Kinderworld is an International school center that offers education services for the pupils in Australia. This center has expanded to have centers in other major cities within Australia. It was first established in 1986 starting with a pre-school. One of their core values is that they believe in an education which integrates western values with an International outlook on education. They have opened educational centers in other countries like Vietnam, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. Kinderworld group has impacted many students and teachers alike. The new center in Vietnam is attracting new group of teachers who have an interest in the place because of its geography and culture. With this trend and endowment, this center will boost the growth of this center to new heights. With the speed and the direction that Kinderworld is taking, it is going far and will be the center of choice for pre-unit education in Australia and Vietnam.
Cloud computing will be the way to go and many of the staff are alluding to this fact. With the centers in other countries being developed, it is imperative that there is a way of developing the systems used in this organization so that it is cost-effective and equally effective across all the centers. Cloud computing proves to be the technology that Kinderworld is to use in order to have only one installation of the program and used across all the centers. The issues of security will be handled by the cloud computing provider. This will ensure that the task of security is left to be handled by professionals. It is with the implementation of this technology that Kinderworld will realize the full utilization of technology for the various processes in the center. The administrators of Kinderworld should be keen to make sure that cloud computing is effected.
1.1 Case study Kinderworld group of schools
1.1.1 Strategy Comparison
With cloud computing, the vision and mission of the establishment will be well catered for. The group believes in offering Western education based on Eastern values. This will be achieved very comfortably with the use of cloud computing. This is true because with this technology, applications used for education in the Western countries will be accessed throughout the world for all and sundry to have a look at. The era where developers from the Western countries were to be hired in order to come up with those solutions is no longer there. With tools now readily available thanks to cloud computing, developing of systems to be used will be easier. Good systems of education used in the West will be readily available with low cost.
It is becoming clear that good systems used in schools can have a positive impact on the students and will add more value to time for the teachers. Teachers will find more time than before by doing some other tasks instead of doing tasks that could be easily achieved through the use of the computing. The teaching materials can be archived in some folder in the system and this material can be accessed throughout all the campuses. This is better than the traditional way where teachers had to make this material year in year out. There is now more time to do other things.
1.1.2 Marketing Comparison
The Internet has come up with many applications that are there to outcompete corporations like Microsoft. There are Word processing applications, spreadsheets, presentation and many more from Google docs. There are applications that are being developed to reduce the cost of marketing in the enterprises. Kinderworld group can use the applications available on the Internet and integrate with cloud computing to reach out to a bigger audience and thus reduce marketing cost. Kinderworld group can use cloud computing to generate marketing words used in online marketing strategies like Googles AdWords to optimize the Organizations performance on search engines like Google and Yahoo. This can be achieved by using marketing applications available through cloud computing. By optimization, the search of schools will bring Kinderworld group to a better performance on the Internet.
1.1.3 Finance Comparison
The use of cloud computing at Kinderworld group will reduce unnecessary costs. Applications will be installed on remote computers and will be accessed from the various campuses instead of the traditional way where licenses are bought for all the client machines in all the campuses. Kinderworld group expenditure will be greatly reduced because the hardware that could have been purchased will be eradicated. Without cloud computing, the need to have a datacenter to manage all the information within the campuses found at Kinderworld group will be reduced. This is especially true because with the growth experienced at Kinderworld group it will see the more need to manage information. The best remedy for this is to have all the management done remotely to reduce the cost for management through economies of scale. There will be no need to have people who will work on the datacenter and thus the cost that could have been incurred on them will be used somewhere else.
1.1.4 Human Resources Comparison
The use of cloud computing will greatly revolutionize the human resource management in the Kinderworld group. With SaaS platforms for human resource management, tracking job applicants status, managing talents, and learning management at Kinderworld will be revolutionized (Fowler, Worthen, 2009). Kinderworld will be able to have shared services for its human resources which are located in the various campuses. With cloud computing, the overhead costs of starting shared services within Kinderworld will be bypassed. Kinderworld has not been able to implement shared services because of the initial cost of setting and implementing it. The Kinderworld group will operate as a virtual center for some of the employees because some of them will be able to work remotely from their homes as long as they have access to the Internet. This will be a major change in the human resource because the employees will be more productive as they will be in their best mood when working from home.
