Technology Management

Technology management is set of management disciplines that allows organizations to manage their technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage. Typical concepts used in technology management are:

• technology strategy (a logic or role of technology in organization),
• technology forecasting (identification of possible relevant technologies for the organization, possibly through technology scouting),
• technology roadmap (mapping technologies to business and market needs), and
• technology project portfolio ( a set of projects under development) and technology portfolio (a set of technologies in use).

The role of the technology management function in an organization is to understand the value of certain technology for the organization. Continuous development of technology is valuable as long as there is a value for the customer and therefore the technology management function in an organization should be able to argue when to invest on technology development and when to withdraw.

Technology management can also be defined as the integrated planning, design, optimization, operation and control of technological products, processes and services, a better definition would be the management of the use of technology for human advantage.

The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering defines technology management as the field concerned with the supervision of personnel across the technical spectrum and a wide variety of complex technological systems. Technology management programs typically include instruction in production and operations management, project management, computer applications, quality control, safety and health issues, statistics, and general management principles.

Perhaps the most authoritative input to our understanding of technology is the diffusion of innovations theory developed in the first half of the twentieth century. It suggests that all innovations follow a similar diffusion pattern - best known today in the form of an "s" curve though originally based upon the concept of a standard distribution of adopters. In broad terms the "s" curve suggests four phases of a technology life cycle - emerging, growth, mature and aging.

These four phases are coupled to increasing levels of acceptance of an innovation or, in our case a new technology. In recent times for many technologies an inverse curve - which corresponds to a declining cost per unit - has been postulated. This may not prove to be universally true though for information technology where much of the cost is in the initial phase it has been a reasonable expectation.

The second major contribution to this area is the Carnegie Mellon Capability Maturity Model. This model proposes that a series of progressive capabilities can be quantified through a set of threshold tests. 

These tests determine repeatability, definition, management and optimization. The model suggests that any organization has to master one level before being able to proceed to the next.

The third significant contribution comes from Gartner - the research service, it is the hype cycle, this suggests that our modern approach to marketing technology results in the technology being over hyped in the early stages of growth. Taken together, these fundamental concepts provide a foundation for formalizing the approach to managing technology.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

SCM is defined as the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information. Hence, add value for customers and other stakeholders (Lambert et al., 1998). SCM is defined as the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information and hence add value for customers and other stakeholders. SCM is a set of approaches utilized to effectively integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time, in order to minimize systemwide cost while satisfying service level requirements (Simchi Levi et al. (2000).

            The concepts of supply chain design and management have become a popular operations paradigm. The complexity of SCM has also forced companies to go for online communication systemssuch as, the Internet increases the richness of communications through greater interactivity between the firm and the customer (Watson et al.1998). The roles of the Internet in building commercially viable supply chains in order to meet the challenges of virtual enterprises. Supply chain management emphasizes the overall and long-term benefit of all parties on the chain through co-operation and information sharing. This signifies the importance of communication and the application of IT in SCM. Some of the problems often cited in the literature both by the researchers and practitioners when developing an IT-integrated SCM are lack of integration between IT and business model, lack of proper strategic planning, poor IT infrastructure, and insufficient application of IT in virtual enterprise, and inadequate implementation knowledge of IT in SCM.

The strategic planning with the objective of developing long-term plans and changes to their organization and in turn to improve their competitiveness and also the  strategic planning of IT should support the long-term objectives and goals of SCM both in terms of flexibility and responsiveness to changing market requirements. Besides that, strategic planning of IT in SCM includes organizational issues such as organizational structure, awareness of top management, business processes, strategic alliances, and information technology that influence the overall performance of IT-enabled SCM. The organizations business and top level strategies is suitable for information systems should be selected with a view to support the application of IT and in turn to develop an effective supply chain. IS also can be a supportive facilitator of change extending and enhancing organization choice and improving the quality of decision making and supporter of innovation.

