{"id":358,"date":"2018-01-10T15:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T23:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/?p=358"},"modified":"2018-01-10T15:58:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T23:58:10","slug":"u3-a3-the-reach-of-distant-learning-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/u3-a3-the-reach-of-distant-learning-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"U3 A3 – The Reach of Distant Learning (Case Study)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reach of Distant Learning
\n<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Impacting the Learning Practices in Households<\/p>\n

An international cement company with operations in over 30 countries faces the challenge of increasing productivity and competitiveness.\u00a0 In the home country the company had 15 cement plants, 211 ready mix plants, 67 distribution centres, and a headcount of 5,000 people, including the corporate offices.\u00a0 Before the Internet era, a company with offices and plants in multiple locations usually had commercial packages, spreadsheets, and in-house developed programs for the same purpose, and all must feed the accounting month-end cycle.\u00a0 The payroll was exactly the case.\u00a0 This study is prepared to describe how the project of improvement obtained additional benefits beyond the business expectations.<\/p>\n

Executive Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company set a global strategy to simplify its operations relying strongly in revamping and expanding its information technology infrastructure (see #1 in following post on Design Principles).\u00a0 Human Resources launched several projects aligned with the directive, among which was the unification of the payroll applications.\u00a0 The new system worked based on parameters, and parametrization was a lengthy and meticulous process because each parameter should comply with terms and conditions specified in the labour contract language.\u00a0 The first three cement plants would be implemented one at a time; afterwards, the implementation team would split to do three cement plants simultaneously.\u00a0 The rest of the facilities would be implemented gradually since they are smaller and less complex.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each cement plant processed two types of payroll: The workers\u2019 payroll for unionized personnel, and the employees\u2019 payroll; each payroll was processed weekly or fortnightly, respectively.\u00a0 There are more differences between the two types of payroll than their frequencies.\u00a0 The employees\u2019 payroll considered hiring terms and conditions per person due to individual work contracts, while the workers\u2019 payroll had all workers under the collective work contract managed by their union.<\/p>\n

The employees\u2019 payroll was complex because the hiring terms and conditions were as diverse as were the individual transactions per payroll period.\u00a0 Additionally, executives\u2019 payroll was managed separately, as a different company, to avoid exposing confidential information by mistake.\u00a0 The employees\u2019 payroll calculated each payslip as a tailor-made suit every time.<\/p>\n

The Human Resources Department set the goal of optimising the payroll process by implementing the same system nation-wide (see #2 in following post on Design Principles).\u00a0 Due to legal regulations the two types of processes prevailed because the law considered them as two different compensation schemes, thus each needed undivided fiscal attention.\u00a0 The project offered important benefits like: Shorter process run-time; check points for quick partial re-processing runs\u2014previously, every re-processing run was done from the beginning compromising punctuality; standardized month-end accounting interface; customisable management reports (see #3 in following post on Design Principles).<\/p>\n

Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the 1990s the Internet was an incipient tool for everyone, individuals and companies alike.\u00a0 The pioneers tried the online environment even turning established ways of doing business into technological challenges.\u00a0 The company\u2019s CEO was prone to use information technology whenever possible, so IT became a strategic tool that developed several competitive advantages for the business to the extent of the company being referred to as cyber-cement<\/em> by financial periodicals (Dolan, 1998).<\/p>\n

The company had been operating for 90 years which explains why aspects of its internal dynamics seemed particularly rigid.\u00a0 For example, the working conditions agreed upon with the worker\u2019s union, a topic that brought up an unforeseen difficult situation.\u00a0 The company\u2019s Labour Department was reluctant to accept the slightest modification to the established procedures.\u00a0 The attorneys in that department argued that any payroll-related modification might put the company at risk of a nation-wide strike should the worker\u2019s union disapprove the changes.<\/p>\n

According to the Human Resources Department all the changes were positive, and the reluctance of the Labour Department was hard to understand until, after several meetings, the Labour Department\u2019s attorney explained their deepest concern: The new system will not require the worker\u2019s physical signature on the payslip to attest receiving due payment for the period.\u00a0 In fact, among the features of the new system was the electronic signature of the payslip, and the corresponding worker\u2019s payroll history.\u00a0 The information would be password protected, and the person would be able to access information whenever needed, and from wherever there was an Internet connection (see #4 in following post on Design Principles).<\/p>\n

The electronic payment module had captured the interest of personnel that travelled often \u2014employees and executives\u2014, who were usually troubled when the payday occurred during a trip, and the deposited amount did not match.\u00a0 They had to wait to be back to review the information on their payslips.\u00a0 Online access allowed them to request clarification, if needed, and electronically sign the payslip.\u00a0 A few months before workers started being paid through bank deposits, an important progress with the union aimed to increase worker\u2019s security by not having workers leaving the plant carrying cash on pay day.<\/p>\n

Implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took several meetings with the Labour Department to finally convince them to support the project in front of the union, and in order to achieve that the Human Resources Department researched instances when the electronic signature was regarded a valid resource by the International Labour Organization keeping the employer out of trouble.\u00a0 Appendices A and B contain citations of examples of such documented cases.<\/p>\n

