Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:

Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:

Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:
Describe Zara’s strategy/business model, focusing on 3-4 elements that differentiate Zara from competitors such as Gap, H&M, and Shein in the retail fashion industry.
Describe specific ways Zara uses information technology to enable the strategy/business model elements you identified above. Remember to consider not only the hardware and software used by Zara, but the information that is produced and how that information enables Zara’s decision making throughout its value chain (e.g., what products to offer, how much to manufacture, etc.)
Do you think Zara’s strategy/business model is succeeding? Provide credible support for your position (e.g., financial data, operating metrics, industry analyst opinions, brand rankings). Use APA style to cite your sources. Note that the fiscal year (FY) of Inditex (Zara’s parent) ends January 31, so for financial data please be sure to use the latest time periods that are publicly reported (FY 2023); Table 4.1 in our text shows Inditex data for FY 2019. Hint: For financial data, look at year-over-year trends in income statement and balance sheet results, and note that Inditex reports its financial data in euros. 
Resources:
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/getting-the-most-out-of-information-systems-v1.4/s07-zara-fast-fashion-from-savvy-s.html
https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/en/investors/finance#results-presentations

In a well-written and thesis-driven essay, students will write a rhetorical anal

In a well-written and thesis-driven essay, students will write a rhetorical anal

In a well-written and thesis-driven essay, students will write a rhetorical analysis using ONE source from their annotated bibliography assignment. The objective of this rhetorical analysis essay is to analyze and evaluate the persuasive strategies used by the author of the chosen source, focusing on the source’s use of language and tone, appeals to ethos/pathos/logos, and the overali effectiveness in persuading the reader/audience. Siegel, Marc. “Families are key in limiting the social media trap.” USA Today, 4 Oct. 2023, p. 07A. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A767713775/OVIC?u=ncliveshcc&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=100b48ee. Accessed 7 July 2024. using this article

Compose a post that addresses Enterprise Architecture (EA) standards. You can in

Compose a post that addresses Enterprise Architecture (EA) standards. You can in

Compose a post that addresses Enterprise Architecture (EA) standards. You can include new things you have learned, challenges you’ve encountered as you’ve developed this week’s artifacts, ideas that can help your peers improve their work and understanding, and so forth. The goal of this post is to initiate an open discussion on items relating to EA standards.

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors of Cars, Inc. or Healthcare, Inc. Your presentation addressed benefits and costs and benefits associated with adopting AI in the organization’s operations.  
As detailed below, the Part II Assignment is a risk analysis of the ongoing risks and issues of adopting AI.
Assignment
The CEO has asked you to recommend to the Board how your organization can help ensure responsible and safe use of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically addressing the following six topics:
Definition – What is the nature of the risk: regulatory, brand, continuity, project, revenue, other risk?
Probability – What is the likelihood of the negative event occurring?
Timing – When would the negative event occur, and how quickly could we detect and rectify it?
Impacts – Should the event occur, what is the potential damage, either fiscal or reputational?
Estimates – How much would it cost to mitigate the risk? How does the cost compare to the impact?
Options – What is the range of options for mitigating the risk?
In preparation for the Board meeting you have been asked to draft:
A PowerPoint presentation – between 8 to a maximum of 12 slides (not including the cover slide), comprised of:
A minimum of one slide for an introduction or agenda for your presentation
A minimum of one slide for each of the six topics noted above
A conclusion
Each PowerPoint slide should have notes added at the bottom.  The notes will provide additional information that you would mention in the actual meeting, as well as any clarifications or explanations to help a reader of the slides (who was not at the meeting) make better sense of them. 
In completing the assignment, you should keep in mind that security and AI risk often fail due to the following reasons (although not exclusively):
Invisible, systemic risk
Risk occurs as part of the natural fabric of daily business decisions.
Many of these decisions are made for legitimate business reasons, for example, keeping old hardware and software to save money.
These are not reported as security concerns, so issues pile up without being addressed.
Cultural disconnect
Executive leaders tend to write off security as a technical problem.
Security readiness should be addressed by the business owners in their request for a new application and CIOs must assist them by putting technology risk and cybersecurity into the business context.
This will help other executive leaders understand how their decisions affect business outcomes.
Broken accountability:
Accountability should mean that a decision to accept risk is defensible to key stakeholders.
It should support a risk-aware culture that rewards those who make the decisions that balance the need to protect with the need to run the business.
Society
When a headline-grabbing security incident happens, society wants heads to roll.
Few understand how security really works, so when an incident occurs, people assume someone must have made a mistake.
Enterprises must accept risk to conduct business, but they need to demand appropriate levels of security and accountability for poor decision making.
Lack of transparency
Many enterprises have boards and executive leaders who do not want to acknowledge that security is not perfect.
For example, they decide to move security under legal counsel so that every discussion is privileged and does not have to be disclosed.
Executive leaders must be willing to talk about the realities and limitations of security to tackle its challenges.
Please refer to the NIST Artificial Intelligence Framework (January 2023).
Please also refer to the Background Readings and the Manufacturing Company and Healthcare Organization readings below. These are the same readings provided for the Part I Assignment.
Background Reading: For Both Scenarios
McKinsey & Company, What is AI? (April 2023)
Pascal König, et al., Essence of AI: What Is AI?, in Larry A DiMatteo, Cristina Poncibò, & Michel Cannarsa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence: Global Perspectives on Law and Ethics, pp. 18-34 (Cambridge University Press,  2022)
Oleksiy Osiyevskyy, Yongjian Bao, & Carlos M. DaSilvain, Using AI to Improve Economic Productivity: A Business Model Perspective, in Al Naqvi and J. Mark Munoz (Eds.), Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation Policy and Government Applications, pp. 57-66 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020)
McKinsey & Company, The State of AI in 2022—And a Half Decade in Review(December 2022)
Larry A. DiMatteo, Artificial Intelligence: The Promise of Disruption, in Larry A DiMatteo, Cristina Poncibò, & Michel Cannarsa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence: Global Perspectives on Law and Ethics, pp. 3-17 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Hui Jiang, Introduction, Machine Learning Fundamentals: A Concise Introduction, pp. 1-18 (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:

Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:

Answer the following questions in your own words. Clearly label each answer 1-3:
Describe Zara’s strategy/business model, focusing on 3-4 elements that differentiate Zara from competitors such as Gap, H&M, and Shein in the retail fashion industry.
Describe specific ways Zara uses information technology to enable the strategy/business model elements you identified above. Remember to consider not only the hardware and software used by Zara, but the information that is produced and how that information enables Zara’s decision making throughout its value chain (e.g., what products to offer, how much to manufacture, etc.)
Do you think Zara’s strategy/business model is succeeding? Provide credible support for your position (e.g., financial data, operating metrics, industry analyst opinions, brand rankings). Use APA style to cite your sources. Note that the fiscal year (FY) of Inditex (Zara’s parent) ends January 31, so for financial data please be sure to use the latest time periods that are publicly reported (FY 2023); Table 4.1 in our text shows Inditex data for FY 2019. Hint: For financial data, look at year-over-year trends in income statement and balance sheet results, and note that Inditex reports its financial data in euros. 
Resources:
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/getting-the-most-out-of-information-systems-v1.4/s07-zara-fast-fashion-from-savvy-s.html
https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/en/investors/finance#results-presentations

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors

In your Part I Assignment, you prepared a presentation to the Board of Directors of Cars, Inc. or Healthcare, Inc. Your presentation addressed benefits and costs and benefits associated with adopting AI in the organization’s operations.  
As detailed below, the Part II Assignment is a risk analysis of the ongoing risks and issues of adopting AI.
Assignment
The CEO has asked you to recommend to the Board how your organization can help ensure responsible and safe use of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically addressing the following six topics:
Definition – What is the nature of the risk: regulatory, brand, continuity, project, revenue, other risk?
Probability – What is the likelihood of the negative event occurring?
Timing – When would the negative event occur, and how quickly could we detect and rectify it?
Impacts – Should the event occur, what is the potential damage, either fiscal or reputational?
Estimates – How much would it cost to mitigate the risk? How does the cost compare to the impact?
Options – What is the range of options for mitigating the risk?
In preparation for the Board meeting you have been asked to draft:
A PowerPoint presentation – between 8 to a maximum of 12 slides (not including the cover slide), comprised of:
A minimum of one slide for an introduction or agenda for your presentation
A minimum of one slide for each of the six topics noted above
A conclusion
Each PowerPoint slide should have notes added at the bottom.  The notes will provide additional information that you would mention in the actual meeting, as well as any clarifications or explanations to help a reader of the slides (who was not at the meeting) make better sense of them. 
In completing the assignment, you should keep in mind that security and AI risk often fail due to the following reasons (although not exclusively):
Invisible, systemic risk
Risk occurs as part of the natural fabric of daily business decisions.
Many of these decisions are made for legitimate business reasons, for example, keeping old hardware and software to save money.
These are not reported as security concerns, so issues pile up without being addressed.
Cultural disconnect
Executive leaders tend to write off security as a technical problem.
Security readiness should be addressed by the business owners in their request for a new application and CIOs must assist them by putting technology risk and cybersecurity into the business context.
This will help other executive leaders understand how their decisions affect business outcomes.
Broken accountability:
Accountability should mean that a decision to accept risk is defensible to key stakeholders.
It should support a risk-aware culture that rewards those who make the decisions that balance the need to protect with the need to run the business.
Society
When a headline-grabbing security incident happens, society wants heads to roll.
Few understand how security really works, so when an incident occurs, people assume someone must have made a mistake.
Enterprises must accept risk to conduct business, but they need to demand appropriate levels of security and accountability for poor decision making.
Lack of transparency
Many enterprises have boards and executive leaders who do not want to acknowledge that security is not perfect.
For example, they decide to move security under legal counsel so that every discussion is privileged and does not have to be disclosed.
Executive leaders must be willing to talk about the realities and limitations of security to tackle its challenges.
Please refer to the NIST Artificial Intelligence Framework (January 2023).
Please also refer to the Background Readings and the Manufacturing Company and Healthcare Organization readings below. These are the same readings provided for the Part I Assignment.
Background Reading: For Both Scenarios
McKinsey & Company, What is AI? (April 2023)
Pascal König, et al., Essence of AI: What Is AI?, in Larry A DiMatteo, Cristina Poncibò, & Michel Cannarsa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence: Global Perspectives on Law and Ethics, pp. 18-34 (Cambridge University Press,  2022)
Oleksiy Osiyevskyy, Yongjian Bao, & Carlos M. DaSilvain, Using AI to Improve Economic Productivity: A Business Model Perspective, in Al Naqvi and J. Mark Munoz (Eds.), Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation Policy and Government Applications, pp. 57-66 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020)
McKinsey & Company, The State of AI in 2022—And a Half Decade in Review(December 2022)
Larry A. DiMatteo, Artificial Intelligence: The Promise of Disruption, in Larry A DiMatteo, Cristina Poncibò, & Michel Cannarsa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence: Global Perspectives on Law and Ethics, pp. 3-17 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Hui Jiang, Introduction, Machine Learning Fundamentals: A Concise Introduction, pp. 1-18 (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Collaborating on development projects with other organizations offers advantages

