Challenges Faced by Companies While Entering a Foreign Business

10 Important Factors to Consider Before Starting Your Own Business Published on May 10, 2008 by Educate And Learn in Small Business Comments (46)|59 Liked It Certain key factors which need to be addressed before starting your own business. This article describes different factors which need to be kept in mind before starting your own business. It mainly talks about a business from a proprietorship point of view, rather than from a corporate point of view. Thus it is intended for small business. A number of factors are important in order to start a successful business. Here an effort is made to describe some of the key factors.Knowledge/Expertise Any business requires some amount of basic knowledge and experience. The owner needs to be aware about the business he intends to start. Knowledge and expertise about the product or service are keys to a successful business. In case of limited knowledge the owner may not be able to sustain the business and can be fooled by the vendors, suppli ers and competitors. When you ask yourself a question â€Å"What business shall I start? † you need to get a convincing reply about what you intend to do and how you are going to go about it. Read more in Small Business Small Business Survival in a Down Economy Four Easy Ways to Double Your Economic Stimulus Check  » Expert knowledge is especially required if the field of business is a niche field. For instance the construction or software industry would require more knowledge as against a retail business selling a particular brand of clothes or shoes. Market/Demand Once a decision is taken on the business you intend to start, the next step is to explore the demand / market for the product / service. Certain products will only have a domestic market for them whereas others can be successful on an international level.The key question is â€Å"Who are the customers? † A market survey can be conducted to identify the market for the business to be started. If the product / service is expected to be sold locally, the demand for it needs to be assessed. In case an international market is expected then rules and regulations for dealing internationally need to be found out. Total Project Costs It is important to correctly assess the total project cost required to set up and run the business successfully. In a capital intensive business such as starting a manufacturing plant, the start up costs can be very high.You need to identify the total amount which will be spent on the land & building, plant & machinery, furniture and office equipment, vehicles etc. If a business is in the nature of retail you will need to identify the cost of the store and furniture. Amount required for the decoration of the store needs to be assessed. Similarly in case of an office the major cost will be for the furniture and office equipment. An office or firm can be started at a relatively lower cost initially with only the basic requirements. One also needs to take care of th e working capital requirement.This will mainly consist of the inventory which needs to maintained and the credit which is extended to the customers. From this the supplier’s credit is deducted to arrive at the Working Capital Requirement. The Working Capital Requirement can be quite high for certain industries for example inventory will need to be maintained in a garment store. Similarly in case of a grocery shop there is need for huge inventory for which credit may not be given initially by the suppliers. Financing/Capital After identifying the initial costs required for starting the business, the financing pattern will need to be decided.The financing pattern will be mainly by way of capital introduction by the owner and borrowed funds. Depending on how much capital the owner can introduce the balance amount will need to be borrowed. Funds borrowed will be either short term loans or long term loans. The terms and conditions for borrowing funds will need to be studied such a s the cost of borrowing, security required, rate of interest and the repayment terms. The owner will need to approach a number of banks to get information about their terms of lending and draw a comparative analysis to identify which funding is the most beneficial for him.As a thumb rule short term funds should not be utilized for the purchase of fixed assets. Short term funds are mainly used to meet the working capital requirement. The logic is that if short term funds are used to purchase fixed assets how are you going to repay the short term loan if the business has not progressed. Once the financing pattern is identified the owner will need to decide how the money is going to be utilized. Competition Before entering new business, information about market competition needs to be found out.In case a product is a monopoly then the competition will not matter. Otherwise the success of the business will depend upon the demand and supply gap. Thus if there is a huge demand then you ca n enter the business inspite of the market competition. Otherwise you will need to be stronger than the competitors to gain an entry. Normally existing firms will always have an advantage due to the experience they have and because they may be well equipped. The question which needs to be answered is â€Å"What is unique about the product / service which will be offered to survive the market competition†?Information such as who are the competitors, what is their market strategy and what factors are required to compete with them are important. Location Deciding an optimum location for the business is a strategic and an important one. A good location goes a long way in making the business successful. The location needs to be carefully chosen. Some places have advantages over the others. You can save out on taxes, water and electricity costs if you are located in some areas. The raw materials can be easily sourced, the manpower would be easily available and you can save out on t ransportation costs in case of certain locations.Setting up a business in certain location could lead to subsidy and rebates from the Government. In the case of a retail business one needs to be located in a well populated area and one which is easily accessible. Certain niche products / services of different competitors are available at a single location. For example there are software belts having all software companies. Similarly there are gold marts which have different gold vendors and jewelers at a single location. Laws, Rules, & Regulation Setting up a new business would require compliance with various laws & regulations.Each country is governed by separate laws and regulations which require that any new business be registered with certain authorities and meets certain compliance. Thus registration of the name of the company may be required with Ministry of Commerce for instance. Further details need to be provided regarding the workforce and certain deductions may be require d from the staff (such as tax) which would need to be deposited with the respected Government bodies. Awareness is required of such rules and regulations. It is always better to consult a lawyer before setting up a new business in an unknown environment.There are certain accounting / consultancy firms which would have a division giving advise on legal and statutory compliance. In case of lack of expertise it is better to approach a lawyer / accounting / consultancy firms. Non compliance with the statute could lead to huge fines and penalty and hamper the success of a new business. Return on Investment Return on Investment (ROI) is calculated as Net Profit divided by the Investment made. The ROI is low in the initial years and is expected to grow on a year on year basis.The ROI needs to be compared with the return that would be earned from alternative business options available. For instance it could be compared with any other source of income such as money earned from investment in the stock market. Similarly the Return On Capital must be greater than the rate of interest earned from a fixed deposit kept with a bank. Staff/Manpower Any business requires efficient manpower to succeed. The staff needs to be carefully chosen since they are the ones who could make or break the business. The cost of manpower varies depending on the location of the business and thus this needs to be factored well.The business needs to be set up in a location where there is sufficient availability of manpower both skilled as well as unskilled. This remains one of the key criteria’s whether the business is going to be run with a staff of 2 or 2,000. Technology It is always better to invest in the best technology at the time of start up itself. Post investment, monitoring of the technology purchased is required. Technology would include plant & machinery as well as latest office equipment. One should not exclude the software required to monitor the business. Choosing optimum sof tware is a challenging task.A technologically advanced business is expected to perform much better in the longer run. All the above factors are important to start a successful business. Compromising any of these factors could hamper the growth. Starting a business these days is very challenging and an all round knowledge of various factors is required to run a successful one. It is important to make a Project Report on the basis of the above factors before starting a new business. Read more: http://bizcovering. com/small-business/10-important-factors-to-consider-before-starting-your-own-business/#ixzz2O2yGVG1w

Zara Supply Chain

A network and flow explanation to Zara’ success Angel Diaz and Luis Solis Instituto de Empresa, Maria de Molina 12, 5 °, Madrid 28006, Spain E-mails: angel. [email  protected] edu; luis. [email  protected] edu Abstract Zara is a Spanish fashion manufacturer and retailer that has known swift success. Spaniards have become used to visiting Zara frequently, as there is always a new product. Zara launches 100 different collections every year, with over 11000 models, none lasting more than five weeks in production and with an average lead-time (design to store delivery) of four weeks. Inditex, the group to which the brand Zara belongs owns five brands with over 1000 stores in more than 30 countries. Although its global sales are still one sixth those of Gap, its sales have increased at an average 30% per year over the last three years, with net benefits over sales of close to 12% in the same period. In this paper we examine Zara’ production and distribution systems, looking for clues to its mass-customization capabilities. We argue that the key to Zara’ success is its Supply Chain (network and flows) approach. The production network is made of a tightly integrated net of product specialized factories, intensive in capital and run under Toyota’s principles, and a secondary network of over 400 micro enterprises, tightly controlled by Inditex but independent. All these are located in the same small geographical area, Galicia (northwest Spain). The swift flow is facilitated through advanced automation and logistics systems, with emphasis on postponement. We compare these network and flow approaches to those of Benetton and Gap, and argue that the key to Zara’ success is this combination of a tightly integrated local network coupled to the most advanced flow systems. A final consideration is the sustainability of these orderwinners over time. Keywords: Key words: Zara, logistics network, flow, fashion Introduction Intense competition in the global marketplace is forcing organizations to consider new practices by which they could enhance and sustain their competitive capabilities. Network configurations and alliances is such one option through which an organization can leverage its resources to compete effectively against fast and nimble competitors. Furthermore, the emphasis on supplier integration in supply chain management has contributed to the growing interest on strategic supplier alliances by companies around the world. Strategic network alliances are innovative and interesting forms of relationships between buyers and suppliers, however, successful supplier alliances have proved to be very elusive for the most part (Landeros and Monczka, 1991). Despite that academic and practitioner literatures have devoted considerable attention to supply network alliances issues, its dynamics has yet many unanswered questions. Furthermore, most of the literature has focused on cases in few developed countries like USA. There is a need to expand our understanding about international cases since more and more global supply chain networks are becoming more important. The study of the ZARA supply chain network in Spain is a contribution in this direction. The Spanish integrated manufacturer-retailer of apparel Zara has been defined as the Armani for the masses. Although sales of Zara (close to two billion dollars, comparable to Benetton) are much lower than that of the clothing retailer leader Gap, its financial performance has been bright. Net profits of Inditex in 2001 were 340,4 million â‚ ¬, 31% more than the previous year, out of sales of 3. 249,8 million â‚ ¬, a growth of 24% with respect to 2000. Zara launches over 100 collections per year (11. 