a fully virtualized hypervisor. Because the OS-level operates without the hypervisor, it limits all of the virtual servers to one operating system where the other two approaches allow for different OS usage on the virtual servers. The OS-level approach is known as the homogeneous environment because all of the guest operating systems must be the same. [11] With three different approaches to virtualization, the question remains as to which method is the best. This is where a complete understanding of enterprise and network requirements is imperative. If the enterprises physical servers all run on the same OS, then the OS-level approach might be the best solution. It tends to be faster and more efficient than the others. However, if the physical servers are running on several different operating systems, para-virtualization or full virtualization might be better approaches. Virtualization Standards With the ever-increasing adoption of virtualization, there are very few standards that actually reign as prevalent in this technology. As the migration to virtualization grows, so does the need for open industry standards. This is why the work on virtualization is viewed by several industry observers as a giant step in the right direction. The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) currently promotes standards for virtualization management to help industry suppliers implement compliant, interoperable virtualization management solutions. The strongest standard to be created for this technology was the Standardization of Management in a Virtualized Environment. It was accomplished by a team who builds on standards already in place. This standard lowers the IT learning curve and complexity for vendors implementing this support in their management solutions. Its ease-of-use makes this standard successful. The new standard recognizes supported virtualization management capabilities, including the ability to: discover inventory virtual computer systems manage lifecycle of virtual computer systems create/modify/delete virtual resources monitor virtual systems for health and performance Virtualization standards are not suffering as a result of poor development but rather because of the common IT challenge involved in pleasing all users. Until virtualization is standardized, network professionals must continue to meet these challenges within a dynamic data center. For example, before the relationship between Cisco and VMWare was established Ciscos Data Center 3.0 was best described as scrawny. 150 million dollars later, Cisco was able to establish a successful integration that allows the VFrame to load VMware ESX Server onto bare-metal computer hardware something that previously could only be done with Windows and Linux and configure the network and storage connections that ESX required. In addition, Microsoft made pledges only in the Web services arena, where it faces tougher open standards competition. The companys Open Specification Promise allows every individual and organization in the world to make use of Virtual Hard Disk Image Format forever, Microsoft said in a statement. VHD allows the packaging of an application with that applications Windows operating system. Several such combinations, each in its own virtual machine, can run on a single piece of hardware. The future standard of virtualization is in Open Virtual machine Format (OVF). OVF doesnt aim to replace the pre-existing formats, but instead ties them together in a standard-based XML package that contains all the necessary installation and configuration parameters. This, in theory, will allow any virtualization platform (that implements the standard) to run the virtual machines. OVF will set some safeguards as well. The format will permit integrity checking of the VMs to ensure they have not been tampered with after the package was produced. Virtualization in the Enterprise Microsofts Approach (Toms needs references) Virtualization is an approach to deploying computing resources that isolates different layers-hardware, software, data, networks, storage-from each other. Typically today, an operating system is installed directly onto a computers hardware. Applications are installed directly onto the operating system. The interface is presented through a display connected directly to the local machine. Altering one layer often affects the others, making changes difficult to implement. By using software to isolate these layers from each other, virtualization makes it easier to implement changes. The result is simplified management, more efficient use of IT resources, and the flexibility to provide the right computing resources, when and where they are needed. Bob Muglia, Senior Vice President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft Corporation The typical discussions of virtualization focus on server hardware virtualization (which will be discussed later in this article). However, there is more to virtualization than just server virtualization. This section presents Microsofts virtualization strategy. By looking at Microsofts virtualization strategy, we can see other areas, beside server virtualization, where virtualization can be used in the enterprise infrastructure. Server Virtualization Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 In Server virtualization, one physical server is made to appear as multiple servers. Microsoft has two products for virtual servers. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 was made to run on Windows Server 2003. The current product is Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, which will only run on 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008. Both products are considered hypervisors, a term coined by IBM in 1972. A hypervisor is the platform that enables multiple operating systems to run on a single physical computer. Microsoft Virtual Server is considered a Type 2 hypervisor. A Type 2 hypervisor runs within the host computers operating system. Hyper-V is considered a Type 1 hypervisor, also called a bare-metal hypervisor. Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the physical hardware (bare metal) of the host computer. A virtual machine; whether we are talking about Microsoft, VMWare, Citrix, or Parallels; basically consists of two files, a configuration file and a virtual hard drive file. This is true for desktop virtualization as well. For Hyper-V, there is a .vmc file for the virtual machine configuration and a .vhd file for the virtual hard drive. The virtual hard drive holds the OS and data for the virtual server. Business continuity can be enhanced by using virtual servers. Microsofts System Center Virtual Machine Manager allows an administrator to move a virtual machine to another physical host without the end users realizing it. With this feature, maintenance can be carried out without bringing the servers down. Failover clustering between servers can also be enabled. This means that should a virtual server fail, another virtual server could take over, providing a disaster recovery solution. Testing and development is enhanced through the use of Hyper-V. Virtual server test systems that duplicate the production systems are used to test code. In UCFs Office of Undergraduate Studies, a virtual Windows 2003 server is used to test new web sites and PHP code. The virtual server and its physical production counterpart have the exact same software installed, to allow programmers and designers to check their web applications before releasing them to the public. By consolidating multiple servers to run on fewer physical servers, cost saving may be found in lower cooling and electricity needs, lower hardware needs, and less physical space to house the data center. Server consolidation is also a key technology for Green computing initiatives. Computer resources are also optimized, for example CPUs will see less idle time. Server virtualization also maximizes licensing. For example, purchasing one Microsoft Server Enterprise license will allow you to run four virtual servers using the same license. Desktop Virtualization Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) Desktop virtualization is very similar to server virtualization. A client operating system, such as Windows 7, is used to run a guest operating system, such as Windows XP. This is usually done to support applications or hardware not supported in the current operating system (This is why Microsoft included Windows XP mode in versions of Windows 7). Microsofts Virtual PC is the foundation for this desktop virtualization. Virtual PC allows a desktop computer to run a guest operating system (OS) which is independent instance of an OS on top of their host OS. Virtual PC emulates a standard PC hardware environment and is independent of the hosts hardware or setup. Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) is a managed client-hosted desktop virtualization solution. MED-V builds upon Virtual PC and adds features to deploy, manage, and control the virtual images. The images can also be remotely updated. The virtual machines run on the client computer. Also, applications that have been installed on the virtual computer can be listed on the host machines Start menu or as a desktop shortcut, giving the end user a seamless experience. MED-V can be very useful to support legacy applications that may not be able to run on the latest deployed operating system. The virtual images are portable and that makes it useful for a couple of scenarios. Employees that use their personal computers for work can now use a corporate managed virtual desktop. This solves a common problem where the personal computer might be running a home version of the operating system that does not allow it to connect to a corporate network. This also means that the enterprise only makes changes to the virtual computer and makes not changes to the personal computers OS. The other scenario where portability plays a factor is that the virtual image could be saved to a removable device, such as a USB flash drive. The virtual image could then be run from the USB drive on any computer that has an installation of Virtual PC. Although this is listed as a benefit by Tulloch, I also see some problems with this scenario. USB flash drives sometimes get lost and losing a flash drive in this scenario is like losing a whole computer, so caution should be exercised so that sensitive data is not kept on the flash drive. Secondly, based on personal experience, even with a fast USB flash drive, the performance of the virtual computer running from the USB flash drive is poor as compared to running the same image from the hard drive. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is server based desktop virtualization. In MED-V, the virtual image is on the client machine and runs on the client hardware. In VDI, the virtual images are on a Window Server 2008 with Hyper-V server and run on the server. The users data and applications, therefore, reside on the server. This solution seems to be a combination of Hyper-V and Terminal Services (discussed later in this section). There are several benefits to this approach. Employees can work from any desktop, whether in the office or at home. Also, the client requirements are very low. Using VDI, the virtual images can be deployed not only to standard desktops PCs, but also to thin clients and netbooks. Security is also enhanced because all of the data is housed on servers in the data center. Finally, administration is easier and more efficient due to the centralized storage of the images. Application Virtualization Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) Application virtualization allows applications to be streamed and cached to the desktop computer. The applications do not actually install themselves into the desktop operating system. For example, no changes are actually made to the Windows registry. This allows for some unusual virtual tricks like being able to run two versions of Microsoft Office on one computer. Normally, this would be impossible. App-V allows administrators to package applications in a self-contained environment. This package contains a virtual environment and everything that the application needs to run. The client computer is able to execute this package using the App-V client software. Because the application is self-contained, it makes no changes to the client, including no changes to the registry. Applications can be deployed or published through the App-V Management server. App-V packages can also be deployed through Microsofts System Center Configuration Manager or standalone .msi files located on network shares or removable media. App-V has several benefits for the enterprise. There is a centralized management of the entire application life cycle. There is faster application deployment due to less time performing regression testing. Since App-V applications