Week Five - Ethics and Security

Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology

Ethics are the principles and standards that guide our behaviour towards other people. In information technology, there are many ethical issues surrounding information technology. These concepts include:

-      Intellectual property – which is the collection of rights that protect creative and intellectual effor

-      Copyright – the exclusive right to do, or omit to do, certain acts with intangible property such as song, video games and some types of proprietary documents.

-      Fair use doctrine – in certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material.

-      Pirated software – the unauthorised use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software.

-      Counterfeit software – software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such.

Overall all this ethical issues, business look upon the concept of Privacy. Privacy is one of the largest ethical issues facing organisations. Privacy is the interest of a person in protecting their life from unwanted intrusion and public scrutiny. Privacy is related to confidentiality, which is the principle that certain information will remain outside the public domain and inside the private domain.  

Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal

As a consumer, you have purchased a original and authentic copy of a software package. When you go home, you make two copies of this software package you have purchased and keep one of the copies for backup. This situation is foreseen ethical but illegal as in this type of situation, the consumer is NOT allowed to copy the authentic software disk as this will create violation to the software company’s rules and legislations. Thus, although there may be both ethical and legal scenarios; this scenario is both ethical and illegal.

—Acting ethically and legally are not always the same

Describe and explain one of the computer use policies that a company might employ ;

One poll found that 78% of companies monitor their employees with 33% having fired an employee for misuse of email

An ethical computer use policy contains general principles to guide computer user behaviour. For example, the ethical computer use policy might explicitly state that users know how to behave at work and the organisation has a published standard by which to deal with user infractions. 

Example of a computer use policy; after appropriate warnings, the company may terminate an employee who spends significant amounts of time playing computer games at work. This policy will ensure that all employees of the company are 100 per cent dedicated to their job and satisfied with their tasks without the intrusion or distraction with unethical computer use.

 What are the 5 main technology security risks?

 Outline one way to reduce each risk

What is a disaster recovery plan, what strategies might a firm employ?

A disaster recovery plan is a detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood. Spending on disaster recovery is rising worldwide among financial institutions.

A comprehensive disaster recovery plan:

-      Considers the location of the backup information. Many organisations nowadays, store backup information in an off-site facility.

-      Foresees the possibility that not only the computer equipment but also the building where employees work may be destroyed.

-      A hot site is a separate and fully equipped facility where the company can immediately after a disaster resume the business

-      A cold site is a separate facility that does not have any computer equipment, but is a place where employees can move after a disaster.

A business continuity planning (BCP) is a plan for how an organisation will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption. Business continuing and disaster recovery are serious issues for all organisations.

Week Four - eBusiness

1.     What is Web 2.0, how does it differ from 1.0?

Web 2.0 is referred to as the Live Web. Users can collaborate and build their own content. A more mature, distinctive medium characterised by user participation, openness and network effects. Businesses are using Web 2.0 to enable access to critical business application for employees and customers, E.g – travellers can share experiences about their experiences, they can recommend or warn others.

The diagram above illustrates the way in which web 1.0 differs from web 2.0

How could a web 2.0 technology be used in business?

An example of web 2.0 in business is as follows; CEO’s using Blogs to enhance communication, build trust, supplement press releases and talk from the heart. A content rich blog can enhance the positive image of the company.

What is eBusiness, how does it differ from eCommerce?

—  e-Commerce – the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet

—  E-Business – is derived from e-commerce, is the conducting of business on the Internet including, not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners.

The primary differebce between e-commerce and e-business is that e-business also refers to online exchanges of information, such as a manufacturer allowing its suppliers to monitor production schedules or a financial institution alloowing its customers to review their banking, credit card and mortgage accounts.

E-business has permeated every aspect of daily life.Both individuals and orginisations have embraced internet technologies to enhance productivity, maximise convinience and improve communications globally.From banking to shopping to entertainment, the internet has become integral to daily life.

What is pure and partial eCommerce

Pure EC: all dimensions are digital

• Pure online (virtual) organizations

• Pure Play

• New-economy organization

• Sell products or services only online

 Partial EC: a mix of digital and physical dimensions

• Conduct EC activities

• Do their primary business in the physical world

List and describe the various eBusiness models?