00 new garments) and has a total design-to-store cycle time of less than 4 weeks. Every garment will be on sale for a maximum of 5 weeks, after which is removed and sent to discount stores or destroyed. Zara invests close to zero percent of its sales in advertisement (5% of sales for Gap), relying instead on keeping customers perpetually interested in finding new surprises (Zara? s customers visit the conveniently located stores an average 17 times a year). While Gap brands, Zara i ntrigues. We argue in this paper that the success of Zara is explained by a business approach in which a highly automated and largely local production and distribution network facilitates very fast response times as the key competitive advantage, and that this design can be due to cultural and market characteristics of Spain. History The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega started a small garment factory in La Coruna, Galicia in 1963. In 1975 Ortega integrated downstream by opening his first store, Zara. By the end of the decade six stores with that name were located in Galicia. The eighties saw important changes. Ortega created the parent company of Zara, Inditex (stands for Textile Design Industry) announcing a movement toward integrated designfabrication-retail operations. Also in this period an ex-IBM salesman, Jose Maria Castellano, the actual Vice-president of Inditex, imposed a vision of time-based competition sustained on the intensive use of technology that was to dominate the holding in the future. By the end of this decade Zara had 82 stores in Spain and six abroad. In the nineties the group developed the quick response, integrated logistics network described in this case. An important milestone was the adoption at the beginning of the decade, and well ahead of other Spanish companies, of Just in Time and lean production practices, with knowledge provided by Toyota, Japan. By the end of the century, Inditex added four new brands, each for a different market niche and with their own distribution channels. At the closing of the 2001 exercise the group had 1080 stores (449 of Zara, that represents almost 80% of total sales) in 33 countries, over 20. 00 employees and the impressive profitability and growth figures mentioned in the introduction. Networks and Alliances Researchers have provided some evidence that companies relying on strategic network alliances are more profitable since closer buyer-supplier relationships may offer many technical, financial, and strategic advantages over spot market transactions and vertical integration (Mohr and Spec kman, 1994). Furthermore, strategic alliances provide an effective alternative to improve economies of scale and scope. Different scholars have studied the antecedents that lead to different forms of network alliances. These studies suggest that assets type involved will impact the type of relationships (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh, 1987). A different stream of research has studied the relationship between environmental uncertainty and resource interdependence with the nature of relationships. Handy, 1995; and Mohr and Spekman, 1994, have conducted empirical exploratory studies on the formation and evolution of inter-organizational elationships. Production and logistics are largely regional at Inditex, with much less outsourcing than is common in this sector. Why the network evolved into this configuration can be due to cultural characteristics of Spain. There exist a rich literature on collaboration. According to this Industry Networks, a set of organizations that have developed recurring ties when serving a particular market, is a variation of the old idea of industrial districts (Ebers & Jarillo, 1998). The drivers for collaboration have been extensively analyzed in the literature and can be synthesized in strategies of coespecialization; the search for mutual learning to support fastest product developments, better information and product flows (resulting in cost and time reductions, a dominating theme in logistics); the creation of virtual scale and scope economies; and in the creation of entry barriers, among others (Cervilla and Lorenzo, 2000). Hofstede characterizes Spain? culture as risk avoidance, hierarchical inclined (Granell, 1997). Solis et al. (2000) show that in Spain companies, integration and closer relationships with local and global suppliers in critical processes are becoming paramount. Strategic network alliances require time and resources to be built and sustained. In getting the benefits of integration and synchronization with suppliers, building trust represents the most critical issue for supply network managers. Important for successful strategic supplier alliances is the communication expected behaviour, particularly the quality of information and participation, and the extent to which relevant information is transparent to suppliers. No less important for alliance success is the existence for a formal purchasing commodity selection process and a formal supplier assessment and selection process. These factors plus a comparatively low degree of outsourcing activity in Spain can explain the formation of this type of network. Factories Inditex owns 25 factories, each dedicated to capital-intensive activities (dye, cutting) and the production of a family items. The large majority of these are located in La Coruna. Inditex has additionally developed a network of external micro-companies, many households, that provide labor-intensive services, mainly sewing, which has proven difficult to automate. According to Mr. Castellano the local work force has higher labor cost but also faster reaction time (than outsourced production in a low-cost area). Distribution Inditex owns a single logistics center in La Coruna. This large facility (400,000 square meters) is largely automated, with 2 carrousels for fold garments (60,000 per hour) and 200 kilometers of elevated tracks. Products are transported directly to stores using outsourced but dedicated carriers (Azkar for land transportation –some 80% of deliveries in 2000, and different airlines for exporting, all taking-off from local Galician airports). Flows Two distinct flows can be appreciated at Inditex. One consists of long-term cycles, i. e. purchasing of raw materials and the other a short-term cycle, i. e. , design, fabrication and distribution. The long cycle starts three to six months before each fashion season and consists in the acquisition of two thirds of the raw materials required, mainly cloth (90% of which is sourced from India, China, Morocco, Mauricio, Korea, Italy Germany and Turkey –the remaining one third is supplied during the season), and of one h alf of all garments (15%-20% is acquired in advance, 50%-60% at the beginning of the season and the rest during the season). These are those items that are thought to be stable, i. e. , basic products for which demand is fairly predictable. The rest of the garments (those thought to have a higher risk) are produced inhouse in the short cycle described bellow. The short cycle start with design. This is totally an in-house affair in which over 200 designer work simultaneously on three season collections, the current one for modifications and improvements and the next two (winter 2002 is being currently worked on in the Spring of 2002). Target pricing and low scale customer acceptance trials are usual practices at this step. Patterns are scanned and sent electronically to the manufacturing plants. Here capitalintensive activities such as dying and cutting are performed, while sewing is manually done by the micro-companies described above. Processes in the plants are kept flexible using lean production principles such as multi-skilled and flexible work forces (with an enviable strike record) and simple Japanese-like control systems. Production is thus pushed into the stores (15% at the beginning of the season, the rest according to demand), where the manager uses hand-held devices (currently Cassiopeia PDAs) to send feedback in close to real time about what moves and what doesn’t (colors, sizes, models), allowing for fast adjustments to the production plan. Replenishment to stores is done twice or three times a week, with a lead-time for existing (or subject to slight design modifications) items of two weeks, and of five weeks for new products. Comments It is interesting to compare the strategy of Zara/Inditex to that of Benetton (a similar sized competitor) and of the market leader Gap. Of the three the more integrated, both upstream and downstream is Zara/Inditex. Benetton produces through a network of mainly regional subcontractors, distributes from a centralized, automated warehouse and retails through franchises. Gap subcontracts production to a network of global producers (over 3000 in more than 70 countries) and has a network of global warehouses and distribution centers. Design Zara Benetton Gap Own- continuous Own-periodic Own-periodic Production Distribution 0% own regional factories Centralized D. C. 50% subcontractors Own stores Regional subcontractors Global subcontractors Centralized D. C. Franchises Decentralized warehouses and D. C Zara/Inditex model is not a fashionable global, outsourced network. It evolved as a probable consequence of limitations in the Spanish market, but has proven that a vertically integrated l ocal network when linked to advanced manufacturing and information technology practices can result in quick response times with little stock or waste, a by-product of the synchronization of offer and demand that the integration nature of the process allows. Postponement of the (in-house) fabrication of fashion items considered of high uncertainty, plus the flexibility and quick response implicit in the lean and automated process results in low levels of stock (40% less than Gap, is proportion to sales) An important question is now whether the organization of Mr. Ortega and Castellano can maintain its characteristics and stellar performance as global growth takes place. Due to European expansion a new distribution center is being built in Zaragoza, close to the French border and facilities for production in Mexico are being considered. Labor shortages in the small Galician area have also been reported. The organization could then decide to play in a niche market position and remain as it is, duplicate the actual local Galician network in other regions (e. g. , Mexico) or move towards a global and more externalized network. If the last, and arguably most probable option is pursuit, the challenge for Zara/Inditex will be to maintain their current flexibility. References Cervilla y Lorenzo (2000): â€Å"Redes de empresas y tecnologias de informacion: copciones para el desarrollo de la PYME†. Debates IESA. Vol. 5. No. 1. Dwyer, F. , Schurr, P. , & Oh, S. (1987). â€Å"Developing buyer-seller relationships† Journal of Marketing, vol. 51 (2), 11-27. Ebers, M. y C. Jarillo (1998). â€Å"The construction, forms, and consequences of industry networks† International Studies of Management & Organization. Vol. 27. No. 4 Granell, E. (1998). Managing cluture for success. Ediciones IESA, 1997. Handy, C. (1995). â€Å"Trust and the virtual organization† Harvard Business Review, vol. 73(3), 40-50. Landeros, R. , & Monczka, R. (1991). â€Å"Cooperative buyer/seller relationships and a firm? competitive posture†. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, vol. 11, 2-8. Mohr, J. , & Spekman, R. (1994). â€Å"Characteristics of partnership success: Partnership attributes, communication behaviour, and conflict resolution techniques†. Strategic Management Journal, vol. 15(2), 135-152. Solis, L, & Escobar, D. , (2000). â€Å"The Management of Successf ul Strategic Alliances in Supply Chain Management Networks: An Empirical Study of Success Factors in Spain† Proceedings of XXXV CLADEA Annual Meeting, September, Barcelona. Zara Supply Chain A network and flow explanation to Zara’ success Angel Diaz and Luis Solis Instituto de Empresa, Maria de Molina 12, 5 °, Madrid 28006, Spain E-mails: angel. [email  protected] edu; luis. [email  protected] edu Abstract Zara is a Spanish fashion manufacturer and retailer that has known swift success. Spaniards have become used to visiting Zara frequently, as there is always a new product. Zara launches 100 different collections every year, with over 11000 models, none lasting more than five weeks in production and with an average lead-time (design to store delivery) of four weeks. Inditex, the group to which the brand Zara belongs owns five brands with over 1000 stores in more than 30 countries. Although its global sales are still one sixth those of Gap, its sales have increased at an average 30% per year over the last three years, with net benefits over sales of close to 12% in the same period. In this paper we examine Zara’ production and distribution systems, looking for clues to its mass-customization capabilities. We argue that the key to Zara’ success is its Supply Chain (network and flows) approach. The production network is made of a tightly integrated net of product specialized factories, intensive in capital and run under Toyota’s principles, and a secondary network of over 400 micro enterprises, tightly controlled by Inditex but independent. All these are located in the same small geographical area, Galicia (northwest Spain). The swift flow is facilitated through advanced automation and logistics systems, with emphasis on postponement. We compare these network and flow approaches to those of Benetton and Gap, and argue that the key to Zara’ success is this combination of a tightly integrated local network coupled to the most advanced flow systems. A final consideration is the sustainability of these orderwinners over time. Keywords: Key words: Zara, logistics network, flow, fashion Introduction Intense competition in the global marketplace is forcing organizations to consider new practices by which they could enhance and sustain their competitive capabilities. Network configurations and alliances is such one option through which an organization can leverage its resources to compete effectively against fast and nimble competitors. Furthermore, the emphasis on supplier integration in supply chain management has contributed to the growing interest on strategic supplier alliances by companies around the world. Strategic network alliances are innovative and interesting forms of relationships between buyers and suppliers, however, successful supplier alliances have proved to be very elusive for the most part (Landeros and Monczka, 1991). Despite that academic and practitioner literatures have devoted considerable attention to supply network alliances issues, its dynamics has yet many unanswered questions. Furthermore, most of the literature has focused on cases in few developed countries like USA. There is a need to expand our understanding about international cases since more and more global supply chain networks are becoming more important. The study of the ZARA supply chain network in Spain is a contribution in this direction. The Spanish integrated manufacturer-retailer of apparel Zara has been defined as the Armani for the masses. Although sales of Zara (close to two billion dollars, comparable to Benetton) are much lower than that of the clothing retailer leader Gap, its financial performance has been bright. Net profits of Inditex in 2001 were 340,4 million â‚ ¬, 31% more than the previous year, out of sales of 3. 