1.1.5 Leadership Comparison
With cloud computing, it will be possible to explore new ways of administering exams within Kinderworld group. The exams can be accessed and done online from the server which is stored on a remote server. The traditional way of doing exams by use of papers will be eliminated (Mather, Kumaraswamy, Latif, 2009). By so doing, Kinderworld will have cut their own market niche which others will be struggling to follow. The other enterprises with the same business model still use traditional ways of administering exams.
Another area where Kinderworld will be a leader is the way they market themselves. With the use of web based marketing techniques of AdWords a large audience will be reached. The traditional ways of marketing can be eliminated with the use of cloud computing where applications can be developed where it is possible to send emails to target audience and still not be considered as computer fraud happening. This is a sure way that Kinderworld can take to lead the competition.
1.1.5 IT Technology and Architecture Comparison
The use of cloud computing will greatly affect the way technology is introduced within Kinderworld. Hitherto, new applications have taken time to be deployed within Kinderworld. Even after being deployed, it has also taken time for these applications to be extended to the other campuses. With the use of cloud computing the time it takes for new applications to be introduced within Kinderworld headquarters and its campuses will be drastically reduced. This is because only one application will be installed in the cloud and all the clients will access the application without having to be configured. The purchase of licenses will be a thing of the past with cloud computing (Miller, 2008).). Only subscription will be paid for the use of web applications from the cloud.
The need to have server administrators will be eliminated in this new set up of cloud computing. The servers will be eliminated because the cloud will be managed from somewhere else. This is the new scenario that should be implemented in Kinderworld to eradicate the need to have experts who are expensive to pay (Scheier, 2009). The cost of building server rooms and datacenters will also be reduced. It will be a matter of buying client machines and connecting them to the Internet, a task which will be performed by the skilled IT personnel.
1.1.6 IT Governance and Decision-making Comparison
A transition to cloud computing at Kinderworld will enable a level of informed decision-making that has never been possible, at least with the use of technology. The use of cloud computing can be used at Kinderworld group to unlock one of the main drivers of unsustainable practices. If teachers, administrators, students, and subordinate staff at Kinderworld group are able to access services that use vast sets of dynamic, complex and data which has been un-integrated on the cloud before for less cost will lead to a great impact on the policy-making of the institution. The ability to market faster due to cloud computing will accelerate the workflow process (Tan, 2009).
1.1.7 IT Project Management Comparison
The use of cloud computing will help improve project management within the many campuses at Kinderworld group. There are many projects taking place at the various campuses at Kinderworld group. It will be tedious managing the various projects that are done independently and far away. There are campuses which are undergoing construction on their various facilities like the libraries, hostel facilities, administration blocks, projects looking for more improvement for educational standards, and IT projects. There must be a way of managing these projects within Kinderworld group to bring the best out of these projects. There must be a system which will be enable project members and project managers to log in and give their progress reports about the same. The use of manual system will beat the efficiency sought all along. The various IT projects that will be performed, now with the use of applications and software available from the cloud, will be faster with faster and efficient project management applications. It will be imperative to use good project management systems which will give competitors a run for their money (Martin, Hoover, 2008). The availability of project management software like Gannchart will accelerate the completion and deployment of projects. The project management will be installed as a web based application which will be accessed from all the campuses of Kinderworld. This is a boost to the management of the projects.
1.1.8 Other areas
Communication amongst the employees will be greatly boosted within Kinderworld. Communication is one of the most important things that must be put into consideration for the success of any enterprise. With the location of employees located in different locations in this organization, it is imperative that there is an effective way to maintain communication between the management and the employees and between employees themselves. Cloud computing will enable the development of applications for social networking which is common in the market. The current situation in Kinderworld will be greatly reduced where communication is done using telephone and email (Beard, 2008). This ancient way of communication has limited interactivity and very high cost. Cloud computing will cut down the telephone bill overhead cost.