 IS strategic alignment incorporating four fundamental domain of strategic choice which is business strategy, IT strategy, organizational infrastructure and processes, and IT infrastructure and processes. (Henderson and Venkataraman 1993) Nevertheless, the strategic human aspects have been ignored. Then, Standardization of business processes and IT systems facilitate effective and protected access information in a supply chain. Strategic planning of IT in SCM has the objective of making long-term decisions such as the selection and productive implementation of IT with the objective of achieving an effective and well-connected supply chain. The characteristics of SCM, long-term decisions should be promote functional co-operation as well as extended enterprise integration. IT plays a major of role in both integration and creating demand, market for products, and services in SCM.

Mastery of Operational Competencies in The Context of Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management (SCM) is a concept that encompasses different perspectives and has been the object of numerous studies in various academic fields such as marketing, operational management, purchasing and logistics. A growing number of studies conclude that the supply chain may also be a setting where competencies can be developed, in particular core competencies (Dyer and Singh, 1998).

According to Rungtusanatham et al. (2001), during the past 20 years, several studies have attempted to integrate different supply chain management dimensions, such as the nature of information exchanged and the improvement of competitive priorities, supply chain integration practices and their impact on demand amplification phenomenon, the impact of supplier involvement in product design, and the impact of strategic sourcing on operational performance improvement. In recent years, a growing number of studies have considered supply chains, not only as a network to get products where they need to be, but also as a tool to enhance key outcomes. For example, the works by Green et al. (2006) and by Zailani and Rajagopal (2005) show a very strong relationship between supply chain management practices and performance improvement.

In extrapolating the ideas set forth by Braganza (2002), this notion of integration refers to a concept of two‐way communication and coordination of knowledge among the echelons. The characteristic of notions and integration according to two dimensions which is a horizontal perspective and a vertical perspective. First, using a horizontal perspective, coordination practices can be used with a more or less large number of partners in the supply chain. This connection can move backward to suppliers or forward to customers. Besides that, using a vertical perspective, propose a spectrum of knowledge coordination practices that can range from being absent in certain business relationships (open‐market negotiations) to being very present and leading to a sharing of more strategic information, thus contributing to improved performance of the supply chain (collaboration). We define that the supply chain integration as the various management practices associated with the linking of activities with a varied level of added value and the deployment of these practices with a small or large number of partners. Greater integration of the supply chain (characterized by the intensive deployment of supply chain management practices) is associated with increased mastery of a company's core operational competencies.

For the data collection and sample, to study operational competencies within supply chains, we have decided to conduct a survey of Canadian manufacturers and have developed a questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre‐tested with four respondents. These respondents worked for large industrial companies (electronics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, transport) and were experienced in the design of questionnaires. The length of the questionnaire as well as the fact that it was sent mainly to small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises may explain this low response rate. To measure the potential presence of such a bias, we have applied the test used by Zsidisin and Ellram(2003) and by Green et al. (2006), which consists of comparing the date of early and late respondents. This test is based on the assumption that the final respondents tend to have a similar behavior to that of the non‐respondents.

In four respondent profiles, the collected data were entered into an Excel spreadsheet. This database was then transferred to the SPSS program. The initial analyses aimed to assess the explanatory nature of the variables and their degree of overlapping aiming to classify the relational practices in the upstream and downstream supply chain of the companies in our population sample. These four groups are characterized by different upstream and or downstream integration levels in their supply chain. To confirm this result, must carry out an undirected classification using SAS software. To use this software because it allows the construction of an algorithm that determines the optimal number of clusters, whereas the SPSS software version we were using required us to first determine this number.

A first group of 20 respondents that we label as “balanced integrated”. The second group is made up of 49 companies focusing on supplier integration practices, and is labeled “upstream integrated”, a third group of 42 respondents is labeled “downstream integrated” and finally, the last group comprises 52 companies and is called “defensive integrated”. Since the determination of these four groups is based on a composite index built on several statements, a relatively high global score could be the result of high scores on some of the statements. The supply chain of these respondents is thus characterized by a great overlap of responsibilities with many stakeholders, both upstream and downstream.

Importances of Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)

Importance of ERP Software for Businesses

            ERP software business solutions are designed for companies that work in a wide variety of areas. IT combines a large number of different elements into a single unit. Three of the most important ERP tools available today are manufacturing, human resources, and finance.

