Exam Preparation B2 C1 Lesson 1: Business and IT

B2 C1 Exam Preparation Lesson 1: Business and IT

LISTENING
Business and IT

Business Impact Microsoft Cloud Services

Office 365 is a subscription service of our exchange point and link server applications, as well as our client applications office web access clients. And so it provides a cloud based capability to use all of our servers as a single low price subscription.
One of the key design elements that we have in office 365, across all of the products, is really a change from trying to solve problems by figuring out what failed, and instead moving to an operation model that says “we need to return the customer and the service to service availability at all times”
One of the key design principles that we’ve worked through is to ensure that every region we have multiple locations or multiple data centres. These data centres are distributed geographically in that region, and we ensure that those two centres are synced relevant to customer data. As a result, we’re able to do two things. One is maintain the data within a given geography, so that we’re not whizzing data across the world. The second thing is that we’re able to keep those elements in sync in such a way that we can fail over from them, almost transparently with customers.
Further, we actually test this on a regular basis. On a monthly basis we actually do production tests where we fail over from site to site. And we actually.. and that kind of a test basically rebuildings, and builds a partner capability to improve our ability to basically return to operation in the event of a service failure.
Compliance is a key aspect of this service. We want to actually ensure that we can provide the customers the necessary controls around privacy, security and access, so they can look at our service and understand if through using it they can meet their obligations.
One of the key ways we do this is via the trust centre. The trust centre is a site on Microsoft’s properties that represents where our customer, where we maintain customer data, how we deal with compliance efforts, what certifications we have, and what attestations we do. And so, it’s a single place where customers can see our commitment for trustworthy computing, privacy, security, and compliance.
Our principles of privacy are pretty straightforward, which is really that the customer and the individual own that data. And so, the obligation is for us to be able to operate that infrastructure without us accessing customer created content.
How do we operate this service without having admin access to every aspect of this service? By building in functionality into the product, into the UI, where the customer controls what happens to the service relative to a functionality standpoint. And so, if they have key attributes or policies they want to apply, they do that without having to engage us.
The second approach we do is through what I call our central admin or automation approach, which is really to actually take a development approach to managing the system, so that we check in code into a controlled script database, and then that code is controlled through automation around approval. And so, what happens is you submit a request to make a change and somebody approves that change, and the result is there isn’t standing permissions to do a task. It’s the service managing the service through people submitting requests.
We do actually provide service level agreements to our inner price customers. This is a financially backed guarantee where we’re saying “We’ll achieve the following service level, and if we fail we’ll pay you back”. That payback is actually in service credits or real dollars based on how they’re engaged with the service.

READING
* Small Business VoIP Services: Solution For Business Owners
by: Marco A. Serrano

Small businesses have the tendency to lag behind in their competition with their big-time counterparts. And those that do usually fail to meet their expectations of growing their business. Aside from their larger competitors, they also tend to lag behind other smaller businesses.
One of the causes why small businesses often result to failure is because they do not make use of modern technology. New technology plays a very essential role in determining how a company will end up.
No one would disagree with the fact that technology is a big factor in the growth of a company, may it be small or large. Even a single network of a small business VoIP services can provide companies a competitive advantage.
The Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, offers wide solutions to businesses. With a small business VoIP service it can save money and boost their communications competence.
One of the basic solutions VoIP provides is the reduction of phone bills. VoIP does not just target to dramatically solve the phone expenses of the company concerned, but also those of their customers. If you are a subscriber of VoIP, you can choose any area code you want to use. And for example, the majority of your customers are based in Los Angeles; your business can provide the customers calls charged at local rates, even when your business is situated in New York.
This kind of small business VoIP services developed to reduce communication costs can even allow you to offer you’re most valuable consumers free toll numbers. Up to now, this service may only be economically practical to large companies. But with VoIP, you can have that competitive edge. Small business VoIP services give you this solution so that your business can compete in line with the big boys.
However, VoIP is not just limited to this small business solution. VoIP telephone also gives the sales personnel the benefit of making calls to the head office for free, irrespective of the location and distance. The same advantage can be enjoyed by the other employees of the company who are provided with a VoIP handset.
VoIP applications require communication through the internet. As such, VoIP solution to communications can be accessed with the use of hardware and software appropriate for IP use including laptops, PC, PDAs, palm computers, Bluetooth as well as other technologies that can handle packetized internet reception and transfer. So businessmen who are traveling only have to carry VoIP hard-phone with an Internet access to get in touch. Or they may also choose to use VoIP softphone installed in their PC and connect to the internet. The technology of small business VoIP services allows businesses to finally contend with corporate companies in flexibility and speed of communication.
With just simple clicks of a button, VoIP allows the set-up of web conference calls. Unlike the traditional web conferences, small business VoIP service web conference features the technologies of web-based video, sound, animation, and digital voice presentations. At a small business price, this corporate technology can have customers impressed.
With an adapted small business VoIP service, businesses are not just provided with competitive advantages over their larger counterparts. Businesses of any size are given the opportunity to develop further over their peers when it comes to communications proficiency, rate of response to customers’ enquiries and requests, and image.
Get in to Voice over Internet Protocol. Whatever your business is, and no matter what size it is, small business VoIP services will help your company save money. Also, it will provide you additional features and control which may not be available in current phone systems.
(SOURCE: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_16029.shtml#acvid)

WRITING SKILLS

For IELTS (Academic format), please select the ESSAY topic (250 words: in 40 minutes. Counts for 2/3 of the Writing score) and GRAPH DESCRIPTION (150 words: in 20 minutes. Counts for 1/3 of the Writing score). You will have 1h to complete both tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay exploring the change in industry since the introduction of information technology.
* GRAPH DESCRIPTION:
Mobile Payments in India (Source: wikipedia.org).
This bar graph shows the annual growth of the mobile subscriber base in India. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

For IELTS (General format), please select the ESSAY topic (250 words) and LETTER (150 words). You will have 1h to complete both tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay exploring the change in industry since the introduction of information technology.
* LETTER: Write a letter to your company complaining about the insufficiency of the current computer software.

For FCE, please select 2 of the following: ESSAY, LETTER/EMAIL, REPORT, or REVIEW. You will have 1h20 to complete the tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay exploring the change in industry since the introduction of information technology.
* LETTER: Write a letter to your company complaining about the insufficiency of the current computer software.
* REVIEW: You have just read an article on the introduction of a four day working week as a means to increase productivity. Write a review on its implementation and impact.
* REPORT: Write a report on the rise of online independent businesses since the launch of ebay, amazon etc

For CAE, please select 2 of the following: ESSAY, LETTER/EMAIL, PROPOSAL, REPORT, or REVIEW. You will have 1h30 to complete the tasks on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: Write an essay exploring the change in industry since the introduction of information technology.
* LETTER: Write a letter to your company complaining about the insufficiency of the current computer software.
* REVIEW: You have just read an article on the introduction of a four day working week as a means to increase productivity. Write a review on its implementation and impact.
* PROPOSAL: Write a proposal for a means to increase productivity in the work place (not inclusive of a four day working week).
* REPORT: Write a report on the rise of online independent businesses since the launch of ebay, amazon etc

For TOEFL, please select the ESSAY topic and write a second essay response based on either the READING or LISTENING passage of the lesson. You will have 50 minutes to complete both essays on the day of the exam.

* ESSAY: It’s better to find information in a library than on the internet. Discuss the pros and cons.
* ESSAY: Essay response based on either the reading or listening passage of today’s lesson (Business & IT): What are the various forms of business communication, how have they helped businesses develop and what are their effects on the business/customer relationship?