249,8 million â‚ ¬, a growth of 24% with respect to 2000. Zara launches over 100 collections per year (11. 00 new garments) and has a total design-to-store cycle time of less than 4 weeks. Every garment will be on sale for a maximum of 5 weeks, after which is removed and sent to discount stores or destroyed. Zara invests close to zero percent of its sales in advertisement (5% of sales for Gap), relying instead on keeping customers perpetually interested in finding new surprises (Zara? s customers visit the conveniently located stores an average 17 times a year). While Gap brands, Zara i ntrigues. We argue in this paper that the success of Zara is explained by a business approach in which a highly automated and largely local production and distribution network facilitates very fast response times as the key competitive advantage, and that this design can be due to cultural and market characteristics of Spain. History The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega started a small garment factory in La Coruna, Galicia in 1963. In 1975 Ortega integrated downstream by opening his first store, Zara. By the end of the decade six stores with that name were located in Galicia. The eighties saw important changes. Ortega created the parent company of Zara, Inditex (stands for Textile Design Industry) announcing a movement toward integrated designfabrication-retail operations. Also in this period an ex-IBM salesman, Jose Maria Castellano, the actual Vice-president of Inditex, imposed a vision of time-based competition sustained on the intensive use of technology that was to dominate the holding in the future. By the end of this decade Zara had 82 stores in Spain and six abroad. In the nineties the group developed the quick response, integrated logistics network described in this case. An important milestone was the adoption at the beginning of the decade, and well ahead of other Spanish companies, of Just in Time and lean production practices, with knowledge provided by Toyota, Japan. By the end of the century, Inditex added four new brands, each for a different market niche and with their own distribution channels. At the closing of the 2001 exercise the group had 1080 stores (449 of Zara, that represents almost 80% of total sales) in 33 countries, over 20. 00 employees and the impressive profitability and growth figures mentioned in the introduction. Networks and Alliances Researchers have provided some evidence that companies relying on strategic network alliances are more profitable since closer buyer-supplier relationships may offer many technical, financial, and strategic advantages over spot market transactions and vertical integration (Mohr and Spec kman, 1994). Furthermore, strategic alliances provide an effective alternative to improve economies of scale and scope. Different scholars have studied the antecedents that lead to different forms of network alliances. These studies suggest that assets type involved will impact the type of relationships (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh, 1987). A different stream of research has studied the relationship between environmental uncertainty and resource interdependence with the nature of relationships. Handy, 1995; and Mohr and Spekman, 1994, have conducted empirical exploratory studies on the formation and evolution of inter-organizational elationships. Production and logistics are largely regional at Inditex, with much less outsourcing than is common in this sector. Why the network evolved into this configuration can be due to cultural characteristics of Spain. There exist a rich literature on collaboration. According to this Industry Networks, a set of organizations that have developed recurring ties when serving a particular market, is a variation of the old idea of industrial districts (Ebers & Jarillo, 1998). The drivers for collaboration have been extensively analyzed in the literature and can be synthesized in strategies of coespecialization; the search for mutual learning to support fastest product developments, better information and product flows (resulting in cost and time reductions, a dominating theme in logistics); the creation of virtual scale and scope economies; and in the creation of entry barriers, among others (Cervilla and Lorenzo, 2000). Hofstede characterizes Spain? culture as risk avoidance, hierarchical inclined (Granell, 1997). Solis et al. (2000) show that in Spain companies, integration and closer relationships with local and global suppliers in critical processes are becoming paramount. Strategic network alliances require time and resources to be built and sustained. In getting the benefits of integration and synchronization with suppliers, building trust represents the most critical issue for supply network managers. Important for successful strategic supplier alliances is the communication expected behaviour, particularly the quality of information and participation, and the extent to which relevant information is transparent to suppliers. No less important for alliance success is the existence for a formal purchasing commodity selection process and a formal supplier assessment and selection process. These factors plus a comparatively low degree of outsourcing activity in Spain can explain the formation of this type of network. Factories Inditex owns 25 factories, each dedicated to capital-intensive activities (dye, cutting) and the production of a family items. The large majority of these are located in La Coruna. Inditex has additionally developed a network of external micro-companies, many households, that provide labor-intensive services, mainly sewing, which has proven difficult to automate. According to Mr. Castellano the local work force has higher labor cost but also faster reaction time (than outsourced production in a low-cost area). Distribution Inditex owns a single logistics center in La Coruna. This large facility (400,000 square meters) is largely automated, with 2 carrousels for fold garments (60,000 per hour) and 200 kilometers of elevated tracks. Products are transported directly to stores using outsourced but dedicated carriers (Azkar for land transportation –some 80% of deliveries in 2000, and different airlines for exporting, all taking-off from local Galician airports). Flows Two distinct flows can be appreciated at Inditex. One consists of long-term cycles, i. e. purchasing of raw materials and the other a short-term cycle, i. e. , design, fabrication and distribution. The long cycle starts three to six months before each fashion season and consists in the acquisition of two thirds of the raw materials required, mainly cloth (90% of which is sourced from India, China, Morocco, Mauricio, Korea, Italy Germany and Turkey –the remaining one third is supplied during the season), and of one h alf of all garments (15%-20% is acquired in advance, 50%-60% at the beginning of the season and the rest during the season). These are those items that are thought to be stable, i. e. , basic products for which demand is fairly predictable. The rest of the garments (those thought to have a higher risk) are produced inhouse in the short cycle described bellow. The short cycle start with design. This is totally an in-house affair in which over 200 designer work simultaneously on three season collections, the current one for modifications and improvements and the next two (winter 2002 is being currently worked on in the Spring of 2002). Target pricing and low scale customer acceptance trials are usual practices at this step. Patterns are scanned and sent electronically to the manufacturing plants. Here capitalintensive activities such as dying and cutting are performed, while sewing is manually done by the micro-companies described above. Processes in the plants are kept flexible using lean production principles such as multi-skilled and flexible work forces (with an enviable strike record) and simple Japanese-like control systems. Production is thus pushed into the stores (15% at the beginning of the season, the rest according to demand), where the manager uses hand-held devices (currently Cassiopeia PDAs) to send feedback in close to real time about what moves and what doesn’t (colors, sizes, models), allowing for fast adjustments to the production plan. Replenishment to stores is done twice or three times a week, with a lead-time for existing (or subject to slight design modifications) items of two weeks, and of five weeks for new products. Comments It is interesting to compare the strategy of Zara/Inditex to that of Benetton (a similar sized competitor) and of the market leader Gap. Of the three the more integrated, both upstream and downstream is Zara/Inditex. Benetton produces through a network of mainly regional subcontractors, distributes from a centralized, automated warehouse and retails through franchises. Gap subcontracts production to a network of global producers (over 3000 in more than 70 countries) and has a network of global warehouses and distribution centers. Design Zara Benetton Gap Own- continuous Own-periodic Own-periodic Production Distribution 0% own regional factories Centralized D. C. 50% subcontractors Own stores Regional subcontractors Global subcontractors Centralized D. C. Franchises Decentralized warehouses and D. C Zara/Inditex model is not a fashionable global, outsourced network. It evolved as a probable consequence of limitations in the Spanish market, but has proven that a vertically integrated l ocal network when linked to advanced manufacturing and information technology practices can result in quick response times with little stock or waste, a by-product of the synchronization of offer and demand that the integration nature of the process allows. Postponement of the (in-house) fabrication of fashion items considered of high uncertainty, plus the flexibility and quick response implicit in the lean and automated process results in low levels of stock (40% less than Gap, is proportion to sales) An important question is now whether the organization of Mr. Ortega and Castellano can maintain its characteristics and stellar performance as global growth takes place. Due to European expansion a new distribution center is being built in Zaragoza, close to the French border and facilities for production in Mexico are being considered. Labor shortages in the small Galician area have also been reported. The organization could then decide to play in a niche market position and remain as it is, duplicate the actual local Galician network in other regions (e. g. , Mexico) or move towards a global and more externalized network. If the last, and arguably most probable option is pursuit, the challenge for Zara/Inditex will be to maintain their current flexibility. References Cervilla y Lorenzo (2000): â€Å"Redes de empresas y tecnologias de informacion: copciones para el desarrollo de la PYME†. Debates IESA. Vol. 5. No. 1. Dwyer, F. , Schurr, P. , & Oh, S. (1987). â€Å"Developing buyer-seller relationships† Journal of Marketing, vol. 51 (2), 11-27. Ebers, M. y C. Jarillo (1998). â€Å"The construction, forms, and consequences of industry networks† International Studies of Management & Organization. Vol. 27. No. 4 Granell, E. (1998). Managing cluture for success. Ediciones IESA, 1997. Handy, C. (1995). â€Å"Trust and the virtual organization† Harvard Business Review, vol. 73(3), 40-50. Landeros, R. , & Monczka, R. (1991). â€Å"Cooperative buyer/seller relationships and a firm? competitive posture†. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, vol. 11, 2-8. Mohr, J. , & Spekman, R. (1994). â€Å"Characteristics of partnership success: Partnership attributes, communication behaviour, and conflict resolution techniques†. Strategic Management Journal, vol. 15(2), 135-152. Solis, L, & Escobar, D. , (2000). â€Å"The Management of Successf ul Strategic Alliances in Supply Chain Management Networks: An Empirical Study of Success Factors in Spain† Proceedings of XXXV CLADEA Annual Meeting, September, Barcelona.

