...ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY (NY) [pic] Best Buy Swindled Out of $31 Million Internal Control Issues Joseph Chung Professor Jay Ranade ACC 628 Internal Auditing Overview of the Case An Illinois couple allegedly swindled computer giant Best Buy Inc. out of $31 million dollars over the duration of four years (2003-2007). Russell Cole and his wife Abby was allegedly accused of masterminding a multi-million dollar online bid-rigging scheme along with former Best Buy employee Robert Paul Bossany, who pleaded himself guilty in February 2009 to 29 counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. Investigators found that the Coles had reported $15.5 million dollars in income from 2003-2007, with $14.2 million suspected to be in connection with the fraud. The Chicago Tribune said that Russell Cole called his $2.75 million dollar home in Deerfield, IL "the house that Best Buy built," but was under scrutiny by investigators who claim that the money was obtained through fraud. The Coles lavish lifestyle also included owning a Ferrari coupe, a Lamborghini convertible and nine other luxury/high performance vehicles with a total worth of about $2.8 million dollars that was confiscated by authorities. The Coles' attorney told the Chicago Tribune that the Coles' "did not engage in a fraud against Best Buy...We intend, at this point, to present evidence to the contrary if they've ever charged." As for Bossany, he cooperated fully with...
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...500 companies in our society is Best Buy. Best Buy is one of the largest consumer electronics retailer company in the United States and Canada. There are many products Best Buy distributes, such as; computers, computer equipment, video and audio products, refrigerators, coffeemakers, compact discs, video games, DVD and VHS movies and players, CD’s, computer software, cameras, cell phones, and satellite systems and so on. In addition, their customer service is very helpful and has improved throughout the years. The Geek Squad is one of their forms of customer service they provide and they offer various computer-related services and accessories for residential and commercial clients. Best Buy didn’t always have these products and services available. They are an industry that changes with the times. They supply products that are in high demand by the consumers. Best Buy was started in 1996 by Richard R. Schulze and his business partner James Wheeler. It was originally known as Sound of Music and the first store was located in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1983, the company’s name was changed to Best Buy and the first store named Best Buy was located in Burnsville, Minnesota. By 1984, there were only 8 Best Buy’s in the Midwest, but by 1987 the number tripled and their sales and earnings were at a high $239 million and $7.7 million respectively. And since they have money to spend, they increased their warehouse size and products. In 1985, Best Buy went public and then two years later...
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...even taken advantage of the services they offer, but how did it get to be the household name it is today? Founder of the company, Robert Stephens, was, like all entrepreneurs, faced with an abundance of challenges before and after starting his business. Stephens was also given a great opportunity with the beginning of a trend toward personal computers when he started his business. In fact, Geek Squad had become so successful that it was brought to the attention of Best Buy, which purchased the company from Stephens in 2002 to combat some issues they thought that Geek Squad would be able to fix for them. Although they have been extremely successful up to this point, Geek Squad will need to stay ahead of the game to continue to do so, with the rapidly growing and ever changing technological world. When Robert Stephens was studying computer science, he also worked fixing computers for a research laboratory, and started consulting as well. While consulting he realized that most people needed help using and/or fixing their personal computer. In 1994 when Stephens started the company, it was in high demand because of the increase in the use of the personal computer (PC). The people not only wanted someone to help with their computer problems, but also be on time and help them understand what the problem really is, all while being friendly. When Best Buy purchased Geek Squad in 2002 for $3 million, it wasn’t without reason. Best Buy had been observing some very high return rates for...
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...Conclusions……………………………………………………….12 Interpretation of analysis……………………………………………………….16 Recommendations/Conclusion……………………………………………….20 Introduction The innovated product that my company has created and launched is the Ever Lasting laptop. Since, this is the first product that I have launched a general survey will be needed to get a general sense of the population. A marketing survey is a great way to help your team to grow and also for consumers to know that your product is going to be launched. This marketing survey will be needed to find out what consumers want in their laptops and generally where they buy their laptops. To add on, my survey will also give me information on the general income that the population has. The ever-lasting laptop with 10-year battery that I am releasing is generally for teens and adults. This is because; teens need computers to help them function in school and adults need laptops to make-work easier and quicker for them. The price that I will be selling my product for is $599.99. Procedures and Research Methods Secondary Research (Stats Can) City | Age/Group(15-64) | Size(Square ft.) | Education | Income | Employ-ment | Household(Total number of persons in private household) | City A(brampton | M=177,595F=184,510 | 266.34 | No education=17.2%High school Diploma=26.4%Post...