2.0 Data collection methodology
I used a number of data collection techniques to gather the data and come up with heresies. The data were important in this study to look at the adoption degree of this new technology. An interview was conducted for SPT, which is an Internet Service Provider company, staff. The interview excerpt can be found in Appendix B. He accepted that, indeed the center needed new ways of managing their systems. The data collection that was used to get this information included the following
2.1 Questionnaires
There are questionnaires which were filled by the administration to look at the ways of improving the current systems. The questionnaires are included in the appendices page of this paper. The Internet service provider for Kinderworld Group was also interviewed to get their views on the effect of cloud computing in Kinderworld systems and operations.
2.2 E-mail messaging
The use of e-mail messages became handy when looking for the views of the users of the current systems in Kinderworld. A sample of Kinderworld staff ranging from the lecturers, accountants, and other administrators.
2.3 Social networking tools
Some small percentage of data gathering techniques included use of social sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate. Most of those whom we used social sites to interview them alluded to the fact that cloud computing could revolutionize the processes in Kinderworld. They argued that cloud computing had the potential of cutting down costs of processing transactions by a great margin.
The data from these methods were very instrumental in the analysis and conclusions in this paper.
3.0 Data analysis
To get the inferences, I used the program statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). This is because it has good tools to get the statistical comparisons like the Poisson distribution, chi-square tests and correlations.
From the data in SPSS, the following were the results of the cross-tabulation that was done for the respondents.
From the data in the inferences above, it is clear that IT professionals are the leading lot in the support of cloud computing. The IT professionals are the leading with a total 14 respondents supporting the introduction of cloud computing. It is only one respondent who is an IT professional who did not believe that cloud computing can bring revolutions to the education center. It is also clear from the table that those who have done minimal computer applications in their literacy classes have full confidence in cloud computing. This group includes the back-office officers who have the basic knowledge of using computers. They also believe that cloud computing is the way to go.
The chi square tests were also performed to get the likelihood of cloud computing adoption.
From the above results, it is clear there are many respondents who support automation in this era and age. The Pearson square-test indicates that there is a high likelihood of the staff and subordinate to support and support automation through cloud computing.
Cloud computing will be the way to go and many of the staff are alluding to this fact. With the centers in other countries being developed, it is imperative that there is a way of developing the systems used in this organization so that it is cost-effective and equally effective across all the centers. Cloud computing proves to be the technology that Kinderworld is to use in order to have only one installation of the program and used across all the centers. The issues of security will be handled by the cloud computing provider. This will ensure that the task of security is left to be handled by professionals. It is with the implementation of this technology that Kinderworld will realize the full utilization of technology for the various processes in the center. The administrators of Kinderworld should be keen to make sure that cloud computing is effected.
1.1 Case study Kinderworld group of schools
1.1.1 Strategy Comparison
With cloud computing, the vision and mission of the establishment will be well catered for. The group believes in offering Western education based on Eastern values. This will be achieved very comfortably with the use of cloud computing. This is true because with this technology, applications used for education in the Western countries will be accessed throughout the world for all and sundry to have a look at. The era where developers from the Western countries were to be hired in order to come up with those solutions is no longer there. With tools now readily available thanks to cloud computing, developing of systems to be used will be easier. Good systems of education used in the West will be readily available with low cost.
It is becoming clear that good systems used in schools can have a positive impact on the students and will add more value to time for the teachers. Teachers will find more time than before by doing some other tasks instead of doing tasks that could be easily achieved through the use of the computing. The teaching materials can be archived in some folder in the system and this material can be accessed throughout all the campuses. This is better than the traditional way where teachers had to make this material year in year out. There is now more time to do other things.
