Organisation and Service Management in Financial Services Essay

Organisation and Service Management in Financial Services - Essay Example guided by my instructors on how to undertake a research and come up with adequate information that would help the fund managers to make proper decisions that relates to the investment portfolio that they manage. While some investment analysts undertake their responsibilities in the investment management companies where they provide financial information to the fund managers, others are hired by investment banks and stock brokers to make their own investment ideas. Basically, investment analyst key roles include evaluating investment potential and studying economic trends (Leon, 2012). Thus, as an investment analyst, one need to ensure that he or she understands financial information including company accounts, data as well as financial statements. Similarly, they should be aware of the political events and current economic data including the trend of stock market (Orman, 1997). Major skills that the investment analyst must posses includes skills related to examining and interpreting data retrieved form various sources and identifying the impact of such information on the investment decisions (Thorp, 2010). As mentioned earlier, investment analysts are hired by various types of employers. These include banks, investment companies, public and private companies among others (Trinder, 2000). Additionally, social groups that have opened bank accounts to save their annual or monthly contribution may hire the services of investment analysts in order to guide them on how to effectively invest their funds. In UK and other countries investment analyst jobs can be found in pension funds, hedge funds and real estate firms, charitable organizations, large corporation as well as wealthy individuals. As finance students, we were trained on the various skills that are needed by an investment analyst. Most importantly, the course has exposed me on how to conduct extensive research on companies’ market data as well as reading their financial statements. By identifying their

Cloud computing Risk or Opportunity Research Paper

Cloud computing Risk or Opportunity - Research Paper Example Since last few years, cloud computing has resulted in a number of positive impacts on the IT ecosystem, thereby giving rise to new markets and widely scattered new user communities (European Commission, 2012). Contextually, the concept of cloud computing is the outcome of the direct industrial needs to enhance resource utilization without intervening consumer requirements. In other words, the concept ensures the use of the available resources in more efficient manner (European Commission, 2012). The paper intends to critically examine the opportunities and the risks associated with cloud computing and draws a valid conclusion on its adoption by organizations. Cloud computing was initially used in an academic perspective by Prof. Kenneth K Chellapa who illustrated it in 1997 at the Informs Conference in Dallas as â€Å"a computing paradigm where the boundaries of computing will be determined by economic rationale rather than technical limits† (Petri, 2010). There are various definitions of cloud computing however the most appropriate and broadly accepted definition is being provided by North America National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). According to NIST, â€Å"Cloud Computing is a model for enabling convenient, on demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort to service provider interaction† (Petri, 2010). Public Cloud: Public cloud model is provided by vendors and can be accessed over the internet or private network. One or more data centers are used by this model which is shared by multiple customers (Weitz, 2010). Private Cloud: Private cloud model is managed and used internally by the organizations which utilizes ‘shared services model’ and makes variable usage of virtualized computing resources. The data stored in the model are managed within the organization (Weitz,