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...There is a big influence of technique on our daily life. Electronic devices, multimedia and computers are things we have to deal with everyday. Especially the Internet is becoming more and more important for nearly everybody as it is one of the newest and most forward-looking media and surely “the” medium of the future. Therefore we thought that it would be necessary to think about some good and bad aspects of how this medium influences us, what impacts it has on our social behaviour and what the future will look like. The Internet changed our life enormously, there is no doubt about that. There are many advantages of the Internet that show you the importance of this new medium. What I want to say is that Internet changed our life in a positive way. First we have to make a differentiation concerning the usage. You can use the Internet at home for personal or you at work for professional usage. Let’s come to the first. To spend a part of our day on the Internet is for many people quite normal. They use this kind of medium to get information about all kinds topics. Maybe some of them are interested in chatting, probably they are members of a community. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it. Even if you want to have very specific information, you will find it in a short time. Normally, you often have to send a letter, than you have to wait for the reception of the reply, or you have to make some telephone calls and so on. In any case, the traditional way is...
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...Do you want to buy a new computer? Well, now you have a lot of computers were you were can choose from, but you know which one to buy? I am going to discuss some differences between Macintosh and Windows. Macintosh is a sophisticated system of computers with great performance and very easy to use. Windows as well is very sophisticated, is the best-known system in the market and with a lot of variety. In my opinion I prefer to use Macintosh, because it is simpler and more reliable. Generally most of the people have a Windows based computer. This computer systems work like in the same way, just with a few differences. Most of the people know how to use a windows based computer, but when you get a Macintosh is very different from the windows. One big problem that Windows have is the viruses, unlike Macintosh, this computer rarely get viruses. A good thing is that Windows have a lot of software as opposed to Macintosh. Macintosh have something called “Finder” were you can search in all of your files, and works really good, on the contrary of Windows. There are tons of games for Windows; you can buy it even in Wal-Mart different from Macintosh, which is harder to find games. One big issue that everybody complains, it is price of Macintosh. I know that the Macintosh computers are expense, but it is a good inversion. For example the MacBook Pro of 13 inches cost one thousand dollars, on the other hand the Sony VAIO of 17 inches is only five hundred dollars. The quality of the...
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...Luiz Teles Computers vs. Books In the 21st century, the population nowadays is dependent on computers to do everything. The people can’t live without their smartphones or social networks; everybody is connected in some way to the high technology of the 21st century. We need in some way use the computers, for everything that we do; for example, to search something, write a paper or buy things. People are starting to forget the real pleasures of the real life. This you will never find on your computer screen. They need to remember the roots of where things started. For example, one polemic topic that is discussed nowadays is “Will computers completely replace books?” I will start this discussion with a fact, the fact that books have existed for thousands of years. Do you think that some writers or fans of books will let the history of books die? In my opinion, I don’t think so. Writers will still publish their work as books. They sell their books on the internet, but I am pretty sure that they know the essence of writing; A good story, with chapters and pages that we can flip is only possible in a real book. Books have been generating lots of money; the commerce will never stop. Libraries, book stores, schools, and other kinds of shops that use magazines or books for entertainment will never supply tablets for every person who wants to read something or just to flip the pages to waste some time while waiting for something, like in the spa or in line for a haircut...
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...Dell Computers was founded by Michael Dell, who started selling personal computers out of his dorm room as a freshman at the University of Texas. Michael Dell would buy parts wholesale, assembled them into clones (exact replicas) of IBM computers, and sold them by mail order to customers who did not want to pay the higher prices charged by retailers. Michael Dell was soon making 80,000 dollars a month profit and in 1984 Michael dropped out of university to found Dell Computers. Michael formed in his dorm room the underlying principles, which he would follow throughout the 80's and 90's as CEO of Dell Computers. Since their inception in 1982, dell has had a consistent rise in sales. Dells built to order strategy has enabled them to become a very efficient producer of computers and profitable company. The WebPages for dell computers has enabled dell to be able to reduce expenditures and become more efficient in their overall production and distribution of their products. Dell has been the only company to become an efficient maker of computers using the built-to-order system. Dells stock has become increasingly more valuable to investors over the past five years. Dell's built-to-order strategy has made them successful in growth, development and stock valuation. The book "Direct from Dell" gave a lot of background information on, Dell's strategy, and mail order system as well as statistics on company sales and growth. The book goes into depth when analyzing Dell's built-to-order...
