The Importance of Value

How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer in 6 Simple Steps

How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer in 6 Simple Steps How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer in 6 Simple Steps How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer in 6 Simple Steps By Ali Hale Would you love to be a freelance writer? Maybe youre hoping to make a bit of money on the side of your day job, or you want to find some work that fits around being at home with your kids much of the day. Perhaps youre hoping to launch a whole new career. You might well be feeling daunted before youve even begun, though. Theres just so much information out there: where do you even start? These  six steps are all you really need in order to get going: Step #1: Find Out How Self-Employment and Tax Works in Your Country Before you start freelancing, it’s important to figure out how self-employment (and particularly tax) works in your own country. You don’t necessarily need to do anything about it right away, but you do need to know what to expect. Here in the UK for instance, sole traders (the simplest set up for a freelancer) don’t have to register with HMRC (the tax authorities) from the first moment they start freelancing. They do need to be ready to submit a self-employed tax return on time, though – e.g. by the end of January 2020 for the tax year 6th April 2018 – 5th Mar 2019. If your country isn’t on this list, just search for â€Å"register as self-employed† and your country name, and you should find plenty of advice. Step #2: Create a  Gmail Account (for Email and Google Docs) Do you have an email address that looks something one of these? chocolatelover@hotmail.com GameofThronesfan@yahoo.com I’m sure it goes without saying that those aren’t very professional looking! Even if your email address uses your name (or your pen name), free providers like hotmail and yahoo have a bit of an â€Å"unprofessional† reputation. Gmail is much better regarded, perhaps because it started out being very popular with techy types, and is now so ubiquitous. So I’d recommend setting up a professional looking email address with Gmail, for now – something like yourname@gmail.com or yournamewriter@gmail.com. One important reason for having a Gmail address is that it also gives you a Google account, which you can use for Google Docs – I find that many clients want to collaborate in this way. If you prefer to have a really professional looking email address, then you’ll need to register a domain name of your own (e.g. mine is www.aliventures.com) and then set up an email address at that domain (mine is ali@aliventures.com). Step #3: Figure Out What Topics You Want to Write About Before you go any further with freelancing, it’s a good idea to figure out what you want to write about. You might think that it’d be best to write about anything and everything, in the hopes you’ll get plenty of work – but the truth is that clients prefer writers who have prior experience in a particular area. You’ll also probably enjoy freelancing more if you’re writing about topics you’re actually interested in. When you’re figuring out which topics to focus on, you might want to consider: Your personal life and experiences – e.g. if you’re a parent to school-age children, you could write about pregnancy, babies, toddlers, etc. Your professional life – e.g. if you work in IT, you might want to specialise in technical writing or in writing for blogs that cover techy topics. Your hobbies – e.g. if you love to craft, then you might want to look for blogs about craft or companies that sell craft supplies to write for. You can switch or add topics as you go forward in your career, but you’ll find it helpful to have some idea of the areas you want to focus on when it comes to the next two steps. Step #4: (Optional) Create a Website You don’t have to have a website in order to freelance – so if this is just a step too far right now, then feel free to skip it. At some point fairly early in your freelancing career, though, you’re going to want to have a web presence. You’ll want somewhere to direct potential customers, whether those are your current contacts, friends of friends, or people who read your guest posts (see Step #5). If you don’t want to spend any money at this stage, I recommend setting up a free website with WordPress.com (just follow their process step by step). Your website will have â€Å"wordpress† in the address, so it’ll look something like yourname.wordpress.com. While this isn’t the most professional option out there, plenty of freelancers do just fine with a free WordPress site – and I think it’s absolutely fine when you’re just starting out. Alternatively, if you’re fairly confident about techy things and if you have a bit of money to invest, I’d recommend purchasing web hosting, registering your own domain name (e.g. yourname.com) and setting up self-hosted WordPress on that site. Most web hosts have a simple â€Å"one click† installation process for WordPress, as it’s so popular. Step #5: Get Some Published Experience Before you can start landing freelancing clients, you need some experience: published pieces that you can show them as examples of your work. But how do you get that experience when you don’t have any clients? One simple way is to write guest posts for large(ish) blogs: a big advantage of these is that your posts will be online, so it’s very easy to send clients a link to them. You can also create a â€Å"Portfolio† page on your website with screenshots of and links to your work. Ideally, you’ll want to target blogs that fit in with the areas you want to write about, so that you’ve got relevant freelancing clips. Most guest posts are written for free, and although some freelancers feel you should never work for free, I think it makes sense to do so when you’re just starting out. (Don’t spend ages at this stage, though; three to five published pieces should be plenty.) You’ll almost always get the opportunity to write a â€Å"bio† to go along with your guest post (normally at the bottom of it). You can use this to promote your freelancing services, writing something like: Ali Luke is a freelance writer, specialising in blog