The finance tools allow companies to successfully maintain their financial information like that of the assets, accounts, budgets and cash. ERP can also assist a company in managing internal as well as external factors affecting it. A company that uses ERP financial products can save a great deal of money over the long term, the reason being, the productivity of the organization will be improved. Enterprise Resource Planning is instrumental in getting rid of time consuming activities as paper management. A company is able to study their processes, earnings, and performance by merging their operational information with their financial information. Once this information is connected together, a company can become more competitive and productive. Synergy is an important part of ERP solutions. The concept of combining multiple processes into a single whole will allow the company to become successful in the long term.

In addition, to finance and business processes, it is also important to look at materials maintenance. Enterprise Resource Planning will allow a company to successfully automate the process of buying materials and maintaining them. There are modules that track the supplies that are purchased and can also make calculations about how these materials should be distributed. It also becomes possible for a company to predict the demand of the market based on history, economic statistics, and data from their employees. They can even decide when a product should be produced, and they can do this based on the raw material that is available.

Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems have been a popular information technology in the changing business environment and one of largest IT investments. It software has traditionally been used by capital intensive industries, such as manufacturing, construction, aerospace, and defense. Besides that, it recently been introduced to the finance, education, insurance, retail and telecommunications sectors.

            A theoretical framework is required to interpret the impacts of ERP technologies on the organization. The five major contextual factors which impact both business processes and product associated with IT implementation in manufacturing firm. The organizational innovation model (Kwon and Zmud’s 1987), they identified five major which are characteristics of user community, characteristics of the organization, characteristics of the technology being adopted, characteristics of the task to which the technology is being applied and the characteristic of the organizational environment. 

Using this framework, the task and technology characteristics of the three technologies are conceptually examined as the input data to the capacity resource planning (CRP) module in MRP, MRPǁ, and ERP and how the degree of potential integration between task and technology affects compatibility in the manufacturing process.

            The IT industry forecasts strong demand for ERP and supply chain management applications over the next several years. ERP has been selected worldwide for its integration capability reputation, standard software, three-tier client/server architecture, business engineering, and migration tool from the mainframe. Regarding the technology characteristics, most ERP systems have three distinct features in their architecture. These integrated features could facilitate compatibility between task and technology inthe ERP system. The first is their data dictionary, which specifies thousands of domains that are associated with supporting fields and arranged in numerous tables. 

The second is a middleware which could make distributed systems possible by allowing users to set up application modules and databases at different locations. The third is the repository. This is the foundation of the business framework, because the repository captures all semantics in the business processes, business objects, and organization model. The ERP repository is able to exchange information via application programming interfaces (API). These three technology features are used to coordinate marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and human resources tasks in the firm.

So, the most data on ERP were collected from IT industry reports and ERP advocates that that the ERP software has a number of integrated businesses and IT factors. The ERP solutions will likely continue to define the IT standards that could enable end users to integrate most of their information systems into one cohesive technology infrastructure. Many of the firm's applications in their legacy systems could be replaced in the process of adopting ERP. ERP could provide IT benefits to the firm from the inherent technological context. Furthermore, with ERP all the tasks along the firm's value chain from production planning to capital asset management could be integrated across business processes.

Impediments to Successful ERP Implementation Process

In term of ERP implementations, compared with findings from earlier work on reengineering and change management, point to some of the areas in which critical impediments to success are likely to occur. The impediment for ERP implementation which are Human resources and capabilities management, cross-functional coordination, ERP software configuration and features, systems development and project management and change management.

Firstly, is the human resources and capabilities management. In the absence of in-house expertise, enterprises have turned to outside consultants to facilitate the ERP implementation process. On other that, management of in-house and external human resources in a coordinated process is critical for success. For example, lack of user training and failure to completely understand how enterprise applications change business processes that can cause to impediment of ERP implementation process.

Secondly, is cross-functional coordination that require to coordination across s different functional areas as well as with external project members. The problem of coordination is counted as one of the most important issues leading to failure of a number of ERP implementations (Kumar and Van Hillegersberg, 2000). The lack of coordination can lead to implementation delays and organizational conflicts, while piecemeal implementations can negate the very purpose of an integrated package.