1.1.2 Marketing Comparison
The Internet has come up with many applications that are there to outcompete corporations like Microsoft. There are Word processing applications, spreadsheets, presentation and many more from Google docs. There are applications that are being developed to reduce the cost of marketing in the enterprises. Kinderworld group can use the applications available on the Internet and integrate with cloud computing to reach out to a bigger audience and thus reduce marketing cost. Kinderworld group can use cloud computing to generate marketing words used in online marketing strategies like Googles AdWords to optimize the Organizations performance on search engines like Google and Yahoo. This can be achieved by using marketing applications available through cloud computing. By optimization, the search of schools will bring Kinderworld group to a better performance on the Internet.
1.1.3 Finance Comparison
The use of cloud computing at Kinderworld group will reduce unnecessary costs. Applications will be installed on remote computers and will be accessed from the various campuses instead of the traditional way where licenses are bought for all the client machines in all the campuses. Kinderworld group expenditure will be greatly reduced because the hardware that could have been purchased will be eradicated. Without cloud computing, the need to have a datacenter to manage all the information within the campuses found at Kinderworld group will be reduced. This is especially true because with the growth experienced at Kinderworld group it will see the more need to manage information. The best remedy for this is to have all the management done remotely to reduce the cost for management through economies of scale. There will be no need to have people who will work on the datacenter and thus the cost that could have been incurred on them will be used somewhere else.
1.1.4 Human Resources Comparison
The use of cloud computing will greatly revolutionize the human resource management in the Kinderworld group. With SaaS platforms for human resource management, tracking job applicants status, managing talents, and learning management at Kinderworld will be revolutionized (Fowler, Worthen, 2009). Kinderworld will be able to have shared services for its human resources which are located in the various campuses. With cloud computing, the overhead costs of starting shared services within Kinderworld will be bypassed. Kinderworld has not been able to implement shared services because of the initial cost of setting and implementing it. The Kinderworld group will operate as a virtual center for some of the employees because some of them will be able to work remotely from their homes as long as they have access to the Internet. This will be a major change in the human resource because the employees will be more productive as they will be in their best mood when working from home.
1.1.5 Leadership Comparison
With cloud computing, it will be possible to explore new ways of administering exams within Kinderworld group. The exams can be accessed and done online from the server which is stored on a remote server. The traditional way of doing exams by use of papers will be eliminated (Mather, Kumaraswamy, Latif, 2009). By so doing, Kinderworld will have cut their own market niche which others will be struggling to follow. The other enterprises with the same business model still use traditional ways of administering exams.
Another area where Kinderworld will be a leader is the way they market themselves. With the use of web based marketing techniques of AdWords a large audience will be reached. The traditional ways of marketing can be eliminated with the use of cloud computing where applications can be developed where it is possible to send emails to target audience and still not be considered as computer fraud happening. This is a sure way that Kinderworld can take to lead the competition.
1.1.5 IT Technology and Architecture Comparison
The use of cloud computing will greatly affect the way technology is introduced within Kinderworld. Hitherto, new applications have taken time to be deployed within Kinderworld. Even after being deployed, it has also taken time for these applications to be extended to the other campuses. With the use of cloud computing the time it takes for new applications to be introduced within Kinderworld headquarters and its campuses will be drastically reduced. This is because only one application will be installed in the cloud and all the clients will access the application without having to be configured. The purchase of licenses will be a thing of the past with cloud computing (Miller, 2008).). Only subscription will be paid for the use of web applications from the cloud.
The need to have server administrators will be eliminated in this new set up of cloud computing. The servers will be eliminated because the cloud will be managed from somewhere else. This is the new scenario that should be implemented in Kinderworld to eradicate the need to have experts who are expensive to pay (Scheier, 2009). The cost of building server rooms and datacenters will also be reduced. It will be a matter of buying client machines and connecting them to the Internet, a task which will be performed by the skilled IT personnel.