Alice in Wonderland Essay

You may have thought Alice in Wonderland was just a children’s tale that everyone takes too seriously but there is more philosophy, metaphors, and spirituality in this revolutionary children’s book than you can fit into one teapot! It seems everyone from my generation and up has heard the story, read the book, or watched the movie at some point in their lives. Alice in Wonderland started as a book written in 1865 by Charles Lutwidge. It is about a girl named Alice who sees a little white rabbit in the woods and follows it down the rabbit hole. When Alice goes down the hole she finds herself in a fantasy world called Wonderland, which is populated by peculiar characters. A few of these characters include the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the Cheshire cat. Alice in Wonderland was a good story that caught the attention of both the young and the old but what most people did not know is that there is a bigger picture behind the story; the bigger picture being the one that famous philosophers pointed out. The first idea or character from Alice in Wonderland that I want to cover is the Cheshire cat. Cheshire Cat is depicted as an intelligent yet mischievous, villainous character that sometimes helps Alice and sometimes gets her into trouble, the cat is know for its disappearing acts where is starts to fade leaving nothing but it’s smile. Plato argued that what ‘is not’ in some sense also ‘is’, therefore he also believed that a non-being did exist. Plato believed that the incompatibility of Being and Non-Being was false. The only real antinomy is that of a single object of consciousness and all other things from which it is distinguished. Some would argue that no cat could just disappear into thin air and leave behind its smile. One would ask, can a smile be on it’s own? Apparently it can. The Cheshire cat’s grin, too, is a non-material being which would be categorized as a grin, as just a Platonic Form – a nonmaterial being which has real existence. Another aspect of Alice in  Wonderland that I want to cover is the food items that Alice eats. Her character in this story is almost entirely defined by what she eats. Once Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole she is stuck behind a small door that she cannot fit into. This talking door tells her that there are snacks on the table that will help her fit thru the door so she looks on the table and magically there are food items and drinks with tags that say â€Å"Drink me!† and â€Å"Eat me!† that appear out of nowhere, so Alice eats one without questioning it. â€Å"Food has a constant tendency to transform itself into situation,† the French sociologist Roland Barthes said. For that quote Barthes was talking about foods in the aspect of having communion without bread or Christmas withou t turkey. We can also question what would Alice be without those treats? The food made its way into this certain situation. Alice never would have been able to go thru that small door had she not eaten that one treat that made her shrink. This specific food choice set the tone for the rest of the movie, it made the story able to move on and allowed Alice to officially enter Wonderland. Another part of Alice in Wonderland that made me think of Ronald Barthes was when, in his essay The Death of the Author he states â€Å"it is language which speaks, not the author: to write is to reach that point where language alone acts, â€Å"performs,† and not â€Å"oneself.† Lewis Carroll does just this in Alice in Wonderland. He creates his story with his knowledge of language with the puns and riddles in this story. An example would be his parody of traditional songs, which create a double meaning. Carroll does not project one meaning, he hands his language to the reader and allows them to analyze the story however they would like. Barthes quote says basically that the author is not the one that is spe aking to you but his language is. The language the author uses should speak to readers in the different ways that they hear it and Alice in Wonderland does just that, which is why there are so many different views and interpretations on it. In this book, Alice’s powers to reason are so distinct they seem unsuitable to a little girl’s character. According to Aristotle’s book Poetics, he insists that a character must be appropriate. For example, any intelligence in a woman would be considered inappropriate. Though Aristotle does not cover a child’s appropriate characteristic, we should assume that if intelligence in a female character is marked as inappropriate then it should be for a little girl as well. From this we argue that Alice’s fearless reasoning through out  the movie is uncharacteristic of a child. However, when Alice’s reasoning is used to draw attention to her, Alice’s childish nature is skillfully put into words when Alice claims that she â€Å"[doesn’t] care which happens.† This would restore her values as a character for Aristotle since he says, â€Å"too brilliant a diction conceals character and thought.† Alice in this book experiences a lot of things that the reader might think of as illusions or things that aren’t true or cannot happen. According to Nietzsche, the things in this book make perfect sense. Everyone is driven by a will to truth and knowledge on hand and a will to illusion and ignorance on the other hand. These components help make a worthy and happy existence for everyone. This book constantly makes the reader go back and forth between what is the truth and what isn’t. This book is the perfect demonstration for Nietzsche’s theory of having a middle ground between the place for realism and for fantasy in a well-ordered life. Alice’s willingness to accept the appearance of the white rabbit without question and follow it down the rabbit hole to continue her illusion fantasy is the perfect example of Nietzsche’s theory of the will of ignorance and the good use of illusions a person needs to balance their life. Opposed from Nietzsche’s theory about everything in Alice in Wonderland making sense, David Hume has another idea. Hume is another philosopher whose theories can be found within Alice in Wonderland. Hume brought forth the idea that until we know the necessary connection or cause of things, than all knowledge is uncertain. Everyone who reads or watches Alice in Wonderland is just as intrigued as she is on her new findings. This Wonderland is full of things that contradict our experience and expectations. While following Alice’s journey one does not know what comes next, as in our lives we usually do. We know that if you roll one ball and it hits another than that ball will roll too. Hume has a different idea. Hume would have thought, based on this theory, that Alice shows little evidence of being an expert on deductive logic. Alice would not have been able to make any reasonable decisions in Wonderland because she has never experienced anything like it before and therefore doesn’t know the outcome of anything she might do. Alice does use great inductive reasoning skills though when she learns how to change her size by drinking the bottle and  other foods. She uses this type of reasoning to make successful predictions. Her use of evidence about past events to predict and control the future course in Wonderland allows Hume’s theory to come alive within Alice and her choices. Time is also a big question in Alice in Wonderland and it shows up quite a bit. Though Plato may believe time to be just a mere illusion, Kant has his own point of view. Kant has three conclusions about time, one being that time is not something that exists by itself, time is actually a psychological sense by which the world is engaged in, and that time is prior to any particular engagement that one many have. Kant believes that time is an intuition of the mind and Alice would have needed that in order to have any type of adventure. One of the main points that the reader comes across time in Alice in Wonderland is when the white rabbit was running to his hole saying â€Å"Oh dear? Oh dear? I shall be too late.† Every time the white rabbit is in a scene he seems to be in a rush and saying he is going to be late. According to Kant, the white rabbit is experiencing an expectation of a time to come and understands that the present is prior to the future event, which would explain why the rabbit was always anxious. Out of all of these philosophers I believe that Alice in Wonderland connects most with Nietzsche and Barth. Nietzsche’s theory of illusions and the will of ignorance. When personally watching Alice in Wonderland, the movie, and knowing that people read the book, any one would be able to tell that it is all about illusions. I mean, at the beginning of the story she is talking to her teacher saying things like â€Å"if I had my own world the books would be pictures,† â€Å"if I had a world of my own everything would be nonsense, nothing would be what it is.† Then a few minutes later Alice falls asleep and ends up in Wonderland. This shows that Wonderland is Alice’s illusion. Nietzsche shows that one needs a good balance between what is real and what is fake. Barth also gets most of Alice in Wonderlands theory because he explains that story’s are not what the author says they are, they are what the reader sees them as and Alice in Wonderland has been interpreted in so many ways that Barthes theory is spot on. Everyone sees Alice in Wonderland differently because the author made it so it wasn’t just one meaning. Nietzsche and Barthes’s theory is exactly what the whole story of Alice in Wonderland is about.

Abuse of power leads to conflict

We swing our power like a club and the world bides its time until our Ignorance strips us of our glory. Stack Abuse of power refers to the unwarranted use of authority. A person or group of people who abuse power, unjustifiably use their authority to exploit or harm those under their care or influence, or allow exploitation and perhaps harm to occur through lack of action. These powers can range in form, social position, physical strength, knowledge, technology, weapons, wealth, or the trust that others have in them.It is evident from both history and in the current Edie, that people in places of power are often associated with misuse of their power. But does abuse of power lead to conflict? Or does conflict lead to abuse of power? One could say It goes both ways. The most ghastly abuse of power is quite possibly neglect of children. The mother and or father are in a position where they should be giving their child or children everything they possibly can, but instead choose not to. They take only for themselves, and leave nothing for their offspring.Michelle Unguent was charged with murdering her Infant daughter, Thy, by leaving her In a car In outer Melbourne on a tot November day. It was said that she had repeatedly left the child in her car, sparking arguments with her own mother regarding the level of care she was exerting for Thy. Michelle was in a place of power, she was responsible for the well- being of her offspring, but yet she abused her power, leading initially to conflict with her mother and ultimately, the death of her little girl.Quite often we see religious ministers misuse power for their own personal pleasure. In Australia there are over 100 cases where Catholic priests have been charged for ex offences against minors! The misuse of social position, physical strength and trust have been used on numerous occasion for the religious leaders to sexually satisfy themselves. The victimized children would feel uncomfortable and violated, if they wer e old enough to understand that It was wrong.Bishops and Cardinals abused their position to protect the priests, to save the churches Image. They simply moved the priests on to a new place of practice rather than naming and shaming, allowing the exploitation to continue. At no point did any of the people in places in rower step forward to protect the children. No one wanted to prevent future conflicts by creating and uproar at the time when minors most needed it. They abused their power to allow the abuse of other powers to continue, they encouraged the conflicts.TLS causes a conflict within the child as they grow up, they may question their own self worth and they could potentially become mentally and emotionally unable to function properly in a sexual relationship. Not only has the trust of the child been violated, the parents and guardians who willingly placed their loved one n their care have been let down and their trust, also, been broken. This particular abuse of power is one that creates further conflict by limiting the amount of trust people will put into churches and people of religious order, particularly those of Catholic denomination. rower to disadvantage someone else. Over the course of Sadism's 42 year reign, he kept his family placed in high national political standing. He gave his oldest son the job of becoming a dominant face of telecommunications, while another son was the head of national security. Caitiff was a nepotism; misusing his power to give advantage to his family, rather than those of the general public. In a sense, he disadvantaged the country by having a heavily weighted national political front to people who share his opinion.Everyday people use their power to exploit others for personal gain. We see it in many forms, but one that is quite distinct is human trafficking. Human trafficking is the trade in which humans are used sexually exploited or are used for forced labor ad sometimes for marriage. It is clearly an abuse of wea lth, they take advantage of people in poverty. The victims simply cannot but their way out of it, especially if they are trafficked to pay of a debt. Human traffickers abuse the power of wealth. They create conflict with the law and the human race.They break the unwritten rules of humaneness, by seeing people simply as commodities and then denying them their basic human rights. Money is power. Book Harm is a clear example where power is abused. These people were not allocated their power, they stole it. They pressured their way into a negative place of rower through violence and the infilling of fear. They have explicitly stated they Will sell women'. They have not only misused their power of wealth and weapons, he has greatly abused the asset of his illegally gained women.If this group of men are not pursued and made accountable, what message does it send to the world about the value of women if they get away with it? Not a very good one obviously, women in these countries are gene rally treated as objects, and breeders. They are often promised to older men at young ages and sometimes before birth. Most are unable o do anything of their own desire but rather only as their husband wishes, and if he is denied, he may do whatever he so chooses to punish her.The fact that a large number of young girls were taken without anyone speaking a word upon the occurrence of the crime; simply supports the general ideals of this particular culture, women aren't worth more than simply a sum of money. These men are allowing the rest of the world to look upon their actions and feel a certain amount of disgust, if they are not found and or punished, people internationally will start to worry, enduring where it is safe to be anymore. Thus there is a conflict.Their abuse of the power of money, weapons and assets creates a conflict of security. Abuse of power and conflict go hand in hand. Whether it be abuse of power causing conflict, or the conflict leading to the abuse of power. People misuse their power everyday. The power of trust, money, assets, weapons and the like. It happens in everyday life, and our history as a race is littered with it. We use our power to our advantage and we exploit others. Sometimes we turn a blind eye, using our power to cause the conflict.