are self-contained, there are no software compatibility issues. You can also provide on-demand application deployment. Troubleshooting is also made easier by using App-V. When an application is installed on a client, it creates a cache on the local hard drive. If an App-V application fails, it can be reinstalled by deleting the cache file. Presentation Virtualization Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Terminal services, which has been around for many years, has been folded into Microsofts Virtualization offerings. A terminal server allows multiple users to connect. Each user receives a desktop view from the server in which they will run applications on the server. Any programs run within this desktop view actually execute on the terminal server. The client only receives the screen view from the server. The strategy employed here is that since the application will only use resources on the server, money can be spent on strong server hardware and money saved on lighter strength clients. Also, since the application is only on the server, it is easier to maintain the software, since it only needs to be updated on the server and not all of the clients. Also, since the application runs on the server, the data can be stored on the server as well, enhancing security. Another security feature is that every keystroke and mouse stroke is encrypted. The solution is also scalable and can be ex panded to use multiple servers in a farm. Terminal services applications can also be optimized for both high and low bandwidth scenarios. This is helpful for remote users accessing corporate applications from less than optimal connections. User-State Virtualization Roaming User Profiles, Folder Redirection, Offline Files This is another set of technologies that have been around since Windows 95 but have now been folded into the virtualization strategy. A user profile consists of registry entries and folders which define the users environment. The desktop background is a common setting that you will find as part of the user profile. Other items included in the user profile are application settings, Internet Explorer favorites, and documents, music, and picture folders. Roaming user profiles are profiles saved to a server that will follow a user to any computer that the user logs in to. For an example, a user with roaming profiles logs on to a computer on the factory floor and changes the desktop image to a picture of fluffy kittys. When he logs on to his office computer, the fluffy kittys are also on his office computers desktop as well. When using roaming profiles, one of the limitations is that the profile must be synchronized from the server to the workstation each time the user logs on. When the user logs off, the profile is then copied back up to the server. If folders, such as the documents folder, are included, the downloading and uploading can take some time. An improved solution is to use redirected folders. Folders, such as documents and pictures, can be redirected to a server location. This transparent to the user, for the user will still access his documents folder as if they were part of his local profile. This also helps with data backup, since it is easier to backup a single server than document folders located on multiple client computers. A limitation with roaming user profiles occurs when the server or network access to the server is down. Offline files attempt to address that limitation by providing access to network files even if the server location is inaccessible. When used with Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection, files saved in redirected folders are automatically made available for offline use. Files marked for offline use are stored on the local client in a client-side cache. Files are synchronized between the client-side cache and the server. If connection to the server is lost, the Offline Files feature takes over. The user may not even realize that there have been any problems with the server. Together, Roaming User profiles, Folder Redirection, and Offline Files are also an excellent disaster recovery tool. When a desktop computer fails, the biggest loss are the users data. With these three technologies in place, all the user would need to do is to log into another standard corporate issued computer and resume working. There is no downtime in trying to recover or restore the users data since it was all safely stored on a server. Review of Virtualization in the Enterprise Virtualization can enhance the way an enterprise runs the data center. Server virtualization can optimize hardware utilization. Desktop virtualization can provide a standard client for your end users. Application virtualization can allow central administration of applications and fewer chances of application incompatibilities. Presentation virtualization allows central management of applications and allowing low end clients, such as thin clients and netbooks, to run software to perform beyond the hardware limitations. User state virtualization gives the user a computer environment that will follow them no matter what corporate computer they use. Benefits and Advantages of Virtualization Virtualization has evolved into a very important entity and a platform for IT to take a step into computing history, being used by countless companies both large and small. This is due to Virtualizations capability to proficiently simplify IT operations and allow IT organizations to respond faster to changing business demands. Although virtualization started out as a technology used mostly in testing and development environments, in recent years it has moved toward the mainstream in production servers. While there are many advantages of this technology, the following are the top 5. Virtualization is cost efficient Virtualization allows a company or organization to save money on hardware, space, and energy. Using existing servers and/or disks to add more performance without adding additional capacity, virtualization directly translates into savings on hardware requirements. When it is possible to deploy three or more servers on one physical machine, it is no longer necessary to purchase three or more separate machines, which may in fact have only been used occasionally. In addition to one-time expenses, virtualization can help save money in the long run as well because it can drastically reduce energy consumption. When there are fewer physical machines this means less