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...Between home computers there are many choices when it comes time to choose a computer for your home. There are a lot of things that you have to consider before buying one for your home: things like performance, customization¸ design, and price. You also have to think about what you are going to spend most of your time doing on the computers. Depending on what you do with your time on the computer choosing either of these computers will have a big difference on what you do. Some users prefer to spend their time on the internet and surf the web, while others prefer to edit pictures and play games which will greatly effect the performance of the computer you are using. Even though mac computers come with a lot of photo editing and gaming capabilities, PC’s have better programs that you can obtain and also better hardware to run the games that you want to run. For example, many games and software will not run on a MAC computer. In order to even be able to run these certain programs, the MAC computer will have to download and install a windows operating system which is ran through PC’s. So why buy a MAC when you will only have to use it as a Pc in the first place to run certain programs? Another thing that Mac users argue about is their computers do not get viruses which destroy computers internally. Even though this is somewhat true Microsoft owns roughly about 80 percent of the operating systems out in the world so why would hackers target a smaller group of computers (Simon and...
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...277 * Windows 7 Starter edition comes in only a 32-bit version. 2. What is the maximum amount of memory a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium can support? Pag. 277 * 16 GB is the maximum amount of memory a 64-bit version of Windows 7 H Premium 3. How much free space on the hard drive is required to install a 64-bit version of Windows 7? Pag. 277 * 20 GB is required to install a 64-bit version of Windows 7 4. How do you start the process to reinstall an OS on a laptop computer using the backup files stored on a recovery partition? Pag. 282 * If you have a notebook computer or a brand-name computer, such as a Dell, IBM, or Gateway, and you need to reinstall Windows, follow the recovery procedures given by the computer manufacturer. A hard drive is divided into one or more partitions, and the hard drive on a brand-name computer is likely to have a hidden recovery partition that contains a recovery utility and installation files. To access the utilities on the hidden partition, press a key during startup. The key to press is displayed on the screen early in the boot before the OS is loaded. If you don’t see the message, search the web site of the computer manufacturer to find the key combination. For one Dell laptop, you press Ctrl and F11 to start the recovery. 5. What are three free applications mentioned in the chapter that can be used to create virtual machines? P 283 * Virtual Pc by Microsoft * Virtual Box by...
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...value chain. The different firms only differ in terms as in how many links are present in their vertical chain. Adopting vertical integration for a firms means reduction of transportation costs as common ownership means closer geographical areas, the supply chain is more coordinated, barriers to entry are there making it hard for new firms to enter the market, core competency is expanded and access to uneasy distribution channels is gained. I think it can be in a firms interest to outsource its components from competitors rather than producing in-house because (Make Vs Buy Decision) this way the firms can gain economies of scale which is a good amount of saving in costs gained by the increased level of production (the firm being a supplier) whereas in-house production doesn’t gain much economies of scale as the demand would be little. The firm becomes obedient and efficient as they must follow the rules and efficiency as is in the entire market. Buying from the market improves flexibility but some disadvantages of the buy decision are the search costs, incomplete contracting which is transaction costs- under the contracts between parties only certain remedies are covered in case of unknown or unforeseen changes. That contract automatically becomes invalid, they must look into other measures resulting into additional contracting costs. For example, suppose a computer manufacturing firm has to deliver 50 computers to a retailer and they have a contract between themselves but...