content for small businesses. You can find out more about her and her services at  www.aliventures.com. If you want to freelance for magazines or print publications, rather than blogs or websites, then you’ll want to look for ways to get some experience with print. A good place to look is local free newspapers and magazines – they probably won’t be able to pay, but they’ll likely be very willing to publish your work. Step #6: Start Finding Clients If there’s one thing you take away from this post, make it this: Don’t use content mills. If you’re not sure what a content mill is, it’s a site where you sign up and get sent writing jobs. They often promise lots of work, or tell you how much writers can make – but the reality is that they pay peanuts. They often call themselves â€Å"article writing services†. Textbroker is a well-known one; Copify and iWriter are other examples. Content mills can’t afford to pay much, because their main selling point to their clients is that they’re a cheap way to get lots of content. So where else can you find work? Let family and friends know that you’re freelancing, and tell them what type of work you’re looking for. You never know when someone will know someone! Look at the ProBlogger jobs boards and Freelance Writing Gigs’ daily round-up of writing work. (There are plenty of other similar job boards online, but I’ve found that between these two, they cover all the good opportunities.) Pitch directly to websites (or magazines, or whatever type of publication you want to write for). Target local clients, perhaps with an ad in a local paper, shop window, or library, or by attending local small business networking events. Browse the website of companies that offer services related to your niche and in case they dont have a regularly updated blog contact them offering your writing services and explaining the benefits that fresh content would bring to their website. Think beyond writing articles. You can offer services such as crafting email marketing campaigns, writing e-books and reports, website editing and proofreading and so. Finding your first paying client can feel like a huge hurdle but once youve found one client, more will follow. In case you want more help, I have a 6-week program that covers all the aspects of getting started as a freelance writer, from improving your writing productivity to landing high-paying gigs, from promoting yourself online to running your freelance business efficiently. The course has been offered for 8 years and over 1300 students enrolled during that time. I offer a complete money back guarantee, and surprisingly no one ever asked for it! In order to celebrate its eighth anniversary we are offering the course for just $29, so check it out below before the promotion ends. Above all, if you decide to try freelance writing, make sure you persevere. Getting results takes time, as with virtually all endeavors in life, and the biggest mistake I see aspiring freelance writers making is giving up too soon. Hang in there for 6 to 12 months before you evaluate your results. Good luck! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply withRules for Capitalization in Titles15 Names and Descriptions of Effects

Changes in Financial Reporting for a Nevada Casino in regards to Essay

Changes in Financial Reporting for a Nevada Casino in regards to Regulation 9A and the SarbanOxley Act - Essay Example With this in mind, it can be stated that the influence of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act adoption in 2002 on the financial reporting of the Nevada casinos is quite comparable to that of the other public companies. On the contrary, the impact of the Regulation 6A which was put into effect in 1997 was much more specific in nature. Both of these legislative acts, however, became two more integral parts of extremely complex regulative environment the gambling industry operates in. The major requirements that explicitly affect the Nevada casinos, besides the restrictions on the audit procedures, pension funds blackout periods and restriction on loans to senior management, are corporate responsibility regulations and use of the non-GAAP financial measures in press-releases and reports. The CEO and CFO of each issuer shall prepare a statement to accompany the audit report to certify the "appropriateness of the financial statements and disclosures contained in the periodic report, and that those financial statements and disclosures fairly present, in all material respects, the operations and financial condition of the issuer." A violation of this section must be knowing and intentional to give rise to liability. (AICPA) TheThe issue of the use of non-GAAP financial measures in information releases through mass media or corporate reports is quite important for the casinos because these channels are used not only for communicating data to the investors, but as well for the PR-purposes with the general audience. SEC Regulation G (adopted under 401(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) regulates this issue and provides that the use of non-GAAP financial measures in press releases or other public disclosures must be accompanied by a presentation of, and reconciliation to, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. (Martin 1) The Regulation 6A named "Cash Transactions prohibitions, reporting, and recordkeeping" closely addresses, on the other hand, the very characteristic feature of the casino business - the cash transactions. It is part of the Nevada's regulatory system for currency transaction reporting which, according to the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Control Board consists of the following: NGC Regulation 6A adopted January 1997 effective May 1, 1997 (prior version adopted and effective May 7, 1985). The regulation was amended March 20, 2003 to delete state suspicious transaction reporting requirements and was effective immediately upon adoption. NGC Regulation 6.090 Currency Transaction Reporting Minimum Internal Control Standards (6A MICS). Version 3 required compliance as of May 1, 1997. CPA 6A MICS Compliance Reporting Requirements (CPA 6A MICS Requirements). Version 1 required compliance as of November 1, 1997. Internal Audit Compliance Checklists for Currency Transaction Reporting. Version 1 required usage for any work performed for fiscal years ended April 30, 2001 and thereafter. (Currency Transaction Reporting 1) The restrictions set by the Regulation 6A on the cash transact

