Part 1: Reading “The sharing economy”

If we look around us at the things we have purchased at some point in our lives, we would no doubt notice that
not everything we own is being put to good use: the thick woolen coat which we thought looked trendy despite
the fact that we live in a tropical country, the smartphone that got put away when we bought ourselves the
newest model, the car that only gets used at the weekends, or even the guest room in our house that somehow
got turned into a storeroom.
Those underutilized items may seem useless to some but could be an asset to others. With the advent of the
internet, online communities have figured out a way to generate profit from the sharing of those underused
assets. Using websites and social media groups that facilitate the buying and selling of second-hand goods, it is
now easier than ever for peer-to-peer sharing activities to take place. And this is known as the sharing economy.
These democratized online platforms are providing a chance for people to make a quick buck or two. To give an
example, busy parents previously might not have bothered with setting up a stall at the local market or car boot
sale to sell their children’s old equipment, but with online marketplaces, parents are now able to sell on those
hardly worn baby clothes that their children have outgrown and the expensive pushchairs and baby equipment
they have invested in, so as to put some cash back into their pockets.
Businesses have also caught on to the profitability of the sharing economy and are seeking to gain from making
use of those underutilized resources. A business model that has rapidly risen in popularity sees companies
providing an online platform that puts customers in contact with those who can provide a particular product or
service. Companies like Airbnb act as a middleman for people to cash in on their unused rooms and houses and
let them out as lucrative accommodation. Another example is Uber, which encourages people to use their own
personal cars as taxis to make some extra cash in their free time.
This move towards a sharing economy is not without criticisms. Unlike businesses, unregulated individuals do
not have to follow certain regulations and this can lead to poorer and inconsistent quality of goods and services
and a higher risk of fraud. Nevertheless, in the consumerist society we live in today, the increased opportunities
to sell on our unwanted and underused goods can lead to a lesser impact on our environment.

Task 1:
1. The sharing economy does not involve ...
A. people selling their used things to others.
B. People offering their services to others.
C. businesses selling their goods to people.
D. Businesses acting as a middleman for people who want to sell a product and people who want to
buy it.
2. People can now sell things more easily because ...
A. people nowadays buy more things.
B. Businesses want to buy the things they don’t use.
C. there are now more marker stalls and car boot sales.
D. There are now online platforms where they can meet people who want to buy their goods and
services.
3. Parents might want to sell their baby clothes and baby equipment because ...
A. they want to make back some of the money some of the money they spent on those baby
purchases.
B. They don’t like the baby items they have bought.
C. the baby clothes and equipment are old and worn out.
D. They need the money for other investments.
4. Which of these is something that the author says we might underutilize?
A. A thick coat in a cold country
B. The latest smart phone
C. Clothes our babies don’t or can’t wear any more
D. The storeroom in our house
5. It might be a problem for unregulated individuals to sell to others because ...
 A. they have to follow certain regulations.
B. What they sell might be of a lower quality.
C. they don’t have a business license.
D. They like to criticize their buyers.
6. What might be a good title for this article?
A. The consumerist society
B. Parents who need money
C. The rise of the sharing economy
D. Why we buy things we don’t need

Task 2: Are the sentences true or false?

Part 2: Ernst & Young Deploys Lotus Notes throughout Its Large, Global Enterprise
Ernst & Young is one of the world’s leading consulting organizations. Its mission is to help businesses around
the world “identify and capitalize on business opportunities” (www.ey.com). It is a decentralized organization
of some 130 national firms around the world that work together to provide seamless cross-border service to
multinational businesses. It has over 103,000 employees in more than 670 locations in over 140 countries. The
company offers a wide range of solutions, including delivering leading- edge assurance, advisory, tax, and
consulting services that help corporations achieve their business goals. Because it is such a large organization,
one of the primary challenges the company faces is enabling the sharing of information and data among the
company’s tens of thousands of employees around the globe.
Its people’s capability to communicate, collaborate, and share knowledge—within local and multinational
teams, within service lines, and across national boundaries— has become essential to maintaining and
sharpening Ernst & Young’s competitive edge in the global marketplace. In other words, the key to the success
of this company lies in its ability to effectively manage and share information across the entire company. At
Ernst & Young, client solutions are often delivered through multidisciplinary, and often multinational, teams
working together in person or through connectivity to apply their combined skills and the organization’s
expertise to its clients’ problems and needs.
The company began to search for a solution to take care of its information-sharing problem. The company’s
objective was to implement a stable infrastructure that would also provide quality service.
After a lot of searching, the company finally decided to use a Lotus Notes infrastructure for messaging and
sharing information and knowledge across the many member firms. Soon, Ernst & Young member firms
adopted Lotus Notes as their standard tool for collaborative working and knowledge management. This
decision was made against a clean technology slate, so to speak; there were no legacy systems. Lotus
Consulting helped the company in designing the internal Notes network and also provided system support,
which included the assignment of a special Lotus Notes account manager, dedicated only to Ernst & Young.
Within six months, member firms located in at least twelve countries in Asia Pacific were making use of the
Notes infrastructure and communicating and collaborating with each other through the system. These
member firms were primarily connecting through the company’s hub located in Singapore. Ernst & Young then
introduced two new hubs, one in New Jersey and one in London. Within the next two years, there were over
one hundred Ernst & Young virtual teams communicating and interacting from locations around the world,
using their Domino/
Notes Engagement Team Data Base to serve multinational clients. Even more teams were using Notes
applications to manage projects and share work products and ideas within country boundaries. All but one
country had migrated to Lotus Mail by the end of the second year—an outstanding achievement for a
decentralized organization of Ernst & Young’s size, geographical spread, and diversity. International e-mail
traffic alone (that is, excluding in-country electronic messages, which, in fact, total even more) rose from six
thousand messages per month to four hundred thousand per month within a span of only one year. The
number of e-mail messages rose to about eight hundred thousand per month in three years. The effective
implementation of the Notes infrastructure requirement was possible because of the excellent support of
Lotus Consulting, which had taken the effort to satisfy its client’s requirements and help them at every step of
the way.
Notes enabled Ernst & Young to scale up to a global enterprise system that provides mission-critical
connectivity among its people, within its teams, to its clients, and to internal and external knowledge stores.
Two years after Notes was implemented, Ernst & Young’s worldwide revenues grew by 17 percent, part of
which was attributed to the capabilities offered by Lotus Notes to do work without barriers and have a high
level of communication and knowledge-sharing.
Today, the company’s focus is on making significant extensions to the existing system. The Notes
infrastructure gives the company the ability to build applications and add Internet/intranet capabilities
without investing heavily in new software or hardware. Ernst & Young is now focusing on using the Internet
along with the Notes/Domino messaging system and has already implemented the EYI KnowledgeWeb, which
the company’s award-winning global Domino-based intranet system.

Discussion Questions
1. How are collaboration technologies and knowledge management useful to Ernst & Young?
2. How important is it to a firm such as Ernst & Young to use collaboration technologies such as Notes
successfully? Why? How would it look if a leading IS/IT consultant were not deploying emerging technologies
successfully?
3. Is the process of knowledge management using Notes useful only to consulting firms such as Ernst & Young?
Why or why not?
4. What do you think is the role of the technology development/consulting firm in ensuring the successful
implementation of an emerging technology within an organization?

Task 1

1. c 2. d 3. a 4. c 5. b 6. c

Task 2

1. True 2. True 3. False 4. False 5. False 6. True