Besides that, ERP software configuration and features also the Impediments to successful ERP implementation process. Configuring the system involves making compromises and has limitations, given the adaptability of the software and the effort involved (Davenport, 1998). This fine-tuning of the standard system is a key process in the implementation and requires translating business needs into appropriate parameter settings.

Systems development and project management also list of impediment ERP implementation. Implementing an ERP system is a careful exercise in strategic thinking, precision planning, and negotiations with departments and divisions that requires careful selection and the appropriate project management structure and methods (Bingiet al.1999). Given that most customers find that at least 20 percent of their need functionality is missing from a typical package (Scott and Kaindl, 2000), systems development impediments may be critical. Furthermore, novel combinations of hardware and software as well as a wide range of organizational, human and political issues make ERP projects inherently complex, requiring significant project management skills (Ryan, 1999).

Next, change management important thing for implementations of technology and business process reengineering that information technology system comprehensive approach toward the large-scale process and system change associated with ERP implementations. So, without appropriate change management processes, enterprises may not be able to adapt to the new systems to make performance gains. 

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)

The definition of Enterprise resources planning (ERP) is a packaged business software system that lets an organization automate and integrate the majority of its business process, share common data and practice across the enterprise, produce and access information in a real-time environment. The ultimate goal of an ERP system is that information must only be entered once. When numbers are increasing of organizations across the globe have chosen to develop their IT infrastructure around this class of off-the-shelf application, there has been a greater appreciation for the challenges involved in implementing these complex technologies. Moreover, ERP system can bring competitive advantage to organizations the high failure rate in implementing such system is the main attention.

A Conceptual Model for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

          

The ERP model has four components that are implemented through a methodology. Methodology encircles all four of the components to illustrate that each component is addressed and implemented in an integrated manner. The four components consists the software component, process flow, customer mindset, and change management.

The software component of the ERP model is the component that is most visible to the users. It consists of several generic modules such as human resources (HR), supply chain management (SCM), supplier relationship management (SRM), and customer relationship management (CRM). Human resources forms an integral part of an ERP system. It focuses on the automation of HR tasks from the employer’s viewpoint. Besides that, SCM involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. 

SCM flows can be divided into three main flows which is the product flow, the information flow and the financial flow. SRM with an increasing reliance on contractors and suppliers for material, logistic and manufacturing capacity, the ability to manage these relationships has become critical. CRM is a term methodologies, software and usually internal capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationship in an organized and efficient manner (Lalakota and Robinson, 1999).

Furthermore, the second component in the conceptual model is the process flow within an ERP system. Process flow deals with the way in which the information flows among the different modules within an ERP systems. This forms a very important part of understanding ERP system. Before an ERP system can be implemented in organization, the business process must be modeled and, if need be, reengineered to allow smooth integration. 

Next, the third component of the ERP model is the customer’s mindset. In the customer’s mindset have three influences which are user influence, team influence and organizational influence. The user influence is to ensure that the users fully understanding the necessity of using the system correctly all the time, a needs analysis should be done to evaluate the users’ technical skills, their existing job processes and the impact the system will have on their job. Besides that, the team influence is a primary reason for unsuccessful ERP implementations is the inability of this disparate group to come together in a focused, team-oriented manner. 

Lastly, organization influence is the culture within an organization plays a major role and influences the individual user. ERP systems break down all functional barriers within an organization and the culture of the organization must first be changed for the ERP system to be successful. 

The fourth component in the ERP model is change management that plays a major role in the successful implementation of an ERP system. Change needs to be managed at several levels such as user attitude, business process changes and system changes. In user attitude, the organization needs is people to understand what it is all about, to take part in making it a success and to have confidence in the project team. Besides that, the business process changes must happen for three reasons such as stringent business conditions accentuated by channel and brand proliferation, the pressures of managing globally and the intense service demands by customers. The system changes an effective change management strategy will improve an organization’s change analysis capabilities and provide more fluid and efficient change implementation or migration process.

Success Factors in ERP Systems Implementation

ERP system implementation is a process of great complexity, with a great many conditions and factors potentially influencing the implementation. These conditions could have a positive effect on the outcome of ERP project, while their absence could generate problems during implementation.