The philosophy on educational Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The philosophy on educational - Essay Example The concept of philosophy was influential in helping Myles Horton to start up learning centers for example; in schools people share dreams and interests while living together. This is based on his definition of a democratic society as one with provisions for positive participation by all in equal terms with secure flexibility (Kohl, Myles and Kohl 1905-90). Since he appreciated the value of education he formed different education centers that led to the spread of citizenship schools to most remote parts in the south and thus helping residents mostly Africans to become literate and qualified to vote. This helped in advancing civil rights movements in 1960s by bringing together coal miners and textile workers. Sharing of ideas and use of the knowledge taught enabled people to challenge and face the negative social problems affecting their lives, boosted and advanced of civil rights, helped workers to form trade unions and cooperatives, helped to make homeless people realize, know and achieve their constitutional rights. The value of education helped to fulfill his determination to see the school he envisioned involve, serve and help poor people in employment and ethnic dissension and in finding ways to gain self-esteem, independence and integrity. Horton organized and appreciated immense transformations in political and social philosophy that enabled restoration of economic prosperity and encouraged patriotism and civic responsibility among the people. One does not need to know the answers to people’s problems but that there are a great deal of views and opinions that people can collectively contribute to build the society. This implies that it is quite crucial to discuss problems in a bid to find viable solutions. Highlander concentrated in inviting the poor who needed sponsorship in order to attend the education centers and learn among other things, their rights in order to overcome the oppression and to learn to handle their problems and

Measuring Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Measuring Performance - Essay Example It comprises of Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and threats. Strengths are internal factors that can be concluded as advantages to the business (current advantages). Factors such as a focused management, hardworking employees, low costs are positive points for the firm. For Jengo Ltd, a high regard for their clothes by the customers is an impressive point for the future of the business. Weaknesses are internal factors as well that maybe termed as disadvantages for the firm (current disadvantages). Negative factors like a poorly trained workforce, ageing equipment etc need to be evaluated for a solution to arise. For Jengo Ltd, the failure to produce budgets or forecasts for the financial year hints weak planning on the part of the management. However, Opportunities are potential areas for expansion of the business (advantages that can arise in the future). These areas are obtained after an external audit in the market the firm operates in. Identifying new markets, expansion of t he product portfolio and favorable government policies amalgamates in outdoing competitors. Moreover, threats are not to be forgotten while forecasting future business plans (problems that may arise in the future). These usually comprise of the macro environment factors that alter the economic environment, strength of the competition, globalization etc. Jengo Ltd should be careful about changing customer demands as it operates in a highly uncertain business. SWOT analysis draws the primary sketch for foreseeing the future for any business. It is an effective way of gathering information and generating interest in the business activities quickly, mostly used to plan the marketing strategy (Hall, D et al. 2004) Factors in the macro environment effect decisions by the top management. Demographic change, government laws, trade barriers etc are some examples of macro change (Varoufakis, Y. 2007). These factors can be categorized by the PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors). Political developments regionally, nationally and internationally might effect a business’s strategy. Political decisions can change vital areas of the company such as education for the employees, health benefits, infrastructure, and subsidies for instance. Economic factors may involve the effect of consumer demand patterns, willingness to spend, inflation, fiscal and monetary policies, exchange rates, fixed and variable costs, and changes in the labour market on the business. Businesses may also need to plan out the effects of government policies to haul out the country from a recession (Hall, D et al. 2004). Changes in social trends can create competitive advantages for businesses. Falling birth rate, ageing population, increase in life expectancy can all effect a business. An ageing population would mean a shift in the sort of products demanded and more pensions paid to employees. Pressure groups can also force a business decision leading to serious consequences. Technology uplifts products and processes. Online shopping, bar coding, CAD and CAM are all technological advancements that aid in the advent of superior products. Furthermore, environmental factors might include a legislation to control pollution or views of certain groups about the ingredients of the product. Major climatic changes due to global warming have significantly impacted many industries and external factors related to a

The Objectives Of Clinical Management Systems Information Technology Essay