Collaborating on development projects with other organizations offers advantages

Collaborating on development projects with other organizations offers advantages, but it’s important for firms to be strategic when making this decision.
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
What elements should an organization consider when selecting a partner to collaborate with on a development project?
Provide an example of a project that was a collaborative effort between 2 organizations. Summarize the collaborative project and the organizations involved with the class.

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
Develop an information technology operations plan
Determine what information technology policies, laws, regulations, standards, and contracts are applicable in a given situation
Scenario
Intelligent Computer Services (ICS) is a global technology innovator and implementer of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, with specialization in the finance and retail industries. ICS employs more than 150,000 individuals and has offices in 120 countries around the world, with its global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Its U.S. headquarters are in Chicago, IL, and other U.S. office locations include New York City; Austin, TX; Minneapolis, MN; and Seattle, WA, to name a few.
To support its global footprint, ICS has built and managed five global data centers in Dublin, Chicago, Albuquerque, Singapore, and Tokyo. These data centers support ISC business objectives, as well as data center colocation space for its clients in the developing world.
Ten years ago, ICS initiated a global assessment of its information technology infrastructure intending to start migrating its critical business solutions to cloud computing services. Unfortunately, as a result of the global economic recession, ISC had to put the initiative on hold to restructure its business operations to focus on growth and revenue improvements.
Recently, with a 30% ($43 billion) revenue increase from ten years ago, double-digit profits, and cash on hand of about $7.5 billion, ICS’s board of directors approved an executive proposal to migrate 75% of its critical technology infrastructure services to the cloud in three years.
The proposal aims to leverage native cloud services, software as a service (SaaS) solutions, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platforms, and security services, as well as being multi-cloud. This cloud migration journey will include large human capital, finance, and talent development initiatives to ensure continuous delivery of first-class client services.
The CIO has approved the strategic plan and roadmap for the SaaS solution and the implementation of Oracle HCM Cloud (Project One). Additionally, the human capital transformation initiative is in progress. Both initiatives are expected to go live in the next six months. As ICS plans the global release of the HCM solution, it is essential to have a well-defined operations plan to support and maintain the SaaS solution and apply the recommendations from the transformation.
As part of the service acceptance team, you have been tasked with working with all key stakeholders to develop an IT operations plan for the new HCM processes and cloud solution.
Directions
Strategic Plan and Mission
Explain how the organization’s strategic plan and mission relate to the operations plan. The plan should demonstrate an alignment with the organization’s mission and how the operations plan supports strategic planning efforts.
Business Continuity
The plan should identify the tactics chosen to ensure that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of an interruption to service. This might include a schedule to run periodic maintenance tests to ensure that system recovery works properly, or implementation of employee training in advance of an emergency. Another identified tactic could be development of a communication plan that would prepare other organization members for disruptive events.
Vendor Management
The plan should identify a process to guide the organization in how it will engage with its vendors. This could include strategies to reduce potential risks related to vendors (e.g., due diligence) or to address underperforming vendors. It might also include developing a central system for storing, managing, and reporting on vendor-related information.
Compliance and Standards
The plan should address the relevant regulations related to legal compliance and industry standards, and how the organization plans to comply with these in its day-to-day activities. For instance, this could include identifying specific security measures to protect personally identifiable information.
SLAs and NDAs
The plan should determine how service level agreements (SLAs) and nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) might impact IT operations and systems planning. For instance, this might define the level of service expected from a vendor or what will happen if a vendor underperforms.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following:
Operations Plan
Your report should be 3 to 5 pages, double spaced, and submitted in a file format that your instructor can easily access (.PDF, .doc).