Data Security in MIS (MIS 29.04.2021)

Data Security in MIS

Classification is an effective way to protect your valuable data. By identifying the types of data, you store and pinpointing where sensitive data resides, you are well positioned to:

1. Prioritize your security measures, adjusting your security controls based on data sensitivity

2. Understand who can access, modify or delete data

3. Assess risks, such the business impact of a breach, ransomware attack or other threat

 

Types of Data Classification

1. Content-based classification inspects and interprets files to identify sensitive information.

2. Context-based classification looks at application, location, creator tags and other variables as indirect indicators of sensitive information.

3. User-based classification depends on manual selection of each document by a person.

Examples of Data Classification Categories

Example of a Basic Classification Scheme

The simplest scheme is three-level classification:

1. Public data — Data that can be freely disclosed to the public. Examples include your company contact information and browser cookie policy.

2. Internal data — Data that has low security requirements but is not meant for public disclosure, like marketing research.

3. Restricted data — Highly sensitive internal data. Disclosure could negatively affect operations and put the organization at financial or legal risk. Restricted data requires the highest level of security protection.

 

Example of a Government Classification Scheme

Government agencies often use three levels of sensitivity but give them different labels than listed above: top secret, secret and public. For more complex data structures, more levels may be added. Here is a five-level strategy with examples:

1. Top secret — Cryptologic and communications intelligence

2. Secret — Select military plans

3. Confidential — Data indicating the strength of ground forces

4. Sensitive unclassified — Data tagged “For Official Use Only”

5. Unclassified — Data that may be publicly released with authorization

 

Example of Commercial Classification

Typically, organizations that store and process commercial data use four levels to classify data: three confidential levels and one public level. Some expand that to a five-level system with the following levels:

1. Sensitive — Intellectual property, PHI

2. Confidential — Vendor contracts, employee reviews

3. Private — Customer names or images

4. Proprietary — Organizational processes

5. Public — Information that may be disclosed to anyone.

The 7 P’s of Services Marketing - Pricing (Service Marketing 29.04.2021)

The 7 P’s of Services Marketing

2. Pricing: Pricing of services is tougher than pricing of goods. While the goods can be priced easily by taking into account the raw material costs, in case of services attendant costs - such as labour and overhead costs & others - also need to be factored in. Thus, a restaurant not only has to charge for the cost of the food served but also has to calculate a price for the ambience etc provided. The final price for the service is then arrived at by including a mark-up for an adequate profit margin.

 

Price:

Price is the amount a consumer has to pay to purchase and consume the service. Price from the view point of the service provider represents revenue and this is the only component of the service marketing mix which brings him revenue whereas all other components are sources of expenses.

 

Service being intangible in nature, pricing is a very difficult and complex issue as compared with pricing of goods. Price is also considered an indicator of quality-of-service marketing. It is essential, therefore that the service firm prices its services very appropriately. Price discrimination is a common phenomenon in pricing services.

Ideally, the price should provide for the cost of generating the service and also a certain amount of profit to the service provider.

 

A service provider may follow any of the following pricing objectives while pricing:

i. Profit related objectives

ii. Volume or value of sales objective

iii. Competition based objectives

iv. Social responsibility related objectives

v. Market leadership related objectives

vi. Market share related objectives

 

 

The following are the factors influencing pricing decisions:

i. Cost of providing the service

ii. Market demand

iii. Expected competitors’ reactions

iv. Government restrictions

v. Company objectives

vi. Barriers of entry and exit in the industry

vii. The prevailing economic situation

Advantages of Workforce Diversity (Management-1 29April 2021)

Advantages of Workforce Diversity

Business firms that manage diversity enjoy a strategic advantage in the following manner:

 

(i) An organisation or a company with well-managed diversity will solve the conflicts resulting from opposing viewpoints, into a completer and more inventive / innovative solutions.

 

(ii) An organisation that promotes equal employment opportunity for diverse groups will generally do better at attracting and retaining talent from all backgrounds, thereby increasing a pool of skilled employees. The differences among people lie a wide variety of talents and perspectives. The broader the range of talents and sweep of perspectives among the employees, the better would be the opportunity for the business to succeed.

 

(iii) Business with workforce from varied backgrounds can more effectively serve the customers, who are themselves diverse. Such employees can interact with local customers in an effective manner and pay careful attention to their customers’ sensitivities and expectations,

 

(iv) Companies with diverse workforce are able to present their product and services in a better way.

 

(v) Companies with effective diversity programs can avoid damage to their corporate reputation or costly lawsuits from charges of discrimination or cultural insensitivity.