The Objectives Of Clinical Management Systems Information Technology Essay CMS stands for Clinical Management System, including the information integration, inventory control, data processing and tools for medical data exchange. Generally the major user for CMS are physicians, and consist of laboratory information system (LIS), radiology information system (RIS), picture archiving and communication system (PACS). 1In medical fields, the application of new CMS mainly develops in the following stages. Automated medical record (AMR) is mainly used for the automation in medical data processing from paper into e-format. Electronic medical record (EMR) ensures a good communication for paperless and image exchange and sets up foundation of medical terminology. Electronic patient record (EPR) ensures the interoperability networking for the data exchange between CMS or other parties by using a single and standard format. Electronic health record (eHR) sustains the medical decision support system. In the medical support system, it conducts data mining skills from getting multiple data from multiple databases to assure the correct medical decision. Recap above stages, the applications of CMS are useful in medical filed. Objectives Due to the following objectives, our team suggests Town Health co Ltd to implement Clinic Management System (CMS). Increasing business opportunity; Connecting medical record with Hong Kong Government regulation standard; Exchanging medical data with Hong Kong Government centralize database. Company Background Town Health Co Ltd. (The Group) Established in 1985, the group has adopted the managed healthcare model to provide high quality and affordable medical services to our corporate clients. THMN has a full range of medical services, including General and Specialists Services, Dental Services, Physiotherapy Services, Laboratories Imaging Services and other auxiliary medical services. The Group has well developed and became one of the largest healthcare services providers, with about 30 medical clinics and specialist outpatient clinics, in Hong Kong. Company network Figure 1.1 http://www.thmn.com.hk/our_locations.asp Company Workflow The Group was operating a standalone medical management system over 10 years. Many problems occur throughout their daily operation. The basic operation workflow is shown as below figures 1.1. Diagnosis New Patient Registration Consultation Medical Record Transfer to Hospital/Other films Treatment Figures 1.1 For our daily operation, a new patient is required to fill in a registration form for his / her personal information in paper format. Then the duty doctor consults and examines the patient based on the background and situation at that moment. The paper medical record and real time observation by the duty doctor will be used as tools to support the diagnosis of the patient. Finally, the staff or nurses will input the finalize treatment formulated and medical record into the existing medical system. Five Force Analysis For The Group Suppliers Industry Competitions Buyer Potential Entrants Substitutes Threat of New Entrants There are many new entrants in Hong Kong healthcare services industry. It is because of the rapid changing of economical scale, such as new investments from PRC. Threat substitutes Since the market demand is changing recently, many different professionals are willing to join together and run their business to provide a 24*7 (24 hours with 7days) services. Besides, they combine their services into a single business firm, such as Chinese medical services, Dental and out patient services. Therefore they can share resources to reduce the operating cost and increase the revenue. Bargaining power of Suppliers Most of suppliers ally their product price due to the increasing price of most original materials. For a healthcare group, they are required for lots of inventory, like drugs and medicate equipment. This is a main reason for their high operating cost. Bargaining power of Buyers The Government regulation was release as benefit to all Hong Kong elders such as health care voucher, eHealth medical record sharing system, and etc. Industry Competitors There are many strong competitors with increasing and steady revenue. Moreover, most professionals quit their job in public sector (Government Hospital) and join the joint venture of healthcare group to start their own business. SWOT Analysis for The Group Strength The group is established for over 25 years, it is a well-known health care services provider with confidence in providing quality services. A wide spread of clinic coverage is convenience to all patients in Hong Kong. The medical management system assists on keeping patients records that ensures the efficiency on daily data processing. Weakness Performance of existing medical management system becomes slower due to the increasing size of data. Increasing numbers of patient records reduce the performance of accuracy. Thus, many errors were found in daily operation which influences the efficiency. The system will become a bottleneck of the Group for the business expansion. Opportunity Modernize on computer system provided a better management on patients data and prevent error to increase efficiency on operation. Also, connectivity to Hospital Authority (HA) and insurance companies database can get advantages on increasing revenue and convenience of data exchange for the Group. Treats The medical industry competition had a huge impact to the Group due to the decreasing market share and revenue while the running cost for equipment and drugs is increasing. Research Methodology Research method Interview for analyzing the current problems The aim of the interview is gathering information about the understanding for the current system and its process. Our team conducted the interview to narrow down the problems one by one. Web survey for capture the industry strategy Due to the rapid change for the market, this survey is aimed to get the most common strategy for our team. Data Gathering This process is mainly used for identify the existing operation problems through the interview with the company partners, managements and customers. Peoples interviewed: Partners Project mangers Customers The questions for Partners What is your corporate vision and mission? What is your corporate development target in long term / short-term? What is your development strategy in long terms / short terms? Do you agree the change of Hong Kong market decreasing revenue of