Friday, June 26, 2009

Assignment #2

--- Based on the organization(s) that you visited, what do you think are the risk in business and IS/IT change?

Base on the company we visited (Synnex-Concentrix), I will present the risk in business and IS/IT change.

But first let us ask, what is IS/IT?
For us BSIT students some might already know the answer and others have ideas.

IS stands for Information Systems and can be defined as a set of procedures that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making and control. (Laudon, Laudon)

IT (Information Technology) means hardware plus software.

What is risk?
Risks are factors whose presence increases the probability of negative outcomes.

IS/IT in Concentrix is constantly evolving according to Concentrix MIS Supervisor. Before change is done the team conducts a feasibility study to assess if there is a need for change. The outcome of feasibility study will determine if the proposal is to be approved or rejected. This is done to minimize risk and errors. This also proves that the company has good management and managers.

But still risks are inevitable.
Almost all organizations encounter failure in there Information Systems. The major problem areas are design, data, cost, and operations. These problems can be attributed not only to technical features of information systems but to nontechnical sources as well.

So what are the risks if there is a change in IS/IT without a study beforehand?

Here are some…

Cost Risk Cost or financial risks occur when the cost to implement and run the information system on a production basis is way over budget. This means that information provide by the system does not justify the excessive expenditures use on it. Basically the output does not justify the cost and this is not good for business.
In Concentrix, they have own programmers who make their system. I think, this in source system development is a good practice to reduce cost.

Design Risk This happens when the actual design of the system fails to capture the essential business requirements. Information may not be provided quickly enough to be helpful; it may be in a format that is impossible to digest or use; or it may present wrong pieces of data. Another thing is that a system may be designed with a poor user-system interface. In such a way that nontechnical business users that must interact with the system is discourage because the system is excessively complicated and not user-friendly. This could also lead to other risk such as information risk and people risk.
If organizations change their system with new information system that is poorly designed, users of the said IS will not be able to use it to its full capacity. The IT/IS people of the company will also be exhausted answering queries from the end users on how to use the system.
I haven’t seen the IS or any other system of Concentrix, but according to a friend who works there they have a good and user-friendly systems for its employees.

Operation Risk Closely related to design risk, came about when the system does not run well. For example, information is not provided in a timely, efficient and accurate manner.
Operation risks may also include system and media failure.
System Failure is a soft crash that can occur because of a hardware failure or severe software issue whereas media failure is a hard crash. Physical storage media can fail for many reasons. One common cause of media failure is a hardware (disk) failure. When a media failure occurs, you must determine the extent of the damage and restore a server's data before resuming server operation. Media failure is tough blow for an organization since data which are lost in the time of the failure cannot be retrieved.

Data and Security Risk When changes are made without proper planning and study data might be lost or may become inaccessible. Also, security of the organization will be compromise because during the change or transition of systems, information leakage and loss is likely to happen. Therefore person not authorize to have the organizations information might have an access to it.
Base on our adopted organization users are required to have password and change it during a span of time. This might be weekly or monthly in which after the duration the computer automatically prompts that the user needs to change the password to ensure data security.

Technology Risk Another risk to consider is the technology. Upon making the information system, IT/IS people of certain organization must analyze new technologies and if the system they are making can still compete with other systems three to five years from now. Aside from that they must also conduct study or research if new software and technology are proven.



There are many risk in business and IS/IT changes and some that I mentioned here are just a few of those.
>Cost
>Design
>Operation
>Data and Security
>Technology

Therefore I conclude that changing an organization Information Systems is not an easy job. And that many factors and risk are to be considered before certain change is implemented. The people behind the MIS of an organization must conduct a feasibility study and analyze all information and angles of the situation before change is made. In this case IT people play a great role. They are the one who can determine the success or failure of an organization.

This is the same role that we will play when we enter the real world.


Sources:
www.google.com
encarta dictionaries
Management Information System A Contemporary Perspective
by Laudon, Laudon



jealou L. azucena lol! lol!

'When you feel like giving up remember why you held on for so long in the first place.'

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