 

·         Business to business (B2B)- Applies to businesses buying from and selling to each other over the internet.

·         Business to consumer (B2C)- Applies to any business that sells its products or services to consumers over the internet.

·         Consumer to business (C2B)- Applies to any consumer that sells a product or service to a business over the internet

·         Consumer to consumer (C2C)- Applies to sites primarily offering goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the internet.

List and describe the major B2B marketplace models?

business-to-business e-commerce (B2B EC) Transactions between businesses conducted electronically over the Internet, extranets, intranets, or private networks.

sell-side e-marketplace

A Web-based niche marketplace in which one company sells to many business buyers from e-catalogs or auctions, frequently over an extranet

—  Three major pricing methods:

1.       Selling from electronic catalogs;

2.       Selling via forward auctions; and

3.       One-to-one selling, usually under a negotiated long-term contract. (e.g ioffer.com)

Buy side marketplace

—  A corporate-based acquisition site that uses reverse auctions, negotiations, group purchasing, or any other e-procurement method

—  Group of buyers open an e market place and invite buyers to bid on services / goods – RFQ methodology

 request for quote (RFQ) The “invitation” to participate in a tendering (bidding) system

—  Automates ordering, fulfillment, sales data analysis

Sell side market place

Selling from the Company’s Own Site

—  Large, well-known companies that conduct catalogue sales, 0r build an auction mechanism on the company’s own site

—  Using Auctions on the Sell-Side

—  Revenue generation

—  Cost savings

—  Increased page views

—  Member acquisition and retention

sell-side e-marketplace

 

A Web-based niche marketplace in which one company sells to many business buyers from e-catalogs or auctions, frequently over an extranet

—  Three major pricing methods:

1.       Selling from electronic catalogs;

2.       Selling via forward auctions; and

3.       One-to-one selling, usually under a negotiated long-term contract. (e.g ioffer.com)

Buy side marketplace

—  A corporate-based acquisition site that uses reverse auctions, negotiations, group purchasing, or any other e-procurement method

—  Group of buyers open an e market place and invite buyers to bid on services / goods – RFQ methodology

 request for quote (RFQ) The “invitation” to participate in a tendering (bidding) system

—  Automates ordering, fulfillment, sales data analysis

Sell side market place

Selling from the Company’s Own Site

—  Large, well-known companies that conduct catalogue sales, 0r build an auction mechanism on the company’s own site

—  Using Auctions on the Sell-Side

—  Revenue generation

—  Cost savings

—  Increased page views

—  Member acquisition and retention

Week Three - Strategic Decision Making

Define TPS & DSS, provide some examples of these systems in business.

A Transaction processing is the elementry business system that serves the operational level (analysists) in an organisation. The most common example of a TPS is an operational accounting System such as a payroll system or an order-entry system.Further examples include sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and flow of materials (as in a factory).TPS is Usually outward-reaching and convey impressions to the customers about the quality of the business, eg. Point of Sale (POS) systems. Transaction processes were the first to be automated  because these repetitive, consistent, high-volume tasks were ideal candidates for ‘computerization’.TPS’s often provide the foundation for all the other information systems.

TPS within business today, has moved to Internet Transaction Processing, example :

·        processing credit card details via a website

·       standard browser interface

·       smart phone apps

·       allows multimedia data transfer

·       Instant response / real time

·       lower cost – no humans

Decision support system (DSS) – assist decision making to more complex problems, so called unstructured or semi-structured problems

 Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

—  Three quantitative models used by DSSs include:

1.      Sensitivity analysis - the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model have on other parts of the model.

2.      What-if analysis - checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution.

3.      Goal-seeking analysis - finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal.

Describe a business process and it's importance to an organisation

Information systems are all about improving Business Processes. Business processes refer to the manner in which work is organised, coordinated and focussed to produce a valuable product or service. A business process is a standard set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer order or enrolling a student.Organisations are only as effective as their business processes, these must be studied, understood and improved.

Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering using an example

Many organisations begin business process improvement with a continuous improvement model. BPI requires taking a broad view of both information technology and business activity, and of the relationships between them. A continuous process improvement model attempts to understand and measure the current process, and make performance improvements accordingly. Technology aims to support and develop business process.

Business process re-egineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises.BPR relies on a different school of thought that business process improvement.BPR assumes that the current process is irrelevant, does not work, or is broken and must be overhauled from scratch.Such a clean slate enables business process designers to disassociate themselves from todays process and focus on a new process. It is like the designers projecting themselves into the future and asking: What should the process look like? What do customers want it to look like? What do other employees want it to look like? How do best-in-class companies do it? How can new technology facilitate the process?

BPR reached its heyday in the early 1990s when Michael Hammer and James Champy published their best-selling book, Reengineering the Corporation. The authors promoted the idea that radical redesign and reorganisation of an enterprise (wiping the slate clean) sometimes was necessary to lower costs and increase quality of service and that information technology was the key enabler for that radical change. Hammer and Champy believed that the workflow design in most large corporations was based on invalid assumptions about technology, people, and organisational goals. They suggested seven principles of reengineering to streamline the work process and thereby achieve significant improvement in quality, time management, and cost.

Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models.

Business process modeling or (mapping) is the activity of creating a detailed flowchart or process.map of a work process, showing its inputs, tasks  and activities in a structures sequence. Being able to visualise an organisation’s operation is often the beginning of identifying problems or new opportunities.Technology makes the process invisible, so BPM makes the processes visible.BPM is the activity of making detailed flowchart or process map of a work processes.

A Business process model is a graphic description of a process, showing the sequence of process tasks, which is developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint.The purpose of a process model is too;

-expose process detail gradually and in a controlled manner

-encourage conciseness and accuracy in describing the process model

-focus attention on the process model interfaces.

-provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary.

Week Two - Information Systems in Business

Explain information technology’s role in business.

Information technology not only has an effect on business for example, on business’s processes, but also has the potiential to transform it for example, by transforming a very small one-person business into a very successful online business. Information technology needs to be embedded in an organisation to have a positive impact on a business – by reducing costs, improving productivity and generating growth. Customer service, finance, sales and marketing, operations management and human resources can all benefit through the implementation of effective information technology solutions.

Information technology plays a critical role in deploying initiatives by facilitating communication and increasing business intelligence.

What are Efficiency and Effectiveness Metrics? Provide some examples of each

Effectiveness metrics measure, measures the impact IT has on business processes and activities including customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and sell through increases. Setting the right organisational goals, stratergies and objectives and succeeding with acheiving them. An example of this is the determination of how well customers are treated at an Apple store when purchasing a new ipod.  Further Examples include :

-usability

-customer satisfaction

-conversion rates

-financial

-  Mean time to repair

-First fix rate

-Change success rate

-Server to system administration ratio

Efficiency metrics refers to the technical aspects such as rate of speed and availability in regards to transactions. This metric is measured in benchmarks. . In general the metric measures  performance of the IT system itself including throughput, speed, and availability. Getting the most from each resource. An example is the measurement of the time it takes someone to get into the supermarket line, the time it amounts for the cashier to scan all items and how long it takes for the credit card to run through.More examples include; throughput, transaction speed, system availability, web traffic.

What does Porter’s Five Forces Model attempt to explain? How does the internet affect each of the five forces?

Porter's 5 forces helps a company identify potential opportunities while deterring potential rivals. The internet affects these forces through;

1.   Buyer power: The internet makes buyers more powerful as consumers are able view the available information immediately regarding an item. It also allows the consumer to bargain for a better price, product and quality due to the many product varieties the buyer is subjected to.

2.   Supplier power: Suppliers are able to reach customers through the use of the internet as a company can send an item to almost any geographical location.

3.   Threat of substitutes: The internet can be viewed as more of a threat in regards to substitutes.

4.   Threat of new entrants: There is a higher increase of threat as it is easy for businesses to enter into a new market.

5.   Rivalry among existing competitors: In regards to competitors and the internet an increase in threats can be witnessed.

In all of these departments the internet plays a major threat, however it can be viewed as a double standard as it makes business more attractive providing more options. As technology increases competition and availability of information also increases.