your company? How many resources had been spent on your strategy development projects? What is / are the existing problem(s) that your company is facing now? And how does your company fix it? The questions for Project Managers How do you carry out the CMS? How long do you planned for your project schedule? How the CMS fulfill the development of your company that you had mentioned before? How many resources had been spent on your strategy development projects? The questions for Customers What service(s) do you mainly used in Town Health Corp? Do you comfortable with the current system of Town Health Corp? 3 Do you have any suggestion(s) for Town Health Corp? Through the interviews, our team recognizes the mission of health care group is providing a comprehensive healthcare service. The short term planning is to develop an effective clinical management system, while the long term objective is to build up an exhaustive service for customers, such as medical decision support analysis. To achieve the short term and long term objectives mentioned above, we have to improve: The duties schedule of physician Communication channels with other insurance companies The inventory control and allocation Standardization of e-health medical record Survey result All interviewee thought that the eHealth is useful as it answered them many questions and as a platform to communicate with others. Whats more, over 80% clients having discussion with professional after a year, which is dangerous if they didnt take annual body check. Almost 80% clients thought the Clinical management system should be connected into Hong Kong centralize database. Due to the elderly dont know how to use the high technology (e.g. computers), thus the respondents refuse to use it. There are only 20% of interviewees think that the Clinical management system cant be effectively the diagnosis processing. Almost 80% of respondents has been used the clinical management system, especially most of them used the Google one. The respondents all are educated above the primary school and most of them are in the age group of 30-39. Values Identified from Interview Objective Schedule Management Insurance interface Inventory control e-medical Record The duties schedule of physician Communication channels with other insurance companies The inventory control and allocation Standardization of e-health medical record Problem Definitions The Group was operating a standalone medical management system over than 10 years. However, there are still many problems occur during daily operation. Data formatting out of date The existing medical system was developed in 1989. All clinic offices were allocated a standalone workstation for operating medical system. The medical system database was developed by FoxPro which could not conduct data mapping with other new technology like Microsoft SQL server, MySQL server. Hence each medical system was all recorded year by year until present. Suffering in medical claim to insurance company Every time when different insurance companies transfer some patients data for inquiry, the staff needs to input the patient data one by one manually in order to get the corresponding data from the database. After all required data have been extracted from the database, the staff needs to enter the corresponding data to different systems that provided by insurance companies. Sometime if the data from insurance companies could not match with the database, the staff needs to notify the insurance company for amendment. After receiving the update data, the staff needs to do the inquiry all over again. Cannot manage resources on inventory Existing medical management system can only handle patients records. Inventory of the Group is recorded by using a logbook. Using of pen and paper cannot fulfill the services standard nowadays. That is not a flexible and efficiency way to keep track and monitor inventory, especially for a medical group which owned over thirty clinics. Manpower that used on inventory is also become a challenge on management and costs. Cannot manage customers appointment effectively Many clinics handle their patient appointments by using telephone bookings and marked on the notebook. However, it always has the contrived mistake, for example, marked down the wrong name or contact number. Sometimes the patients need to wait for a long time to check the appointment time or the medicine stuffs. Furthermore, the doctor may not stay in one single clinic; it is inconvenience for the customers who want to consult the same doctor. Based on problems above, managements decide to carry out a new Clinical Management System (CMS) to replace the existing one. Our learning area: Electric Medical Record, Interfaces with Insurance Company, Inventory Control and Book appointment with web interfaces. Successful Stories 2The Hospital Authority (HA) of Hong Kong 3The Hospital Authority (HA) is one of the successful case of implement CMS in Hong Kong. HA set up 15 Chinese medicine outpatient clinics (CM Centres). These 15 CM Centres are served with a fully computerized Chinese Medicine Information System (CMIS). CMIS is developed by HA for managing a large amount of clinical information. The CMIS is aimed to the support for patient administration (example, appointment, registration and payment), clinical modules (example, diagnosis, consultation notes and prescription) and pharmacy management. It can also treat as a platform for data analysis, planning and researches. The Integrative Medicine Information and Research Manager of HA, Tat Tse said, the system can reduce errors and enhance risk management, for example, the emergence of drug incidents, we can trace the patient and arrange examination as soon as possible. 