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Information systems in the global economy. Boehringer Ingelheim, GmbH, Germany

 

The Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) is the Indian national bird. It roosts in moist and dry-deciduous forests, cultivated areas, and village precincts.[126]

India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots.[127] One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 8.6% of all mammalian, 13.7% of all avian, 7.9% of all reptilian, 6% of all amphibian, 12.2% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[128][129] Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests.[130] Habitat ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India; the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain.[131] Under 12% of India's landmass bears thick jungle.[132] The medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies, is a key Indian tree. The luxuriant pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.

Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present.[133] Peninsular India's subsequent movement towards and collision with the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. Epochal volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago forced a mass extinction.[134] Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya.[131] Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are.[129] Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened species, or 2.9% of endangered forms.[135] These include the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which, by ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-laced cattle, nearly went extinct.

The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act[136] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988.[137] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves,[138] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.[139]

 

Information systems in the global economy. Boehringer Ingelheim, GmbH, Germany

 

Task 1. What do you think about the following ideas?

  1. What is the role of information systems in the global economy?
  2. What problems do many businesses face nowadays? What kind of solution do information systems provide?
  3. What did the top managers of Boehringer Ingelheim decide to do in order to improve the employees work?
  4. How are hardware, software, databases, telecommunications used in Boehringer’s information systems to provide valuable data?
  5. Can you give examples of any other companies which invested millions in all the components of an information system to facilitate their work and achieve greater success?

 

Task 2. Read the text carefully. Say whether the sentences below the text are true or false.

1. As businesses grow and diversify, it becomes increasingly easy to access current information on which to base decisions.

2. With each of the company’s segments using diverse information systems, it took a significant amount of time to collect and combine all of the financial records.

3. Information systems provide a solution – opening lines of communication between several business units and providing a continuous stream of up-to-the-second information to support fast strategic decision making.

4. The new system has made the accounting department much more productive, allowing staff to run up-to-date reports whenever needed.

5. The software from BackWeb Technologies doesn’t provide employees with access to current sales information through a Web portal and a custom Web interface, wherever they travel.

 

Task 3. Choose the words from the box and put each of them in the correct place of the sentence.

Workforce; deployed; technology makeover; updates; segments; paid off; consumer products; applications; transaction; revamp; foresee; state-of-the-art; to access

 

1. By the time Boehringer was finished with its …, the company had implemented over seven new interconnected information systems.

2. Boehringer has diversified into … that include manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals (such as prescription medicines and …), products for industrial consumers (such as chemicals and biopharmaceuticals), and animal health products.

3. For a small business owner, one who is involves in every …, staying abreast of the state of the business is fairly straightforward.

4. If a business owner could … the future, decisions would be easy to make and involve little risk.

5. As businesses grow and diversify, it becomes increasingly difficult … current information on which to base decisions.

6. Top managers decided to totally … the company’s systems with … information system from SAP.

7. Boehringer is committed to providing employees at all levels of the company with access to the … and information they need to meet their objectives.

8. But the investment has …

9. Boehringer’s employees can access and change information presented in the portal when they are offline, with … later when they log on.

10. To provide its mobile workforce with up-to-the-minute data, the company … software from BackWeb Technologies.

Task 4. Find the words according to their definitions in the marked paragraph of the text.

1. A person who decides things, especially at a high level in an organization (p. 1);

2. to put a plan or system into operation (p. 6);

3. to unite or to join together to make a single thing or group (p. 3);

4. a part of a company that operates as a separate part of the whole business (p. 1);

5. a computer program that is designed for a particular purpose (p. 5).

Task 5. Discuss the following questions:

  1. Give reasons why information systems are so important for business today.
  2. What are the differences between a system and an information system?
  3. What is an information system and how does it differ from an information technology?
  4. What are the examples of an information system?
  5. Enumerate the components of information systems?

 

Task 6. Read the key terms carefully and find the best explanation.

1. Information system a. a program or piece of software designed and written to fulfill a particular purpose of the user
2. To invest b. the method or way of approaching a place or person, or the right to use or look at something
3. To implement c. most recent; containing the most recent information
4. To pay off d. the machines, wiring, and other physical components of a computer or other electronic system
5. A competitor e. to result in success
6. Database f. the sending and receiving of messages by computer, telephone, radio, and television, or the business of doing this
7. Access g. the income that a business or government receives regularly, or an amount representing such income
8. Hardware h. put a decision (plan, agreement, etc.) into effect
9. Software i. an organization or country that is engaged in commercial or economic competition with others
10. Telecommunications j. information collected for use
11. Application k. to make something more accurate and suitable for use now by showing new facts or conditions
12. Data l. a computer system within a company or organization for sharing information
13. To update m. a structured set of data held in a computer, esp. one that is accessible in various ways
14. Revenue n. the programs and other operating information used by a computer.
15. Up-to-the-minute o. to put money, effort, time etc. into something to make a profit or get an advantage

 

 

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1002

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