The identification of ERP implementation success factor is about critical success factor in ERP implementation. In this part, it must be dividing potential factor into environmental and methodological. Environment factor include, apart from those describing enterprise activity, the product technology level and the organisation willingness to change. While, the methodological factor are connected with the implementation approach incorporated.

Besides that, Holland and Light (1990) presented a number of potential success factors in ERP implementation and suggested their division into strategic and tactical factors. The authors highlighted the critical impact of legacy systems upon the implementation process and the importance of selecting an appropriate ERP strategy.

Moreover, the success factor in ERP systems implementation is based on the analysis of considerable research regarding implementation success factors. The factor must be divided into two parts which is strategic and tactical factors from organisational and technological perspectives. Besides that, the important of business process management is the evaluation and performance monitoring of ERP system’s implementation can lead to the achievement of all desired business goals and objectives.

The results of the above-mentioned research on ERP implementation success factors illustrate the problem is very complexity. For general agreement regarding the necessity of management support for implementation, it is rather difficult to compare the outcomes achieved by the research. This difficulty is deepened by the difference in research samples, which ranged from hundreds of manufacturing enterprises, through a group of experts, up to a set of only a few implementation cases.

Strategic Information System

The Assimilation of A Strategic Information System to Gain Competitiveness:

A Neutral Format Approach

            Strategic information system contributes to enhance managerial understanding in terms of organizational development and business success. In particular, they assist in making timely business decisions and formulating feasible strategic plans. In practice, a strategic information system consists of several modules performing different functions such as a strategic prerequisites, strategic directions and so forth.

            In today’s competitive industrial environment, success and prosperity rely heavily on the effectiveness of total strategic planning which is Strategic Information System Planning (SISP). Strategic Information System Planning (SISP) is a process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that can provide assistant to organization in term of the execution of business plans and realization of business goals (Lederer and Gardiner, 1992; Lederer and Salmela, 1996; Rogerson and Fidler; 1994). 

SISP constitutes a powerful contribution to enhance managerial understanding and decision making concerning the organizational development and business success. It is a comprehensive process through which a company would formulate viable corporate strategies and develop plans for its future to retain and extend its competitiveness. The process involves the translation of corporate mission and objectives into strategies and action plans that will induce considerable impact on the future operations of an enterprise. Preparing the organization for making good use of SIS is both a complex and continuous process. 

SIS is complex because it is influenced by a host of socio‐technical parameters whose behavior and interactions are not well understood. Besides, SISP has to be a continuous process, because of continual changes in both internal environments that affect the information requirements, and the external environment that influences technological, competitive, and manpower availability parameters. A SIS model needs to build with inclusion of the necessary components to realize the benefits of SISP. A number of strategic issues need to be addressed to build an SIS model that will support the realization of businessgoals. 

An efficient and cost-effective information flow mechanism is the ‘backbone’ of the formation of a strategic information system. This information flow network requires the generic linking between various operating modules within the SIS model. The linking mechanism should be generic in the sense that information flow among modules can be accomplished efficiently without taking into consideration the types of standards and operating systems being used. An easy‐to‐follow guideline is proposed to help companies establish an SIS infrastructure for strategic planning, adopting the neutral format approach. 

This guideline has six steps as follows which is the firstly is formulate corporate strategies, the secondly is evaluate SIS opportunities and seek management approval. Identification of SIS needs and opportunities are mainly initiated by both the management and user, the thirdly is develop infrastructure of SIS model the fourth is develop prototypes of various modules, the fifth is develop the information flow interlinking mechanism and the lastly step is linking up various modules for communication tests. 

What is application software?

Software Types

The term 'software' refers to the set of electronic program instructions or data a computer processor reads in order to perform a task or operation. In contrast, the term 'hardware' refers to the physical components that you can see and touch, such as the computer hard drive, mouse, and keyboard.

Software can be categorized according to what it is designed to accomplish. There are two main types of software: systems software and application software.

Systems Software

Systems software includes the programs that are dedicated to managing the computer itself, such as theoperating system, file management utilities, and disk operating system (or DOS). The operating system manages the computer hardware resources in addition to applications and data. Without systems software installed in our computers we would have to type the instructions for everything we wanted the computer to do!