Once the Labour Department felt confident, the meeting with the union\u2019s leaders took place.\u00a0 Human Resources outlined the project explaining how the workers would benefit from the new system emphasising two aspects in particular: The access to the worker\u2019s information and its security; and the increasing use of technology not only by the company but everywhere, and how this trend could be positive for the workers and the business.<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s leaders received the information not hiding some scepticism about the innovative features described.\u00a0 All workers would be trained in site to access the system using public workstations placed conveniently throughout the plant.\u00a0 Direct access to the remote help-desk support would be available via the telephone next to each workstation (see #5 in following post on Design Principles).\u00a0 The payslip would be printed using the public workstation in the Human Resources area, which had the printer assigned to the module.\u00a0 All sounded right but what if the worker was unable to print the payslip?\u00a0 Would the worker go home without the payroll document?<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Labour Department did not know that Human Resources had an additional plan to make sure the union accepted the idea: Each worker would have a one-time-option to acquire a desktop computer at an incredibly low price \u2014IT helped obtaining a massive discount from the account representative which made the workers\u2019 payments symbolic, and they would pay in instalments.\u00a0 The goal was to facilitate the workers access to their payslip from home (see #6 in following post on Design Principles).\u00a0 T<\/strong>he fact that computers were being increasingly useful at home mostly for the kids\u2019 homework made this a great supporting argument.<\/p>\n

The plan itself totally surprised the Labour Department\u2019s attorneys.\u00a0 In addition, being optional instead of imposed, the plan made the union not only to accept it but to adopt the project altogether.\u00a0 They valued the plan as a way for their workers and families to learn and develop basic computer skills.\u00a0 About the new payroll system, they asked to attend the training sessions to learn more about what their workers would get.<\/p>\n

The Continuum of Innovation is detailed in the following post on the topic.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dahlman, C., Mealy, S., & Wermelinger, M. (2016). Harnessing the digital economy for developing countries.\u00a0OECD Development Centre Working Papers<\/em>,\u00a0(334), 1-79.<\/p>\n

Dolan, K. A., (1998, June) Cyber-cement. Forbes<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.forbes.com
\n\/forbes\/1998\/0615\/6112060a.html#678be2c85811<\/p>\n

Lipton, S., & Matyas, S. (1978). Making the Digital Signature Legal and Safeguarded.\u00a0Data Communications,\u00a07<\/em>(2), 41.<\/p>\n

Appendix A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harnessing the digital economy for developing countries<\/p>\n

This report makes a call for why the\u00a0digital\u00a0economy matters for developing countries and what they need to consider when developing a national\u00a0digital\u00a0strategy.\u00a0 The world is undergoing digital\u00a0revolution with significant implications for global economies and livelihoods.\u00a0 This revolution is predicated on the ever-increasing pace of technological innovation and diffusion.\u00a0 Digital\u00a0technologies\u00a0and\u00a0their attendant applications are reshaping whole domains of human activity,\u00a0and\u00a0are spreading across the world faster than previous waves of technological innovation.\u00a0 The\u00a0digital\u00a0revolution is thus too important for any country to overlook.\u00a0 As outlined in Section II, the\u00a0digital\u00a0economy can be harnessed for inclusive\u00a0and\u00a0sustainable growth:\u00a0digital technologies make life easier for citizens and consumers, raise the productivity of workers\u00a0and firms,\u00a0and\u00a0help governments extend key services to those who need them most.\u00a0 However, this does not just happen randomly: governments must engage in strategic planning to maximise the development impact of digitalisation\u00a0and\u00a0ensure that its benefits are evenly distributed. (Dahlman, Mealy, & Wermelinger, 2016)<\/p>\n

Appendix B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making the Digital Signature Legal and Safeguarded<\/p>\n

The need, use, and legal significance of one’s\u00a0signature\u00a0on documents or instruments must be viewed from a perspective embracing several branches of the\u00a0law.\u00a0 Many of these bodies of\u00a0law presume a paper-based society.\u00a0 If such transactions were to be implemented exclusively via an\u00a0electronic\u00a0communications system, it would be necessary that the system provide a capability for the transmission of “signed” messages.\u00a0 One possible method for obtaining digital\u00a0signatures is to make use of a “public-key cryptosystem.”\u00a0 Protocols for implementing digital\u00a0signatures\u00a0will require an initial written agreement between the parties in question containing a complete description of the procedure being agreed to and the bit-patterns which are needed as part of the validating process.\u00a0 This event will have implications about the Statute of Frauds, the\u00a0Law\u00a0of Acknowledgement, the\u00a0Law\u00a0of Agency, and the Uniform Commercial Code. (Lipton & Matyas, 1978)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Reach of Distant Learning \u00a0Impacting the Learning Practices in Households An international cement company with operations in over 30 countries faces the challenge of increasing productivity and competitiveness.\u00a0 In the home country the company had 15 cement plants, 211 ready mix plants, 67 distribution centres, and a headcount of 5,000 people, including the corporate … Continue reading “U3 A3 – The Reach of Distant Learning (Case Study)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt524"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}