energy to power (and cool) them is needed. Virtualization is Green GreenIT is not just a fashion trend. Eco-friendly technologies are in high demand and virtualization solutions are certainly among them. As already mentioned, server virtualization and storage virtualization lead to decreased energy consumption; this automatically includes them in the list of green technologies. Virtualization Eases Administration and Migration When there are fewer physical machines, this also makes their administration easier. The administration of virtualized and non-virtualized servers and disks is practically the same. However, there are cases when virtualization poses some administration challenges and might require some training regarding how to handle the virtualization application. Virtualization Makes an Enterprise More Efficient Increased efficiency is one more advantage of virtualization. Virtualization helps to utilize the existing infrastructure in a better way. Typically an enterprise uses a small portion of its computing power. It is not uncommon to see server load in the single digits. Keeping underutilized machines is expensive and inefficient and virtualization helps to deal with this problem as well. When several servers are deployed onto one physical machine, this will increase capacity utilization to 90 per cent or more. Improved System Reliability and Security Virtualization of systems helps prevent system crashes due to memory corruption caused by software like device drivers. VT-d for Directed I/O Architecture provides methods to better control system devices by defining the architecture for DMA and interrupt remapping to ensure improved isolation of I/O resources for greater reliability, security, and availability. Dynamic Load Balancing and Disaster Recovery As server workloads vary, virtualization provides the ability for virtual machines that are over utilizing the resources of a server to be moved to underutilized servers.   This dynamic load balancing creates efficient utilization of server resources. In addition, disaster recovery is a critical component for IT, as system crashes can create huge economic losses. Virtualization technology enables a virtual image on a machine to be instantly re-imaged on another server if a machine failure occurs. Limitations and/or Disadvantages of Virtualization While one could conclude that virtualization is the perfect technology for any enterprise, it does have several limitations or disadvantages. Its very important for a network administrator to research server virtualization and his or her own networks architecture and needs before attempting to engineer a solution. Understanding the networks architecture needs allows for the adoption of a realistic approach to virtualization and for better judgment of whether it is a suitable solution in a given scenario or not. Some of the most notable limitations and disadvantages are having a single point of failure, hardware and performance demands, and migration. Single Point of Failure One of the biggest disadvantages of virtualization is that there is a single point of failure. When the physical machine, where all the virtualized solutions run, fails or if the virtualized solution itself fails, everything crashes. Imagine, for example, youre running several important servers on one physical host and its RAID controller fails, wiping out everything. What do you do? How can you prevent that? The disaster caused by physical failure can however be avoided with one of several responsible virtualized environment options. The first of these options is clustering. Clustering allows several physical machines to collectively host one or more virtual servers. They generally provide two distinct roles, which are to provide for continuous data access, even if a failure with a system or network device occurs, and to load balance a high volume of clients across several physical hosts.[14] In clustering, clients dont connect to a physical computer but instead connect to a logical virtual server running on top of one or more physical computers. Another solution is to backup the virtual machines with a continuous data protection solution. Continuous data protection makes it possible to restore all virtual machines quickly to another host if the physical server ever goes down. If the virtual infrastructure is well planned, physical failures wont be a frequent problem. However, this solut ion does require an investment in redundant hardware, which more or less eliminates some of the advantages of virtualization. [12] Hardware and Performance Demands Server virtualization may save money because less hardware is required thus allowing a decrease the physical number of machines in an enterprise, it does not mean that newer and faster computers are not necessary. These solutions require powerful machines. If the physical server doesnt have enough RAM or CPU power, performance will be disrupted. Virtualization essentially divides the servers processing power up among the virtual servers. When the servers processing power cant meet the application demands, everything slows down. [11] Therefore, things that shouldnt take very long could slow down to take hours or may even cause the server to crash. Network administrators should take a close look at CPU usage before dividing a physical server into multiple virtual machines. [11] Migration In current virtualization methodology, it is only possible to migrate a virtual server from one physical machine to another if both physical machines use the same manufacturers processors. For example, if a network uses one server that runs an Intel processor and another that uses an AMD processor, it is not possible to transfer a virtual server from one physical machine to the other. [11] One might ask why this is important to note as a limitation. If a physical server needs to be fixed, upgraded, or just maintained, transferring the virtual servers to other machines can decrease the amount of required down time during the maintenance. If porting the virtual server to another physical machine wasnt an option, then all of the applications on that virtual machine would be unavailable during the maintenance downtime. [11] Virtualization Market Size and Growth Market research reports indicate that the total desktop and server virtualization market value grew by 43% from $1.9 Billion in 2008 to $2.7 Billion in 2009. Researchers estimate that by 2013, approximately