My Father

Electronic mail, also known as  email  or  e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the  Internet  or other  computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be  online  at the same time, in common with  instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a  store-and-forward  model. Emailservers  accept, forward, deliver and store messages.Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to an  email server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages. Historically, the term  electronic mail  was used generically for any electronic document transmission. For example, several writers in the early 1970s used the term to describe  fax  document transmission. [2][3]  As a result, it is difficult to find the first citation for the use of the term wi th the more specific meaning it has today.An Internet email message[NB 1]  consists of three components, the message  envelope, the message  header, and the message  body. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's  email address  and one or more recipient addresses. Usually descriptive information is also added, such as a subject header field and a message submission date/time stamp. Originally a text-only (7-bit ASCII and others) communications medium, email was extended to carry multi-media content attachments, a process standardized in  RFC  2045 through 2049.Collectively, these RFCs have come to be called  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions(MIME). Electronic mail predates the inception of the  Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating it,[4]  but the history of modern, global Internet email services reaches back to the early  ARPANET. Standards for encoding email messages were proposed as early as 1973 (RFC 561). Conversion from ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current services. An email sent in the early 1970s looks quite similar to a basic text message sent on the Internet today.Network-based email was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the  File Transfer Protocol  (FTP), but is now carried by theSimple Mail Transfer Protocol  (SMTP), first published as  Internet standard  10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message  envelope  separate from the message (header and body) itself. The diagram to the right shows a typical sequence of events[48]  that takes place when  Alice  composes a message using her  mail user agent  (MUA).She enters the  email address  of her correspondent, and hits the â€Å"send† button. 1. Her MUA formats the message in email format and uses the Submission Protocol (a profi le of the  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol  (SMTP), see  RFC 6409) to send the message to the local  mail submission agent  (MSA), in this casesmtp. a. org, run by Alice's  internet service provider  (ISP). 2. The MSA looks at the destination address provided in the SMTP protocol (not from the message header), in this [email  protected] org. An Internet email address is a string of the [email  protected]The part before the @ sign is the  local part  of the address, often the  username  of the recipient, and the part after the @ sign is a  domain name  or afully qualified domain name. The MSA resolves a domain name to determine the fully qualified domain name of the  mail exchange server  in the  Domain Name System  (DNS). 3. The  DNS server  for the  b. org  domain,  ns. b. org, responds with any  MX records  listing the mail exchange servers for that domain, in this case  mx. b. org, a  message transfer agent  (MTA) server run by Bob's ISP. 4. smtp. a. org  sends the message to  mx. b. org  using SMTP.This server may need to forward the message to other MTAs before the message reaches the final  message delivery agent  (MDA). 1. The MDA delivers it to the  mailbox  of the user  bob. 2. Bob presses the â€Å"get mail† button in his MUA, which picks up the message using either the  Post Office Protocol  (POP3) or theInternet Message Access Protocol  (IMAP4). That sequence of events applies to the majority of email users. However, there are many alternative possibilities and complications to the email system: * Alice or Bob may use a client connected to a corporate email system, such as  IBM  Lotus Notes  or  Microsoft  Exchange.These systems often have their own internal email format and their clients typically communicate with the email server using a vendor-specific, proprietary protocol. The server sends or receives email via the Internet through the product's Inte rnet mail gateway which also does any necessary reformatting. If Alice and Bob work for the same company, the entire transaction may happen completely within a single corporate email system. * Alice may not have a MUA on her computer but instead may connect to a  webmail  service. Alice's computer may run its own MTA, so avoiding the transfer at step 1. * Bob may pick up his email in many ways, for example logging into  mx. b. org  and reading it directly, or by using a webmail service. * Domains usually have several mail exchange servers so that they can continue to accept mail when the main mail exchange server is not available. * Email messages are not secure if  email encryption  is not used correctly. Many MTAs used to accept messages for any recipient on the Internet and do their best to deliver them. Such MTAs are called  open mail relays.This was very important in the early days of the Internet when network connections were unreliable. If an MTA couldn't reach the destination, it could at least deliver it to a relay closer to the destination. The relay stood a better chance of delivering the message at a later time. However, this mechanism proved to be exploitable by people sending  unsolicited bulk email  and as a consequence very few modern MTAs are open mail relays, and many MTAs don't accept messages from open mail relays because such messages are very likely to be spam. ————————————————- [edit]Message formatThe Internet email message format is now defined by  RFC 5322, with multi-media content attachments being defined in  RFC 2045through  RFC 2049, collectively called  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions  or  MIME. RFC 5322  replaced the earlier  RFC 2822  in 2008, and in turn  RFC 2822  in 2001 replaced  RFC 822  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ which had been the standard for Internet email for nearly 20 years. P ublished in 1982,  RFC 822  was based on the earlier  RFC 733  for the  ARPANET. [49] Internet email messages consist of two major sections: * Header  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Structured into  fields  such as From, To, CC, Subject, Date, and other information about the email. Body  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a  signature block  at the end. This is exactly the same as the body of a regular letter. The header is separated from the body by a blank line. [edit]Message header Each message has exactly one  header, which is structured into  fields. Each field has a name and a value. RFC 5322  specifies the precise syntax. Informally, each line of text in the header that begins with a  printable character  begins a separate field. The field name starts in the first character of the line and ends before the separator character â€Å":†.The separator is then followed by the field value (the â€Å"body† of the field). Th e value is continued onto subsequent lines if those lines have a space or tab as their first character. Field names and values are restricted to 7-bit  ASCII  characters. Non-ASCII values may be represented using MIME  encoded words. Email header fields can be multi-line, and each line ahould be at most 78 characters long and in no event more than 998 characters long. [50]  Header fields defined by  RFC 5322  can only contain  US-ASCII  characters; for encoding characters in other sets, a syntax specified in  RFC 2047  can be used. 51]  Recently the IETF EAI working group has defined some standards track extensions[52][53], replacing previous experimental extensions, to allow  UTF-8  encoded  Unicode  characters to be used within the header. In particular, this allows email addresses to use non-ASCII characters. Such characters must only be used by servers that support these extensions. The message header must include at least the following fields:[54] * From: The  email address, and optionally the name of the author(s). In many email clients not changeable except through changing account settings. Date: The local time and date when the message was written. Like the  From:  field, many email clients fill this in automatically when sending. The recipient's client may then display the time in the format and time zone local to him/her. The message header should include at least the following fields:[55] * Message-ID: Also an automatically generated field; used to prevent multiple delivery and for reference in In-Reply-To: (see below). * In-Reply-To:  Message-ID  of the message that this is a reply to. Used to link related messages together. This field only applies for reply messages.RFC 3864  describes registration procedures for message header fields at the  IANA; it provides for  permanent  and  provisionalmessage header field names, including also fields defined for MIME, netnews, and http, and referencing rele vant RFCs. Common header fields for email include: * To: The email address(es), and optionally name(s) of the message's recipient(s). Indicates primary recipients (multiple allowed), for secondary recipients see Cc: and Bcc: below. * Subject: A brief summary of the topic of the message. Certain abbreviations  are commonly used in the subject, including  Ã¢â‚¬Å"RE:† and â€Å"FW:†. Bcc:  Blind Carbon Copy; addresses added to the SMTP delivery list but not (usually) listed in the message data, remaining invisible to other recipients. * Cc:  Carbon copy; Many email clients will mark email in your inbox differently depending on whether you are in the To: or Cc: list. * Content-Type: Information about how the message is to be displayed, usually a  MIME  type. * Precedence: commonly with values â€Å"bulk†, â€Å"junk†, or â€Å"list†; used to indicate that automated â€Å"vacation† or â€Å"out of office† responses should not be returned for this mail, e. g. o prevent vacation notices from being sent to all other subscribers of a mailinglist. Sendmailuses this header to affect prioritization of queued email, with â€Å"Precedence: special-delivery† messages delivered sooner. With modern high-bandwidth networks delivery priority is less of an issue than it once was. Microsoft Exchange  respects a fine-grained automatic response suppression mechanism, the X-Auto-Response-Suppress header. [56] * References:  Message-ID  of the message that this is a reply to, and the message-id of the message the previous reply was a reply to, etc. * Reply-To: Address that should be used to reply to the message. Sender: Address of the actual sender acting on behalf of the author listed in the From: field (secretary, list manager, etc. ). * Archived-At: A direct link to the archived form of an individual email message. [57] Note that the  To:  field is not necessarily related to the addresses to which the mess age is delivered. The actual delivery list is supplied separately to the transport protocol,  SMTP, which may or may not originally have been extracted from the header content. The â€Å"To:† field is similar to the addressing at the top of a conventional letter which is delivered according to the address on the outer envelope.In the same way, the â€Å"From:† field does not have to be the real sender of the email message. Some mail servers apply  email authentication  systems to messages being relayed. Data pertaining to server's activity is also part of the header, as defined below. SMTP defines the  trace information  of a message, which is also saved in the header using the following two fields:[58] * Received: when an SMTP server accepts a message it inserts this trace record at the top of the header (last to first). * Return-Path: when the delivery SMTP server makes the  final delivery  of a message, it inserts this field at the top of the header.Ot her header fields that are added on top of the header by the receiving server may be called  trace fields, in a broader sense. [59] * Authentication-Results: when a server carries out authentication checks, it can save the results in this field for consumption by downstream agents. [60] * Received-SPF: stores the results of  SPF  checks. [61] * Auto-Submitted: is used to mark automatically generated messages. [62] * VBR-Info: claims  VBR  whitelisting[63] Filename extensions Upon reception of email messages,  email client  applications save messages in operating system files in the file system.Some clients save individual messages as separate files, while others use various database formats, often proprietary, for collective storage. A historical standard of storage is the  