 

(vi) The global market place of today demands a workforce with language skills, cultural sensitivity and awareness of national and other differences across the market in order to be successful. For example, the multinationals operate in different countries, where the cultural practices vary radically. Workforce which can fit in the cultural understanding of the country where the multinational is operating is a must.

 

Workforce Diversity in India

The human resource managers in Indian organisations have to respond to a wide range of diversity issues due to a diverse workforce of varying socio-economic, ethnic and linguistic composition.

Various categories of employees in the Indian organisations include the following:

 

1. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs):

The candidates belonging to scheduled castes and tribes determined by a notification of the Central Government are given preferences to the extent of 15 percent and 7.5 percent respectively in case of jobs in the government departments and public sector enterprises. Recently, some political parties have called for reservation of jobs in the private sector also for the scheduled castes and tribes.

 

2. Other Backward Castes (OBCs):

The Central Government has made provisions for reserving jobs upto 27.5% in the government departments and public sector undertakings for those who belong to other backward classes. Though there is no such compulsion in case of private enterprises, they already have employees belonging to the OBCs.

 

3. Disabled or Physically Handicapped Persons:

Employees whose work assignments are limited by their physical abilities have in the past been referred to an “handicapped” or ‘disabled”. Today, the more politically correct term is ‘physically challenged’ for those individuals who have hearing, speech, visual, orthopaedic, or other health impairments.

The Central Government has provided for reservation of jobs in Group C and Group D posts for the blind, deaf and orthopedically handicapped persons. Socially responsible organisations in the private sector also offer employment to the physically challenged persons.

 

4. Ex-Defence Personnel:

Ex-defence personnel or ex-servicemen who are trained and disciplined may also be offered jobs in the organisations. This would increase workforce diversity in the organisation.

 

5. Displaced Persons:

The people who are displaced because of acquisition of land for public purpose or because of other causes like flood, militancy, etc. may be preferred for jobs in public enterprises on humanitarian grounds.

 

6. Female Employees:

The ratio of women workers at the place of work is on the rise. This has been associated with the problems of discrimination and sexual harassment. The organisations need to take steps to deal with such problems

 

The 7 P’s of the Retail Marketing Mix - Product (Retail Strategy 28.04.2021)

The 7 P’s of the Retail Marketing Mix

Retail marketing mix refers to the variables that a retailer can use in variable methods to arrive at an effective marketing strategy to attract his prospects (Customer).

The variables are the varieties of merchandise and assortment along with the services that are offered, including advertising, pricing, layout and promotion and also store location design and visual merchandising.

Retailers of an employ a variety of combinations to promote their business and to ensure proper reach to their prospective customers. The use of multiple methods depending on their objectives to promote themselves and create a market profile.

The choice of methods of promotion varies and is dependent on the nature of the business, the goods that are kept in the retail store, and other such multiple factors.

The credibility, control, and flexibility along with the cost that is associated with the retail promotion methods determine the choice of method of promotion.

 

There are 7 Ps of the retail mix, which is as follows:

Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Process, People & Physical Evidence.

 

1) Product

Product is the basic element of any and every organization. Some people go to the extent to comment that an organization is nothing but a collection of products. The product line is defined as the varieties of the products that are produced by a company, or that is stocked by a retailer.

Collection of all the products and offering the company is known as product mix. The same products that are produced by the company are the ones that are sold by the retailer and kept in the retail store. Product mix refers to the length, breadth and depth of the products.

Result of the product is the total number of products that are present in the product line while the breadth of the product refers to the number of product lines that are offered by the company and finally the depth of the product means the various varieties of a particular product in that particular product line.

The retail product mix is also called as a product assortment (classification). Making sure that the availability of the product and inventory levels are according to the demands of the customer is very crucial for a retail store manager. Maintaining adequate inventory levels of product to meet the demands of the customer is very important.

 

Multiple strategies can be used in case of retail product mix such as

1.               New product launches

2.               Modification of existing product lines

3.               Trading down or trading up

4.               Assortment reduction or line elimination

5.               Management of PLC

Multiple combinations are used by retailers to achieve their business and promotional objectives.

 

Dimensions of a Product Mix

 

1 Width

Width, also known as breadth, refers to the number of product lines offered by a company. For example, Kellogg’s product lines consist of: (1) Ready-to-eat cereal, (2) Pastries and breakfast snacks, (3) Crackers and cookies, and (4) Frozen/Organic/Natural goods.

 

2 Length

Length refers to the total number of products in a firm’s product mix. For example, consider a car company with two car product lines (3-series and 5-series). Within each product line series are three types of cars. In this example, the product length of the company would be 6.