4Union Hospital in Hong Kong Another successful case for CMS implement is Union Hospital and Union Hospital Polyclinic. Union Hospital was established in the year 1994 while Union Hospital Polyclinic (Tsuen Wan) went into service in January 2007. Hospital and polyclinic have an advanced Customer Management System to provide comprehensive patient data and flexible registration service. It is convenience for the clinic and the hospital to access the patient information and medicine history. It is also expediency for the patient to choose the venue for having the follow-up care thought out the network of Union Hospital. Proposed Solutions With the reference to the above successful cases in Hong Kong, the main purpose for the CMS is easy to deliver medical data. It is a centralized system to control and share the resources, like medical information, to related departments, like Pharmacy, Laboratory and front-end clinics department. Besides, CMS can be synchronized all the medical data to both public and private hospitals and other CMS. A brand new CMS become an important milestone in the IS strategy development. Inventory control To improve the inventory control, the implement of inventory control system is required. It can increase the flexibility and efficiency. The new system will include inventory monitoring, stock transfer, out of stock alert and reporting, and other function like expiry date reminder and search. These functions are the daily tasks which are operating manually every day. The implement of new system can help to reallocate manpower to other tasks. Schedule management The system will renew the data periodically. Old records of patients will be found easily. Clinic staff can handle the patients records and the appointments by using an easier way. Insurance interfaces The system can get requests from different insurance companies and reply those insurance companies automatically. A summary report will generate for checking every day. This can save the manpower of processing insurance companies request and prevent missing or wrong information exchange. E-medical standard Since all the new medical data should be matched with international standard, developers change all the new medical data into  [5]  HL7 format. HL7, an international standard medical system, can exchange data with other systems, which will be the main trend for future development. This action may cost lots of resources in transferring to the new CMS, it is still certainly required for the long term strategy of health care industry. Physical Architecture This section describes the physical architecture of the System. The below diagram shows the physical architecture of the System. The CMS is constructed in 3-tiers web based architecture, which includes web server, application server and database server. Web Server The Web Server will be the primary entry point for all users to access the system. All user activity will be limited within the Web Server. Application Server The Application Server will serve the validation process and the using of the stored data in the Database Server. Users will access these functions through the user interface located at the Web Server. Database Server The Database Server will be the central repository of all data. These data will be using for validation purpose. Software requirements Internet Explorer 5.5 above Java web starter 6.0 above MySQL 10.0.1 above Tomcat web server 6.0 above Hardware requirements IBM X3250 M2, Xeon E3110 3.0GHz/ 1333MHz (DC 65w 6MB L2 cache), 8GB 667MHz SDRAM, 160GB Hot-Swap SATA HDD Tape Drive [Prod Servers] IBM Tape Backup Drive Juniper Netscreen-5GT CableCat5 and Cat6 KVM 1U 15 LCD Monitor w/ 8-port PS/s Solution Budget The solution estimated project costs are shown as below: Items Estimated Costs (HK$) 1. Project team staff/development costs# 500,000 2. Project office set up and running costs including rent, telecom costs, mail/courier, etc. 100,000 3. IT costs including PC, software, printer, fax, LAN set up, etc. 100,000 Grand Total 700,000 Workflow of new CMS E-Medical record standard formats (Health level 7) apply in CMS First of all the medical record (HL7) run across multiple module of CMS, the example shown the workflow of e-medical Record useful in multiple modules of CMS. HL7 is mainly use for data exchange in different multiple module. Such as a single medical record it can be data exchange to doctors in clinical departments then transfer information to other lab departments then the lab result can be generate the medical decision support lab test. Finally the doctor can be made the medical decision and prepared the consultation result. The medical can be claim to insurance company directly for patients. Workflow of appointment in CMS The client calls to book the time with the right doctor. The clinical nurses mark down the information of the client and find out the clinic data from the database. The nurse call to remind the client and confirm the booking. When the client comes, then the appointment is done. Phone in to clinic Mark down the client information Call back and remind the clients Appointment done! Workflow of inventory system 1. Medicine, equipment or office supplies delivered to warehouse, information and amount of each product will be updated into the inventory system 2. Staff in clinics will place order for different items in the inventory system, delivery will be arranged. For some critical items like life-saving medicines, order will be automatically placed once the amount dropped to preset minimum quantity 3. Items delivered to each clinic from warehouse Workflow of Medical Claim Enquiry From Insurance Company Insurance company send medical claim request to CMS, CMS will retrieve data automatically from database and return diagnosis result back to that insurance company. Implementation Schedule The following is the paramilitary schedule of the proposed plan: Date Major Milestone Month 1 Launch of the CMS Project Proposal evaluation Month 2-4 Project Initiation User Requirement Collection Mouth 5-6 System Design and Analysis Procurement and Installation of Hardware and Software Interface with external systems Mouth 7-8 Program Development Mouth 9-11 User Acceptance Test Documentation Training Mouth 9-11 User Feedback Collection User Feedback Analysis System Design Revision Mouth 9-12 Program Modification User Acceptance Test Documentation Training Phase 2 Live Run Conclusion Durng the study topcis,all of us exploer our eye on Hong Kong Helthcare business operations.Due to the market change from previous, Hong Kong became stanadardation with international.The government of HKSAR become the leader role on electric health care stanard and regulations. Hence the team