1.1.6 IT Governance and Decision-making Comparison
A transition to cloud computing at Kinderworld will enable a level of informed decision-making that has never been possible, at least with the use of technology. The use of cloud computing can be used at Kinderworld group to unlock one of the main drivers of unsustainable practices. If teachers, administrators, students, and subordinate staff at Kinderworld group are able to access services that use vast sets of dynamic, complex and data which has been un-integrated on the cloud before for less cost will lead to a great impact on the policy-making of the institution. The ability to market faster due to cloud computing will accelerate the workflow process (Tan, 2009).
1.1.7 IT Project Management Comparison
The use of cloud computing will help improve project management within the many campuses at Kinderworld group. There are many projects taking place at the various campuses at Kinderworld group. It will be tedious managing the various projects that are done independently and far away. There are campuses which are undergoing construction on their various facilities like the libraries, hostel facilities, administration blocks, projects looking for more improvement for educational standards, and IT projects. There must be a way of managing these projects within Kinderworld group to bring the best out of these projects. There must be a system which will be enable project members and project managers to log in and give their progress reports about the same. The use of manual system will beat the efficiency sought all along. The various IT projects that will be performed, now with the use of applications and software available from the cloud, will be faster with faster and efficient project management applications. It will be imperative to use good project management systems which will give competitors a run for their money (Martin, Hoover, 2008). The availability of project management software like Gannchart will accelerate the completion and deployment of projects. The project management will be installed as a web based application which will be accessed from all the campuses of Kinderworld. This is a boost to the management of the projects.
1.1.8 Other areas
Communication amongst the employees will be greatly boosted within Kinderworld. Communication is one of the most important things that must be put into consideration for the success of any enterprise. With the location of employees located in different locations in this organization, it is imperative that there is an effective way to maintain communication between the management and the employees and between employees themselves. Cloud computing will enable the development of applications for social networking which is common in the market. The current situation in Kinderworld will be greatly reduced where communication is done using telephone and email (Beard, 2008). This ancient way of communication has limited interactivity and very high cost. Cloud computing will cut down the telephone bill overhead cost.
2.0 Data collection methodology
I used a number of data collection techniques to gather the data and come up with heresies. The data were important in this study to look at the adoption degree of this new technology. An interview was conducted for SPT, which is an Internet Service Provider company, staff. The interview excerpt can be found in Appendix B. He accepted that, indeed the center needed new ways of managing their systems. The data collection that was used to get this information included the following
2.1 Questionnaires
There are questionnaires which were filled by the administration to look at the ways of improving the current systems. The questionnaires are included in the appendices page of this paper. The Internet service provider for Kinderworld Group was also interviewed to get their views on the effect of cloud computing in Kinderworld systems and operations.
2.2 E-mail messaging
The use of e-mail messages became handy when looking for the views of the users of the current systems in Kinderworld. A sample of Kinderworld staff ranging from the lecturers, accountants, and other administrators.
2.3 Social networking tools
Some small percentage of data gathering techniques included use of social sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate. Most of those whom we used social sites to interview them alluded to the fact that cloud computing could revolutionize the processes in Kinderworld. They argued that cloud computing had the potential of cutting down costs of processing transactions by a great margin.
The data from these methods were very instrumental in the analysis and conclusions in this paper.
3.0 Data analysis
To get the inferences, I used the program statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). This is because it has good tools to get the statistical comparisons like the Poisson distribution, chi-square tests and correlations.
From the data in SPSS, the following were the results of the cross-tabulation that was done for the respondents.
From the data in the inferences above, it is clear that IT professionals are the leading lot in the support of cloud computing. The IT professionals are the leading with a total 14 respondents supporting the introduction of cloud computing. It is only one respondent who is an IT professional who did not believe that cloud computing can bring revolutions to the education center. It is also clear from the table that those who have done minimal computer applications in their literacy classes have full confidence in cloud computing. This group includes the back-office officers who have the basic knowledge of using computers. They also believe that cloud computing is the way to go.
The chi square tests were also performed to get the likelihood of cloud computing adoption.
From the above results, it is clear there are many respondents who support automation in this era and age. The Pearson square-test indicates that there is a high likelihood of the staff and subordinate to support and support automation through cloud computing.
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