 

3 Depth

Depth refers to the number of variations within a product line. For example, continuing with the car company example above, a 3-series product line may offer several variations such as coupe, sedan, truck, and convertible. In such a case, the depth of the 3-series product line would be 4.

 

4 Consistency

Consistency refers to how closely related product lines are to each other. It is in reference to their use, production, and distribution channels. The consistency of a product mix is advantageous for firms attempting to position themselves as a niche producer or distributor. In addition, consistency aids with ensuring a firm’s brand image is synonymous with the product or service itself.

 

Common steps of data classification (MIS 28.04.2021)

Common steps of data classification

Most commonly, not all data needs to be classified, and some is even better destroyed. It is important to begin by prioritizing which types of data need to go through the classification and reclassification processes.

 

In addition, companies need to always consider the ethical and privacy practices that best reflect their standards and the expectations of clients and customers:

 

1. Scan. This step involves taking stock of an entire database and making a digital game plan to tackle the organization process.

 

2. Identify. Anything from file type to character units to size of packets of data may be used to sort the information into searchable, sortable categories.

 

3. Separate. Once the data is categorized with a system the data science professional implements, it can be separated by those categories whenever the system is called to bring them up.

 

Unauthorized disclosure of information that falls within one of the protected categories of a company's data classification systems is likely a breach of protocol and, in some countries, may even be considered a serious crime. In order to enforce proper protocols, the protected data needs to first be sorted into its category of sensitivity.

 

Data classification can be used to further categorize structured data, but it is an especially important process for getting the most out of unstructured data by maximizing its usefulness for an organization.

 

Types of data classification

 

Classification is an important part of data management that varies slightly from data characterization. Classification is all about sorting information and data, while categorization involves the actual systems that hold that information and data.

There are certain data classification standard categories. Each one of these standards may have federal and local laws about how they need to be handled. They include the following:

 

1. Public information. This standard is maintained by state institutions and subject to disclosure as part of certain laws. Eg. Mobile location data

 

2. Confidential information. This may have legal restrictions about the way it is handled, or there may be other consequences around the way it is handled. Eg. Defence data

 

3. Sensitive information. This is any information stored or handled by state institutions that include authorization requirements and other rigid rules around its use.

 

4. Personal information. Generally, peoples' personal information is considered protected by law, and it needs to be handled following certain protocols and rules for proper use. Sometimes there are gaps between the moral requirements and contemporary legislative protections for their use. Eg address & personal details of a person in bank.

 

The 7 P’s of Services Marketing - Product (Service Marketing 28.04.2021)

The 7 P’s of Services Marketing

 

The first four elements in the services marketing mix are the same as those in the traditional marketing mix. However, given the unique nature of services, the implications of these are slightly different in case of services.

Marketing mix means to collect and blend the resources to maximize the customers’ satisfaction and achieve the objective of the organization. The salient features such as intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability make marketing of services a unique challenge. The traditional marketing mix which includes (1) product, (2) place, (3) price and (4) promotion could be extended to another 3Ps which are (5) physical evidence, (6) process and (7) people.

 

1. Product: In case of services, the ‘product’ is intangible, heterogeneous and perishable. Moreover, its production and consumption are inseparable. Hence, there is scope for customizing the offering as per customer requirements and the actual customer encounter therefore assumes particular significance. However, too much customization would compromise the standard delivery of the service and adversely affect its quality. Hence particular care has to be taken in designing the service offering.

Product / Service:

The service or activity itself is a product in service marketing. Since service products are intangible their performances are evaluated by the consumers based on features, quality, availability etc. of the services. On account of this intangibility, the firm may find it difficult to understand how consumers perceive their services. Therefore, in order to attract consumers towards a particular service, the services marketer should rely on tangible offerings to build an image of the organization and its services in the market.

The service product is therefore a package consisting of the intangible service and certain tangible offerings such as the brochures, the furniture at the service outlet etc.

 

 

 

A service package is also classified as follows:

 

i. The core service – This is the actual service which is absolutely intangible. It is this service which will enable the consumers to satisfy their needs. Examples – the consultation offered by a consultant, the counselling offered by a counsellor etc.

 

ii. The facilitating services – Since services are intangible, their delivery to the consumers requires certain facilitating aspects which may be physical entities also. These are the facilitating services. Examples – a consultant needs an office to interact with the client; a counsellor needs a room to counsel people etc.

 

iii. Supporting or supplementary or augmented services – These are the services which are offered by the service providers to enhance the value of the core services. Examples – a lodge offering travel guidance to its clients, a doctor offering general health tips etc. Providing such additional services makes the core services more attractive from a marketing point of view.