regonzine the implementation of cinical management system just the begin electric health care stages. All the industry stakeholders become more international standardization in future! Project Self-evaluation The study of CMS and its functions team completed the target because we can learn Healthcare knowledge during the project. The project management works are fine and the team conducts many discussion points during preparation. Finally I inspirit our teamwork steps until project closure. Tommy Wong @ Middlesex University 2011 During this project, I got the chance to explore and learn about the medical industry, and the relationship between information technology and medical and how they benefit each other. In my own findings using information technology in medical industry especially the outpatient services, is still in a preliminary stage, which mean more I.T. elements can be used to enhance the perform, more efficiency and profit can be archived. Simon Wong @ Middlesex University 2011 During this project, our division of labor is very balance. Everyone tried the best and put many efforts on it. I in charged the parts of findings, included the survey result, interview result and others. However,  some difficulties  encountered in  investigations, for example,  many respondents were  not sure  what  is eHealth, or  send the mail to people have not reply. I think our team spirit is good. But I should do the project more actively. Whats more, after my self-evaluation, I think my work is fair effective and efficient, due to the fair English grammar, I might need the others group mates help to proofread. At the same time, I think my time management can be better, because of my delay, the schedule of work might postpone. I hope I will do it better next time. Eric Pang @ Middlesex University 2011 Medical topic is a totally new topic to me, but to deal with different industries and departments is one of characteristic for Information Technology. Though this project, my skill for handling an unfamiliar topic is improved, which is equipped me to be an Information Technology professional. In this group project, I responsible for research on medical field business model. I found that even in a field of professionalism, the competition between companies still very great. Therefor price war is not a best way for them to increase the revenue. Before this project, I truly believed that price war is always a way to help companies to develop their business, but now I understand that with the information system support and re-engine the process flow, the company still can increase their productivity and achieve the target of increasing revenue. After this project, doing the analysis on the company background and market background become more and more import to me when designing solutions. This is the first time for me to handle an unfamiliar topic, medical health care industry. I had spent a lot of time to search information and catch up the schedule of my teammates. By having thIs experience, I am sure that I can do better for next time. Ben Wong @ Middlesex University 2011 Appendix 1 Interview Questions with Answer Dr Joseph Lee, Partner of Corporate Development Town health Co Ltd 1 Feb 2011 Dear Dr Lee, We are a group of year 3 undergraduate students of Middlesex University, School of Engineering and Information Sciences. As part of our final year studies, we have been asked to contact and interview a strategic manager on a topic related to the use of Information Technology and Information Systems within the organization. The focus of our approach is to look at the strategic reasons why a particular configuration of IT/IS functionality was adopted assuming that competitive advantage was the prime focus of the implementers. The topic we have selected is Clinical Management System implementation for the chain health care group. We approach you because we believe that our topic represents an important strategic use of IT/IS within your organization. We are requesting a short interview with an appropriate strategic manager within your organization. We should only take a short amount of time at your convenience. However, we do have a deadline of early December for this part of our work. If you are available to help, please reply me by email to [emailprotected] Thank you for your consideration of our request. Yours truly, Tommy Wong Attn: Dr Joseph Lee, Partner of Corporate development, Town Health Co. Interview Questions 1. What is your corporate vision and mission? Our group mission is grouping up all the clinic services to provide a comprehensive healthcare place to the public. 2. What is your corporate development target in long term / short-term? Long -term: Our corporate development target will be emphasized on the elderly mansion. We can provide the periodically body check as elderly easy to have the elderly ill. We would like cooperating with them by contractual in the future 5 years. Whats more, they will enjoy the discount by joining our group elderly program. We hoped that we can have over 30 elderly mansion join us. Short -term: Another our consideration is the doctors who wanted save the rent. They can use the place that share with other doctors, thus they still have their own clinic room but share the rent and human resources. It is because we want to keep increasing our shops (about 10 /year) in different area in HK to enhance our brand image. 3. What is your development strategy in long terms/ short terms? Increase the shops of Town Health is the one of the promotion plan. It increases the brand warranty and customer trusting. When the demand increases, the supply should be increased too. In long term, Town Health has to use personal selling to explain the services to the elderly mansion. Therefore we will recruit more sales to demonstrate our job to the elderly to increase our professional image and increase the corporate opportunities. 4. Do you agree the change of Hong Kong market decreasing revenue of your company? No. It was totally opposite with your question. As the citizens in HK becomes older and older, their requirement of the elderly instruments and healthcare in growth rapidly. In fact the target market in our industry is growing, the revenue of our company is in an enhancement. 