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...5-Best Buy 1 Chapter 5 Best Buy Using Customer Centricity to Connect with Customers Narrator: Best Buy is the world's largest consumer electronics retailer, far ahead of its rivals: Walmart, Circuit City and Costco. Joe Brandt is a service manager at a Best Buy store focused on centricity. Joe Brandt: So much of our business success comes down to understanding consumer behaviors. Female Customer: I'm looking for a laptop. Male Customer: I’m looking for a Bluetooth headset. Female Customer: You can see computer right up, so I know exactly where to go. it was easy. Male Customer: They're definitely customer focused around here. Edie Adaza: The beautiful thing about this one is you can surf the Internet. Joe Brandt: We really focus on getting our employees in the know and being able to described to customers how technology can enhance their lives. We try to make that shopping experience as easy and as simple as possible. Edie Adaza: My name is Edie Adaza. I'm the personal shopping assistant and customer assistant. I opened this store so I'm very proud of this store. If you notice, our aisles are color-coded. It's just basically telling customers where to go, easy access to, let's say, computers, Geek Squad. Joe Brandt: Consumers look at a lot of different things. They look at shopability of the store, how easy it is to navigate the store, how pleasant the employees are, how we are price-wise, and how we take...
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...Cloud Computing Cloud computing means that instead of all the computer hardware and software you're using sitting on your desktop, or somewhere inside your company's network, it's provided for you as a service by another company and accessed over the Internet, usually in a completely seamless way. Exactly where the hardware and software is located and how it all works doesn't matter to you, the user—it's just somewhere up in the nebulous "cloud" that the Internet represents. Cloud computing is a buzzword that means different things to different people. For some, it's just another way of describing IT (information technology) "outsourcing"; others use it to mean any computing service provided over the Internet or a similar network; and some define it as any bought-in computer service you use that sits outside your firewall. However we define cloud computing, there's no doubt it makes most sense when we stop talking about abstract definitions and look at some simple, real examples—so let's do just that. Simple examples of cloud computing Most of us use cloud computing all day long without realizing it. When you sit at your PC and type a query into Google, the computer on your desk isn't playing much part in finding the answers you need: it's no more than a messenger. The words you type are swiftly shuttled over the Net to one of Google's hundreds of thousands of clustered PCs, which dig out your results and send them promptly back to you. When you do a Google search, the...
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...Supply And Demand In this paper we will be talking about the supply and demand that goes with the experience of purchasing a new computer. “Supply and demand are the forces that make market economies work. They determine the quantity of each good produced and the price at which it is sold. (N. Gregory Mankiw n.d. 63) So the first thing we have to look at the market to see if this is a good time to buy a computer. Then we look at the demand for computers right now buy looking at charts to see if this is the best time to purchase a computer. One factor that possible change in supply and demand of the computer is if it is time for school to start that will bring the price down on all computer and the things that go with it. Another factor that will change supply and demand is if a new operating system is coming out for computers. People will wait to purchase the latest with the new operating system on them. That was like when windows put out vista operating system that did not work with xp operating system and everybody had to stay with xp. So the purchase of new computers drop because know one was buying them. Then we can look at “Variable Change in This Variable Price Represents a movement along the supply curve Input prices Shifts the supply curve Technology Shifts the supply curve Expectations Shifts the supply curve Number of sellers Shifts the supply curve” (N. Gregory Mankiw n.d. 74)So there a lot of things that can change supply and demand. Now that we know demand is the...
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...Desktop Computers vs. Laptop Computers Ryanne Donahue ENG 121 English Composition 1 Prof. Tina Santino April 23, 2012 Desktop Computers vs. Laptop Computers Computers are one of the most popular kinds of electronic devices in the world today. Whether kid or adult, male or female, everyone wants to learn how to operate the computer. People use computers for different purposes such as typing papers, creating websites, browsing the internet, playing games, etc. In fact, many people are still confused about what kind of computer they want to buy. There are two types of computers: laptops and desktops. They are both actually very different in several ways. This paper will compare the size, performance, maintenance, and price of the two. As we all know, a desktop computer is hard to move and is cluttered due to many wires and cables that need to be connected to each. They need to have lots of attachments when using a desktop computer. It is annoying having all those wires and cables when trying to use a computer. The speakers, keyboard, and mouse are all built in on a laptop computer. That makes it hassle free of the wires and cables. Unless they want to acquire a mouse for the laptop, there will not be as many wires. The laptop is also portable, making it easier to move and take when traveling, and does not take up a lot of space. Performances of a laptop computer and desktop computer have great differences. The desktop computer has better components and can handle better...
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