mbox  format. The specific format used is often indicated by special  filename extensions: eml Used by many email clients including  Microsoft Outlook Express,  Windows Mail  and  Mozi lla Thunderbird. The files are  plain text  inMIME  format, containing the email header as well as the message contents and attachments in one or more of several formats. emlx Used by  Apple Mail. msg Used by  Microsoft Office Outlook  and  OfficeLogic Groupware. bx Used by  Opera Mail,  KMail, and  Apple Mail  based on the  mbox  format. Some applications (like  Apple Mail) leave attachments encoded in messages for searching while also saving separate copies of the attachments. Others separate attachments from messages and save them in a specific directory. Lesson 1: Entering Text and Numbers The Microsoft Excel Window Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet. You can use it to organize your data into rows and columns. You can also use it to perform mathematical calculations quickly. This tutorial teaches Microsoft Excel basics.Although knowledge of how to navigate in a Windows environment is helpful, this tutorial was created for the computer novice . This lesson will introduce you to the Excel window. You use the window to interact with Excel. To begin this lesson, start Microsoft Excel 2007. The Microsoft Excel window appears and your screen looks similar to the one shown here. Note:  Your screen will probably not look exactly like the screen shown. In Excel 2007, how a window displays depends on the size of your window, the size of your monitor, and the resolution to which your monitor is set.Resolution determines how much information your computer monitor can display. If you use a low resolution, less information fits on your screen, but the size of your text and images are larger. If you use a high resolution, more information fits on your screen, but the size of the text and images are smaller. Also, settings in Excel 2007, Windows Vista, and Windows XP allow you to change the color and style of your windows. The Microsoft Office Button In the upper-left corner of the Excel 2007 window is the Microsoft Office button. Wh en you click the button, a menu appears.You can use the menu to create a new file, open an existing file, save a file, and perform many other tasks. The Quick Access Toolbar Next to the Microsoft Office button is the Quick Access toolbar. The Quick Access toolbar gives you with access to commands you frequently use. By default, Save, Undo, and Redo appear on the Quick Access toolbar. You can use Save to save your file, Undo to roll back an action you have taken, and Redo to reapply an action you have rolled back. The Title Bar Next to the Quick Access toolbar is the Title bar. On the Title bar, Microsoft Excel displays the name of the workbook you are currently using.At the top of the Excel window, you should see â€Å"Microsoft Excel – Book1† or a similar name. The Ribbon You use commands to tell Microsoft Excel what to do. In Microsoft Excel 2007, you use the Ribbon to issue commands. The Ribbon is located near the top of the Excel window, below the Quick Access tool bar. At the top of the Ribbon are several tabs; clicking a tab displays several related command groups. Within each group are related command buttons. You click buttons to issue commands or to access menus and dialog boxes. You may also find a dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of a group.When you click the dialog box launcher, a dialog box makes additional commands available. The Status bar appears at the very bottom of the Excel window and provides such information as the sum, average, minimum, and maximum value of selected numbers. You can change what displays on the Status bar by right-clicking on the Status bar and selecting the options you want from the Customize Status Bar menu. You click a menu item to select it. You click it again to deselect it. A check mark next to an item means the item is selected. Move Around a Worksheet By using the arrow keys, you can move around your worksheet.You can use the down arrow key to move downward one cell at a time. You can us e the up arrow key to move upward one cell at a time. You can use the Tab key to move across the page to the right, one cell at a time. You can hold down the Shift key and then press the Tab key to move to the left, one cell at a time. You can use the right and left arrow keys to move right or left one cell at a time. The Page Up and Page Down keys move up and down one page at a time. If you hold down the Ctrl key and then press the Home key, you move to the beginning of the worksheet. EXERCISE 1 Move Around the WorksheetThe Down Arrow Key Press the down arrow key several times. Note that the cursor moves downward one cell at a time. The Up Arrow Key Press the up arrow key several times. Note that the cursor moves upward one cell at a time. The Tab Key Move to cell A1. Press the Tab key several times. Note that the cursor moves to the right one cell at a time. The Shift+Tab Keys Hold down the Shift key and then press Tab. Note that the cursor moves to the left one cell at a time. Th e Right and Left Arrow Keys Press the right arrow key several times. Note that the cursor moves to the right.Press the left arrow key several times. Note that the cursor moves to the left. Page Up and Page Down Press the Page Down key. Note that the cursor moves down one page. Press the Page Up key. Note that the cursor moves up one page. The Ctrl-Home Key Move the cursor to column J. Stay in column J and move the cursor to row 20. Hold down the Ctrl key while you press the Home key. Excel moves to cell A1. Go To Cells  Quickly The following are shortcuts for moving quickly from one cell in a worksheet to a cell in a different part of the worksheet. EXERCISE 2 Go to — F5 The F5 function key is the â€Å"Go To† key.If you press the F5 key, you are prompted for the cell to which you wish to go. Enter the cell address, and the cursor jumps to that cell. Press F5. The Go To dialog box opens. Type  J3  in the Reference field. Press Enter. Excel moves to cell J3. Go to — Ctrl+G You can also use Ctrl+G to go to a specific cell. Hold down the Ctrl key while you press â€Å"g† (Ctrl+g). The Go To dialog box opens. Type  C4  in the Reference field. Press Enter. Excel moves to cell C4. The Name Box You can also use the Name box to go to a specific cell. Just type the cell you want to go to in the Name box and then press Enter.If you wish to perform a function on a group of cells, you must first select those cells by highlighting them. The exercises that follow teach you how to select. EXERCISE 3 Select Cells To select cells A1 to E1: Go to cell A1. Press the F8 key. This anchors the cursor. Note that â€Å"Extend Selection† appears on the Status bar in the lower-left corner of the window. You are in the Extend mode. Click in cell E7. Excel highlights cells A1 to E7. Press Esc and click anywhere on the worksheet to clear the highlighting. Alternative Method: Select Cells by DraggingYou can also select an area by holding down th e left mouse button and dragging the mouse over the area. In addition, you can select noncontiguous areas of the worksheet by doing the following: Go to cell A1. Hold down the Ctrl key. You won't release it until step 9. Holding down the Ctrl key enables you to select noncontiguous areas of the worksheet. Press the left mouse button. While holding down the left mouse button, use the mouse to move from cell A1 to C5. Continue to hold down the Ctrl key, but release the left mouse button. Using the mouse, place the cursor in cell D7. Press the left mouse button.While holding down the left mouse button, move to cell F10. Release the left mouse button. Release the Ctrl key. Cells A1 to C5 and cells D7 to F10 are selected. Press Esc and click anywhere on the worksheet to remove the highlighting. Enter Data In this section, you will learn how to enter data into your worksheet. First, place the cursor in the cell in which you want to start entering data. Type some data, and then press Enter . If you need to delete, press the Backspace key to delete one character at a time. EXERCISE 4 Enter Data Place the cursor in cell A1. Type  John Jordan. Do not press Enter at this time.Delete Data The Backspace key erases one character at a time. Press the Backspace key until Jordan is erased. Press Enter. The name â€Å"John† appears in cell A1. Edit a Cell After you enter data into a cell, you can edit the data by pressing F2 while you are in the cell you wish to edit. EXERCISE 5 Edit a Cell Change â€Å"John† to â€Å"Jones. † Move to cell A1. Press F2. Use the Backspace key to delete the â€Å"n† and the â€Å"h. † Type  nes. Press Enter. Lesson 2: Entering Excel Formulas and Formatting Data Lesson 1 familiarized you with the Excel 2007 window, taught you how to move around the window, and how to enter data.A major strength of Excel is that you can perform mathematical calculations and format your data. In this lesson, you learn how to per form basic mathematical calculations and how to format text and numerical data. To start this lesson, open Excel. Set the Enter Key Direction In Microsoft Excel, you can specify the direction the cursor moves when you press the Enter key. In the exercises that follow, the cursor must move down one cell when you press Enter. You can use the Direction box in the Excel Options pane to set the cursor to move up, down, left, right, or not at all.Perform the steps that follow to set the cursor to move down when you press the Enter key. Click the Microsoft Office button. A menu appears. Click Excel Options in the lower-right corner. The Excel Options pane appears. Click Advanced. If the check box next to After Pressing Enter Move Selection is not checked, click the box to check it. If Down does not appear in the Direction box, click the down arrow next to the Direction box and then click Down. Click OK. Excel sets the Enter direction to down. Perform Mathematical Calculations In Microsoft Excel, you can enter numbers and mathematical formulas into cells.Whether you enter a number or a formula, you can reference the cell when you perform mathematical calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. When entering a mathematical formula, precede the formula with an equal sign. Use the following to indicate the type of calculation you wish to perform: + Addition – Subtraction * Multiplication / Division ^ Exponential In the following exercises, you practice some of the methods you can use to move around a worksheet and you learn how to perform mathematical calculations. Refer to Lesson 1 to learn more about moving around a worksheet. EXERCISE 1Addition Type  Add  in cell A1. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  1  in cell A2. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  1  in cell A3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  =A2+A3  in cell A4. Click the check mark on the Formula bar. Excel adds cell A1 to cel l A2 and displays the result in cell A4. The formula displays on the Formula bar. Note:  Clicking the check mark on the Formula bar is similar to pressing Enter. Excel records your entry but does not move to the next cell. Subtraction Press F5. The Go To dialog box appears. Type  B1  in the Reference field. Press Enter. Excel moves to cell B1.Type  Subtract. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  6  in cell B2. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  3  in cell B3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  =B2-B3  in cell B4. Click the check mark on the Formula bar. Excel subtracts cell B3 from cell B2 and the result displays in cell B4. The formula displays on the Formula bar. Multiplication Hold down the Ctrl key while you press â€Å"g† (Ctrl+g). The Go To dialog box appears. Type  C1  in the Reference field. Press Enter. Excel moves to cell C1 Type  Multiply. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  2  in cell C2. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell.Type  3  in cell C3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  =C2*C3  in cell C4. Click the check mark on the Formula bar. Excel multiplies C1 by cell C2 and displays the result in cell C3. The formula displays on the Formula bar. Division Press F5. Type  D1  in the Reference field. Press Enter. Excel moves to cell D1. Type  Divide. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  6  in cell D2. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  3  in cell D3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  =D2/D3  in cell D4. Click the check mark on the Formula bar. Excel divides cell D2 by cell D3 and displays the result in cell D4.The formula displays on the Formula bar. When creating formulas, you can reference cells and include numbers. All of the following formulas are valid: =A2/B2 =A1+12-B3 =A2*B2+12 =24+53 AutoSum You can use the AutoSum button  Ã‚  on the Home tab to automatically add a column or row of numbers. When you press the AutoSum button  , Excel selects the numbers it thinks you want to add. If you then click the check mark on the Formula bar or press the Enter key, Excel adds the numbers. If Excel's guess as to which numbers you want to add is wrong, you can select the cells you want. EXERCISE 2 AutoSum The following illustrates AutoSum:Go to cell F1. Type  3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell. Type  3. Press Enter. Excel moves down one cell to cell F4. Choose the Home tab. Click the AutoSum button  Ã‚  in the Editing group. Excel selects cells F1 through F3 and enters a formula in cell F4. Press Enter. Excel adds cells F1 through F3 and displays the result in cell F4. Perform Automatic Calculations By default, Microsoft Excel recalculates the worksheet as you change cell entries. This makes it easy for you to correct mistakes and analyze a variety of scenarios. EXERCISE 3 Automatic CalculationMake the changes described be low and note how Microsoft Excel automatically recalculates. Move to cell A2. Type  2. Press the right arrow key. Excel changes the result in cell A4. Excel adds cell A2 to cell A3 and the new result appears in cell A4. Move to cell B2. Type  8. Press the right arrow key. Excel subtracts cell B3 from cell B3 and the new result appears in cell B4. Move to cell C2. Type  4. Press the right arrow key. Excel multiplies cell C2 by cell C3 and the new result appears in cell C4. Move to cell D2. Type  12. Press the Enter key. Excel divides cell D2 by cell D3 and the new result appears in cell D4.Align Cell Entries When you type text into a cell, by default your entry aligns with the left side of the cell. When you type numbers into a cell, by default your entry aligns with the right side of the cell. You can change the cell alignment. You can center, left-align, or right-align any cell entry. Look at cells A1 to D1. Note that they are aligned with the left side of the cell. Microso ft Excel 2007 – It is a program used to create, format, and compute numbers. It displays datain row-and-column format. MS Excel makes it easy to compute numbers andallows different ways to format data including charts and reports. It is a very powerful electronic spreadsheet that lets the user enter and usenumerical data with formulas and built-in functions. It consists of 16worksheets, 65536 rows, and 256 columns. A Workbook is a file in MS Excel that holds worksheets. A Worksheet is composed of columns and rows that are similar to an accounting ledger. Itdisplays characters like letters, and numbers, and can do computations. Parts and Uses of the MS Excel Environment 1. Toolbars – display commands that are commonly used for easy access 2. Name Box – displays the address of the active cell 3. Formula bar displays the contents and formula entered on the active cell 4. Status bar – displays the information about a selected command 5. Select all Button â₠¬â€œ selects every cell in a worksheet 6. Sheet Tabs – let you display worksheets in the open workbook 7. Row headers – a number used to identify a row 8. Column headers – a letter used to identify a column 9. Active cell – the cell that has a thick border that will hold any data that you type or  entered 10. Scroll bars – includes vertical and horizontal scroll bar and four arrow used to move thescreen display horizontally or vertically 11. Title bar displays the program and the name of the workbook that you are currentlyusing 12. Menu bar (7 Tabs) – lists the names of the menus or tabs in Excel 13. Minimize button – minimizes the window to a button on the task bar 14. Maximize/Restore button – switch between maximizing a window and restoring awindow to its previous size 15. Close button – closes the window Parts of the Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Environment Parts of the PowerPoint screen: * Title bar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ dis plays the document name * Menu bar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ click on a menu option to see a list of commands * Standard toolbar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ frequently used menu options Formatting toolbar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays formatting commands * Placeholder  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ click or double-click to add an element to a slide * Outline view button  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays document in outline form * Slide view button  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays slides one at a time * Slide Sorter view button  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays all slides in a single screen * Slide show button  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays slide show * Drawing toolbar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ displays drawing tools * Status bar  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ shows the current page number and position of the insertion point in the document * Office Assistant  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ quick help when you need it This lesson introduces you to  PowerPoint 2007.You use the PowerPoint window to interact with the software, place text, graphics, and other features on a slide. When you launch PowerPoint 2007, the PowerPoint 2007 Window ap pears and your screen looks like the one shown below. Your PowerPoint 2007 Window screen will probably not look exactly like the screen shown above. In PowerPoint 2007, how a window displays depends on the size of the window, the size of your monitor, and the resolution to which your monitor is set. Screen Resolution determines how much information your computer monitor can display.If you use a low resolution, less information fits on your screen, but the size of your text and images are larger. If you use a high resolution, more information fits on your screen, but the size of the text and images are smaller. The Microsoft Office Button In the upper-left corner of the PowerPoint 2007 window is the Microsoft Office button. It's similar to the old File Menu. When you click the button, a menu appears. You can use the menu to create a new file, open an existing file, save a file, print, and perform many other tasks. The Quick Access ToolbarNext to the Microsoft Office button in the upp er left corner is the Quick Access toolbar outlined in red in the image above. The Quick Access toolbar provides you with access to commands that are frequently used. By default, Save, Undo, and Redo appear on the Quick Access toolbar. You use Save to save your file, Undo to rollback an action you have taken, and Redo to reapply an action you have rolled back. You can customize this toolbar by right clicking on it or click the small black down arrow to the right. The Title Bar The Title bar is located at the top in the center of the PowerPoint 2007 window.The Title bar displays the name of the presentation on which you are currently working. By default, PowerPoint names presentations sequentially, starting with Presentation1. When you save your file, you can change the name of your presentation. The Ribbon The  Ribbon  holds all of the commands and features of each of the tabs in the Ribbon. The Tabs are located across the top of the ribbon under the Title Bar. These contextual tabs will appear when you have something highlighted that calls for it. For example, if you have a picture highlighted on your slide, a Picture Tools tab will appear.Similar tools are located in Command Groups across the ribbon. Each Command Group includes Command Buttons to perform various actions on that group of tools. Getting PowerPoint to Do What You Want You use commands to tell PowerPoint what to do. In PowerPoint 2007, the commands you use are located on the the Ribbon. The Ribbon is located near the top of the PowerPoint 2007 window, below the Quick Access toolbar. At the top of the Ribbon are several tabs and clicking a tab displays several related command groups. Within each group are related command buttons. You click buttons to issue commands or to access menus and dialog boxes.You may also find a dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of a group. When you click the dialog box launcher, a dialog box makes additional commands available. Clipboard  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Cont ains the cut, copy, paste commands. The Format Painter tool is located here as are the Paste Special, Paste as Hyperlink, and Duplicate commands. Slides  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ All the commonly used commands for creating new slides Font  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Includes the most commonly used commands for formatting font Paragraph  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Includes all of the paragraph formatting commands, vertical and horizontal alignments, text direction, bullets, numbering, indenting, spacing before and after, columns, etc.It also includes the dialog box for tabs. Drawing  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Allow you to add shapes and draw on your slides. This is Format Shape Dialog Box. Rulers Rulers are vertical and horizontal guides. You use them to determine where you want to place an object. If the rulers do not display in your PowerPoint 2007 window: 1. Click the View tab. 2. Click Ruler in the Show/Hide group. The rulers appear. Slides, Placeholders, and Notes The Slide Window is broken up into several areas including the Slide Pane a nd the Notes Section. The Slide Pane appears in the center of the window while the Notes Section is at the bottom.There are also Placeholders on each slide depending on the slide layout that has been selected. These layouts may include placeholders for a slide title, subtitle, text, images, video, charts, graphs, etc. The placeholders hold the objects on your slides. Slides appear in the center of the window. You create your presentation by adding content to the slides. You can use the notes area to creates notes to yourself. You can refer to these notes as you give your presentation. For narrated presentations, this area is frequently used to write the script for the audio. Main Window Components, Status Bar, Tabs, View Buttons, and MoreThe Status bar generally appears at the bottom of the window. The Status bar displays the number of the slide that is currently displayed, the total number of slides, and the name of the design template in use or the name of the background. The Outl ine tab displays the text contained in your presentation in an outline format. The Slides tab displays a thumbnail view of all your slides. You click the thumbnail to view the slide in the Slide pane. The View buttons appear near the bottom of the screen. You use the View buttons to change between Normal view, Slider Sorter view, and the Slide Show view. Normal ViewNormal view splits your screen into three major sections: the Outline and Slides tabs, the Slide pane, and the Notes area. The Outline and Slides tabs are on the left side of your window. They enable you to shift between two different ways of viewing your slides. The Slides tab shows thumbnails of your slides. The Outline tab shows the text on your slides. The Slide pane is located in the center of your window. The Slide pane shows a large view of the slide on which you are currently working. The Notes area appears below the Slide pane. You can type notes to yourself on the Notes area. Slide Sorter ViewSlide Sorter view s hows thumbnails of all your slides. In Slide Sorter view, you can easily add, delete, or change their order of your slides. Slide Show View Use the Slide Show view when you want to view your slides, as they will look in your final presentation. When in Slide Show view: Esc| Returns you to the view you were using previously. | Left-clicking| Moves you to the next slide or animation effect. When you reach the last slide, you automatically return to your previous view. | Right-clicking| Opens a pop-up menu. You can use this menu to navigate the slides, add speaker notes, select a pointer, and mark your presentation. |Zoom In & Zoom Out Zoom controls allows you to zoom in and zoom out on the window. Zooming in makes the window larger so you focus in on an object. Zooming out makes the window smaller so you can see the entire window. You can click and drag the vertical and horizontal splitter bars to change the size of your panes. What is a computer virus? A computer virus is a small sof tware program that spreads from one computer to another and interferes with computer operation. A computer virus might corrupt or delete data on a computer, use an email program to spread the virus to other computers, or even delete everything on the hard disk.Computer viruses are frequently spread by attachments in email messages or by instant messaging messages. Therefore, you must never open an email attachment unless you know who sent the message or you are expecting the email attachment. Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files. Computer viruses also spread through downloads on the Internet. They can be hidden in pirated software or in other files or programs that you might download. Symptoms of a computer virus For information about the symptoms of a computer virus, go to the   Microsoft PC Security  website. What is a worm?A worm is computer code that spreads without user interaction. Most worms begin as email attac hments that infect a computer when they're opened. The worm scans the infected computer for files, such as address books or temporary webpages, that contain email addresses. The worm uses the addresses to send infected email messages, and frequently mimics (or spoofs) the â€Å"From† addresses in later email messages so that those infected messages seem to be from someone you know. Worms then spread automatically through email messages, networks, or operating system vulnerabilities, frequently overwhelming those systems before the cause is known.Worms aren't always destructive to computers, but they usually cause computer and network performance and stability problems. What is a trojan horse? A trojan horse is a malicious software program that hides inside other programs. It enters a computer hidden inside a legitimate program, such as a screen saver. Then it puts code into the operating system that enables a hacker to access the infected computer. Trojan horses do not usuall y spread by themselves. They are spread by viruses, worms, or downloaded software. What is spyware? Spyware can install on your computer without your knowledge.These programs can change your computer’s configuration or collect advertising data and personal information. Spyware can track Internet search habits and can also redirect your web browser to a different website than you intend to go to. What is rogue security software? A rogue security software program tries to make you think that your computer is infected by a virus and usually prompts you to download or buy a product that removes the virus. The names of these products frequently contain words like Antivirus, Shield, Security, Protection, or Fixer. This makes them sound legitimate.They frequently run right after you download them, or the next time that your computer starts. Rogue security software can prevent applications, such as Internet Explorer, from opening. Rogue security software might also display legitimate and important Windows files as infections. Typical error messages or pop-up messages might contain the following phrases: Warning! Your computer is infected! This computer is infected by spyware and adware. Note  If you receive a message in a popup dialog box that resembles this warning, press  ALT + F4  on your keyboard to close the dialog box.Do not click anything inside the dialog box. If a warning, such as the one here, keeps appearing when you try to close the dialog box, it’s a good indication that the message is malicious. Are you sure you want to navigate from this page? Your computer is infected! They can cause data lost and file corruption and need to be treated as soon as possible. Press CANCEL to prevent it. Return to System Security and download it to secure your PC. Press OK to Continue or Cancel to stay on the current page. If you see this kind of message, then don't download or buy the software.What is malware? Malware is a term that is used for malicio us software that is designed to do damage or unwanted actions to a computer system. Examples of malware include the following: Viruses Worms Trojan horses Spyware Rogue security software How to remove malware such as a virus, spyware, or rogue security software Removing a computer virus or spyware can be difficult without the help of malicious software removal tools. Some computer viruses and other unwanted software reinstall themselves after the viruses and spyware are detected and removed.Fortunately, by updating the computer and by using malicious software removal tools, you can help permanently remove unwanted software. For more information about how to remove a computer virus and spyware, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 2671662 – Microsoft resources and guidance for removal of malware and viruses Note  If you cannot access the Internet on your computer, use another computer to help you follow the steps in the â€Å"How to reset your Internet Explorer proxy settings† section on the computer that may be infected.To remove a computer virus and other malicious software, follow these steps in order. Install the latest updates from Microsoft Update Note  A computer virus may prevent you from accessing the Microsoft Update website to install the latest updates. We recommend that you set the Automatic Updates service  to run automatically so that a computer is not missing any important updates. For more information, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:   306525 – How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows Windows Vista  and  Windows 7 Click  Start, and then type  Windows Update  in the search box.In the results area, click  Windows Update. Click  Check for Updates. Follow the instructions to download and install the latest Windows Updates. Windows XP Click  Start, and then click  Run. Type  sysdm. cpl, and then press Enter. Click the  Automatic Updates  tab, and then click the  Automatic (recommended)  option. Click  OK. Use the free Microsoft Safety Scanner Microsoft offers a free online tool that scans and helps remove potential threats from your computer. To perform the scan, go to the  Microsoft Safety Scanner  website. Use the Windows Malicious Software Removal ToolFor more information about the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 890830 – The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool helps remove specific, prevalent malicious software from computers that are running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP Manually remove the rogue security software If the rogue security software can’t be detected or removed by using Microsoft Safety Scanner or the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, try the following steps: Note the name of the rogue security software.For this example, we'll call i t  XP Security Agent 2010. Restart your computer. When you see the computer's manufacturer's logo, repeatedly press the  F8  key. When you are prompted, use the arrow keys to highlight  Safe Mode with Networking, and then press Enter. Click  Start  and check whether the rogue security software appears on the  Start  menu. If it's not listed there, clickAll Programs  and scroll to find the rogue security software's name. Right-click the name of the rogue security software program, and then click  Properties. Click the  Shortcut  tab.In the  Properties  dialog box, check the path of the rogue security software program that is listed in  Target. For example,  C:Program FilesXP Security Agent 2010. Note  The folder name frequently is a random number. Click  Open File Location. In the  Program Files  window, click  Program Files  in the address bar. Scroll until you find the rogue security software program folder. For example,  XP Security Ag ent 2010. Right-click the folder, and then click  Delete. Restart your computer. Go to the  Microsoft Safety Scanner  website. Follow the steps to run the scan and to help remove the rogue security software.If you suspect that your computer is infected with rogue security software that was not detected by using Microsoft security solutions, you can submit samples by using the  Microsoft Malware Protection Center submission form. For more information about rogue security software, go to the  Watch out for fake virus alerts  website. Install and run Microsoft Security Essentials Microsoft offers a free malicious removal program called Microsoft Security Essentials that helps protect your computer from becoming infected. To install Microsoft Security Essentials, follow these steps: Go to the  Microsoft Security Essentials  website.Click  Free Download. Click  Run, and then follow the instructions to install Microsoft Security Essentials. After installation, restart your computer. Click  Start, click  All Programs, and then click  Microsoft Security Essentials. On the  Home  tab, select the  Full  scan option, and then click  Scan now. Install Windows Defender Offline Windows Defender Offline is a malware tool that helps remove difficult to eliminate viruses that start before Windows starts. To use Windows Defender Offline, follow these steps: On an uninfected computer, go to the  What is Windows Defender Offline  website.Click  Download the 32 bit version  or  Download the 64 bit version, depending on which operating system that you are running. If you're unsure of which operating system that you are running, go to the  Is my PC running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows  website. When you are prompted, click  Save As, and then save the file to a DVD, CD, or USB flash drive. On the infected computer, insert the DVD, CD, or USB flash drive, and then restart the computer. When you are prompted, press a key to select an option to use to start your computer, such as F12, F5, or F8, depending on the kind of computer that you are using.Use the arrow key to scroll to the drive where you installed Windows Defender Offline file. Windows Defender Offline starts and immediately scans for malware. For more information about how to remove a computer virus, go to the  How do I remove a computer virus  website. How to protect your computer against malware There are actions that you can take to help protect your computer against malware. Turn on the firewall For information about how to turn on your firewall in Windows 7, go to the  Turn Windows 7 Firewall on or offwebsite.For information about how to turn on your firewall in Windows Vista, go to the  Turn Windows Vista Firewall on or off  website. For information about how to turn on your firewall in Windows XP, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 283673 – How can I turn on or turn off the firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later versions? Keep your computer up to date For more information about how to set Automatic Updates in Windows, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 306525 – How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows Install Microsoft Security Essentials and keep it up to dateFor more information about how to install and use Microsoft Security Essentials, go to the  Microsoft Security Essentialswebsite. Don’t be tricked into downloading malware Here are some tips that can help protect you from downloading software that you don't want: Only download programs from websites that you trust. If you're not sure whether to trust a program that you want to download, enter the name of the program into your favorite search engine to see whether anyone else has reported that it contains spyware. Read all security warnings, license agreements, and privacy statements that are associated with any software that you download.Never click  "Agree† or â€Å"OK† to close a window that you suspect might be spyware. Instead, click the red â€Å"x† in the corner of the window or press  Alt + F4  on your keyboard to close a window. Be wary of popular â€Å"free† music and movie file-sharing programs, and make sure that you understand all the software packaged with those programs. Use a standard user account instead of an administrator account. For more information, go to the  Why use a standard account instead of an administrator account  website. For more information about how to protect a computer against viruses, go to the  How to boost your malware defense and protect your PC  website.How to reset your Internet Explorer proxy settings Malicious software might change Internet Explorer proxy settings, and these changes can prevent you from accessing Windows Update or any Microsoft Security sites. To have us change your Internet Explorer proxy settings for you, follow these steps: On an uninfected computer, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge base: 2289942 – How to reset your Internet Explorer proxy settings Go to the  Fix it for me  section. Click the  Fix it  button. Save the file to a flash drive or a CD when you are prompted. Insert the flash drive or CD in the infected computer.Start Windows, click  Start, and then click  Run. Click  Browse. Select the location of the flash drive or CD. Double-click the file that you saved, and then click  Open. To change your Internet Explorer proxy settings yourself, follow these steps: Click  Start, and then click  Run. In the  Run  box, copy and paste the following: reg add â€Å"HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings† /v ProxyEnable /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f Click  OK. Click  Start, and then click  Run. In the  Run  box, copy and paste the following: reg delete â€Å"HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings† /v Pr oxyServer /f Click  OK.