Applications Software

Application software, or simply applications, are often called productivity programs or end-user programs because they enable the user to complete tasks such as creating documents, spreadsheets, databases, and publications, doing online research, sending email, designing graphics, running businesses, and even playing games!

Application software is specific to the task it is designed for and can be as simple as a calculator application or as complex as a word processing application. When you begin creating a document, the word processing software has already set the margins, font style and size, and the line spacing for you. But you can change these settings, and you have many more formatting options available. For example, the word processor application makes it easy to add color, headings, and pictures or delete, copy, move, and change the document's appearance to suit your needs.

Microsoft Word is a popular word-processing application that is included in the software suite of applications called Microsoft Office. A software suite is a group of software applications with related functionality. 

For example, office software suites might include word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and email applications. Graphics suites such as Adobe Creative Suite include applications for creating and editing images, while Sony Audio Master Suite is used for audio production.

A Web browser, or simply browser, is an application specifically designed to locate, retrieve, and display content found on the Internet. By clicking a hyperlinkor by typing the URL of a website, the user is able to view Web sites consisting of one or more Web pages. Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari are just a few of the many available to choose from.

Computer Basics: Understanding Applications

What is an application?

Watch the video to learn about how applications are used.You may have heard people talking about using an application or an app. But what exactly does that mean? An app is a type of software that allows you to perform specific tasks. Applications for desktop or laptop computers are sometimes called desktop applications, and those for mobile devices are called mobile apps. When you open an application, it runs inside the operating system until you close it. Most of the time, you will have more than one application open at the same time, and this is known as multitasking.

App is a common term for an application, especially for simple applications that can be downloaded inexpensively or even for free. Many apps are also available for mobile devices and even some TVs.

Types of desktop applications

There are countless desktop applications out there, and they fall into many different categories. Some are more full-featured(like Microsoft Word), while others may only do one or two things (like gadgets). Below are just a few types of applications you might use:

• Word processors: A word processor allows you to write a letter, design a flyer, and create many other types of documents. The most well-known word processor is Microsoft Word.
• Personal finance: Personal finance software, such as Quicken, allows you to keep track of your income and expenses and create a budget, among other tasks. Most personal finance programs can automatically download information from your bank so you don't have to manually type in all of your transactions.
• Web browsers: A web browser is the tool you use to access the Internet. Most computers come with a web browser pre-installed, but you can also download a different one if you prefer. Examples of browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.
• Games: There are many different games you can play on your computer. They range from card games such as Solitaire to action games like Halo 2. Many action games require a lot of computing power, so they may not work unless you have a newer computer.
• Media players: If you want to listen to MP3s or watch movies you've downloaded, you'll need to use a media player.Windows Media Player and iTunes are popular media players.
• Gadgets: Sometimes called widgets, these are simple applications you can place on your desktop (or on the Dashboard if you're using a Mac). There are many different types of gadgets, and they include calendars, calculators, maps, and news headlines.

Installing applications

In order to work, an application usually has to be installed on your computer. Typically, installation is as simple as inserting theinstallation disc and following the instructions on the screen. For software downloaded from the Internet, you can usuallydouble-click it after it is finished downloading and then follow the instructions on the screen. Many applications include areadme file (for example, readme.txt), which includes installation instructions and other information.

Use caution when downloading software because it can contain viruses or other malware. If you have an antivirusprogram, you should scan the downloaded software before installing it. For more information, learn about Protecting Your Computer from Internet Threats in our Internet Safety tutorial.

Files and applications

Each application on your computer has a group of file types—or formats—it is able to open. You generally won't have to figure out which application will open your files. When you double-click a file, your computer will automatically use the correct application to open it, as long as the application is installed on your computer.

If you don't have the correct application installed, you may not be able to open the file. However, in some cases you can open the file with a web application that runs in your browser. For example, if you don't have Microsoft Word, you can open Word documents with Google Docs. To learn more, you can visit our lesson on Understanding the Cloud.

If you're not sure what a file's format is, you can look at the extension at the end of the file name (such as .docx, .txt, or .jpg). On some computers, the extension may be hidden, and you may need to look at the icon to determine the file format.