5. How many resources had been spent on your strategy development projects? A lot! Human resources and Material resources which includes the instruments, medicines, equipments. I think it will over 100 millions. 6. What is / are your existing problem(s) that your company is facing now? And how does your company fix it? We have to find the Corp target carefully as many of them are not the legal one, whatever the mansion or doctor. We want to enlarge our clinic healthcare by a good quality. We would like asking the existing customers opinions and their past experience. Sometimes we need to find the good doctors by the positive word-of mouth. Thanks for your time and attention. Mr Jackson Tam, Project Manager Town health Co Ltd 1 Feb 2011 Dear Jackson, We are a group of year 3 undergraduate students of Middlesex University, School of Engineering and Information Sciences. As part of our final year studies, we have been asked to contact and interview a strategic manager on a topic related to the use of Information Technology and Information Systems within the organization. The focus of our approach is to look at the strategic reasons why a particular configuration of IT/IS functionality was adopted assuming that competitive advantage was the prime focus of the implementers. The topic we have selected is Clinical Management System implementation for the chain health care group. We approach you because we believe that our topic represents an important strategic use of IT/IS within your organization. We are requesting a short interview with an appropriate strategic manager within your organization. We should only take a short amount of time at your convenience. However, we do have a deadline of early December for this part of our work. If you are available to help, please reply me by email to [emailprotected] Thank you for your consideration of our request. Yours truly, Tommy Wong Attn: Jackson Tam, Project Manager, town health Corp. 1. How do you carry out the CMS? I would set up a project team. Most of the members come from functional team. I also recruit external consultant to be the project adviser. 2. How long do you planned for your project schedule? 2 years 3. How the CMS fulfill the development of your company that you had mentioned before? The functions of CMS commit, electronic medical format as connecting with international standard, the platform connecting with insurance company modules and also control inventory and physicians schedule management. 4.How many resources had been spent on your strategy development projects? Over 2 Millions. All are spent on in-house team development works. Thanks for your time and attention. Ms Eva Ma, Deputy Business Development officer. AIA HK Co Ltd 1 Feb 2011 Dear Eva, We are a group of year 3 undergraduate students of Middlesex University, School of Engineering and Information Sciences. As part of our final year studies, we have been asked to contact and interview a strategic manager on a topic related to the use of Information Technology and Information Systems within the organization. The focus of our approach is to look at the strategic reasons why a particular configuration of IT/IS functionality was adopted assuming that competitive advantage was the prime focus of the implementers. The topic we have selected is Clinical Management System implementation for the chain health care group. We approach you because we believe that our topic represents an important strategic use of IT/IS within your organization. We are requesting a short interview with an appropriate strategic manager within your organization. We should only take a short amount of time at your convenience. However, we do have a deadline of early December for this part of our work. If you are available to help, please reply me by email to [emailprotected] Thank you for your

Suffer The Little Children - S :: essays research papers

In this paper, Im going to take a formalist approach to look at language, tone and structure of Suffer the Little Children by Stephen King. This story is not just about a particular teacher or a particular student; it is more about a disturbed ladys state of mind, and my work will give emphasis to the characterization the author uses through the text. The first thing I would like to talk about is Kings use of language in this story. He begins by describing Miss Sidley as a small, constantly suffering, gimlet-eyed woman. He also mentioned that she knows she is getting old, and the word Miss before her name allowed us to know that she is not married. She is an unhappy woman. We can gather what kind of person she is from her reference to the children as monsters, bitches, evils, who have nasty little games. The diction of the story emphasizes wickedness. King uses metaphors, and almost every one of them suggests a likeness with something evil, taking for example the giggling, like the laughter of demons...or they were ringed in a tight little circle, like mourners around an open grave. Irony also exists in this story. Sidley seems to be the ideal teacher, who is efficient at her job and knows how to keep her students quite in class, when actually she is the one who has a disturbing behavior and ends up surprising her colleague in sch ool when she is found about to kill one more child. King also used an interesting style to introduce a new character to the story: Buddy Jenkins was his name, psychiatry was his game. As soon as we read it, we immeadiately know he will have a destiny such as Sidleys because that was exactly the way she was introduced (Miss Sidley was her name, teaching was her game). The writer also uses italic writing to emphasize the teachers toughts. However, the presence of one or two loose words in the middle of sentences will contribute to cause an eye effect, to catch the readers attention to those words, such as admit, change and she. King gave this story a dark tone about which theres nothing cheerful. No colors. Anyone who reads the story will be able to see an obscure atmosphere. I would like to mention that the author uses expressions such as unrestful night and solitary dinner througout the text, and the word darkness appears many times.