Business Action Plan - an In-depth Analysis of Risk Management Strategies - Assignment Example

BUSINESS ACTION PLAN: AN INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES By Class code Instructor’s name Institutional name Institutional location Date of submission Table of content 1.0Introduction……………………………………………………………………………3 1.0.1Purpose……………………………………………………………………….3 1.0.2Scope………………………………………………………………………….3 2.0 Information systems in the business arena……………………………………...4 2.0.1Cloud computing…………………………………………………………….4 2.0.2 Web 2.0………………………………………………………………………5 2.0.3 Business Security and Control………………………………………...,,6 2.0.4 Computer and people……………………………………………………..6 3.0 Solving business information systems……………………………………………7 3.0.1 Collection of data……………………………………………………………7 3.0.2 Procedures to follow………………………………………………………..7 3.0.2 Case study ………………………………………………………………….8 4.0 priority areas……………………………………………………………………………9 4.0.1 Reference points…………………………………………………………….9 5.0 Information systems: The way forward………………………………………….10 6.0 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………...11 7.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….11 8.0 References…………………………………………………………………………….11 1.0Introduction 1.0.1Purpose Information technology investigation will form the better part of the undertaking. The dire need of businesses to improve their efficiency has led to many economical hitches due to the overlooking of the most basic and fundamental elements in the adoption process of information systems. The investigation brings out the mistakes most businesses do in the adoption process that has led to massive data losses and the exposure of business operation codes to competitors. The relevant formulation of policies will precede the investigations. This will help in the clearing of the air and until the problems are sourced and solved, the question of whose mistake was it will remain null and void. 1.0.2Scope Businesses information systems in the recent past have been in the forefront in the tussle to adopt or incorporate new business ideas and technologies that will help them attain the competitive advantage. The market place niches have been diminishing day in day out and the monopoly of any market place has been a thing of the past. The phenomenon of rapidly changing market trends has been on the rise and this has made the business operation processes some what costly and unpredictable (Collins 2001).In this report, the analysis of the Massive tech company will be discussed and the relevant solutions stipulated in the solving of the set back that brought down its information department due to cyber attacks.The company lost a vast information base and has been having hitches that has made it struggle to recovery owing to the remedial process costs. The uncertainty of events that happen within the business have been the most restraining factor caused by both humans and also by natural occurring factors. The process of proactive protection of business has always saved collapse of many businesses since the prediction of such events is somewhat possible through the use of available theoretical and empirical machineries. Reactive risk protections have been the most influential measures that cater for the risks that may happen within the business operation periods (Schein 2004). This happens through the setup and the implementation of the agile models that helps the business to accommodate the diverse market fluctuations. The precautionary measures businesses take will not always work and this leaves the business in the verge of collapse. In the recent past, recession, in the global markets has left many businesses in turmoil. This has happened since the kind of business models that are adopted aren’t designed in such a way that they possess flexibility to cope with this phenomenon and any affiliated problems from the same. 2.0 Information systems in the business arena The emergence of many information technologies has been on the rise since the introduction of computers and other computing devices. The incorporation of technological pieces in the supply chain has the rampant improvement in the value addition on the products being processed. This has been made easy through the comprehensive outlining of the information systems that have a direct relation to the company or business needs in question. This is true since the adoption of new techniques, uses the same infrastructure that existed previously wit h minimal manipulation or addition of other assets. This cuts down on the business financial investment hence an increased operational capital. 2.0.1Cloud computing Business worlds today have learnt to adopt different technological master pieces in the technological sector (Gary 2006). The advent of cloud computing has been a recent phenomenon in the market today. Cloud computing has been the integration of the various information technology (IT) component in the business and forming a centralized source accessible by the business in the process of information retrieval and the communication of vital information through any organizational network. The cloud, as it’s commonly known, has the ability of transforming business process which helps in the overall efficiency of the organization. The adoption of the technology allows the outsourcing of business process possible.The use of cloud computing has in the recent past received some critics. The overall application and use of the technology has drawn a lot of concern in matters related to the safety of its application. Despite the high performances when well maintained, the financial set backs that may be caused due to improper functioning are tremendous. 2.0.2 Web 2.0 The advent of web 2.0 has also improved the way business processes are conducted. The technology has eliminated the previous version’s disadvantages and this has seen its quick adoption in any business network. The overall interaction of the people on a web-based platformhas increased. The previous version of web 2.0, attained immediately after the coining of the internet notion, had limited interaction components and in it was basically a “give only” kind of a system and people would just request for information. This has long changed since the characteristics of how people conducted themselves have been realized thanks to web 2.0.The technology has allowed the input of content on web allowing the expression of feelings a reality. Most common components of the technology include but not limited: Voice over internet protocol (VOIP), Google docs, social sites e.g. twitter. Businesses have continued doing well due to many ways of advertisement in the market place and this has not only improved local market sale but also on the global platform (Hubbard 2009). 2.0.3 Business Security and Control Internal control and security issues have been the worry of many businesses. The handling of vital information and its relevant conveyance has been a problem to many businesses due to the many insecure sectors during the relay of information. The process of authorizing the access to information has been a thorny issue in many organizations and this has been due to the many loopholes present in any efficient system that have not been sealed or catered for. The loss of vital information has had replication to businesses and they may cause huge losses or/and the termination of any business. The issue of who access what? And who should keep this? In an organization has been met by different reaction from the members of the organization. Atmospheres that lead to the creation of authority “hiccups” may be inevitable and may cause harm to the business in terms of finances and reputation.Businesses must learn to invest highly in the security sector both in information and the equipments possessed (Luecke 2004). 2.0.4 Computer and people Human computer interaction is a topic that requires revisiting in any acquisition of technological tools. This has become a necessity owing to the rampant changes in the software that are currently being used and the increased complexity of the hardware to cater for the needs of many organization. Thereaction to different developments in the technology sector must have a cycle of development (Brighan&Gapenski 1991). This forms the basis in the adoption of different programs orhardware. Prototyping has been a process set forth in the assessing of workability of different equipments that organizationswant to implement. The process is vital and saves the business the finances of adoption. The user interfaces of different equipments also determine the familiarity of a system and this determines how fast such a system will be adopted. Proper training is vital to allow the ease in the running of different systems in an organization. 3.0 Solving business information systems 3.0.1 Collection of data Information is need in the assessment of trends in the business before the setback. The method of collecting this information needs to be the best and in depth covering entire departments in an organization. The use of questionnaires will be the best and they will be conducted online. This has been opted for owing to the confidentiality of the answers given by the respondent. In this case an unstructured questionnaire will be appropriate since it doesn’t limit the kind of answers to be given. This helps in the building of morale of expression in the respondents allowing the acquisition of the true feeling of the workers/respondent. To couple the evidence from the respondents, interviews will be conducted to have the general view of probable root cause of the problem at hand (Brandenburger&Nalebuff 1999). A rapport will be established to help in the creation of a good conversing atmosphere. The confidentiality of the information given will be assured since no insiders of the organization will be elected in the panel of investigation to avoid probable cases of witch hunting. 3.0.2 Procedures to follow The filling in of the questionnaires should be done online in a period of one week owing to the need of the information in the prediction of the way forward. These questionnaires will not include the name of the respondent and they will have only numbers that tally to the number of workers in the organization. The interviews will be conducted according of a schedule that has to be distributed among workers in the organization. This may take longer than work week and the deadline is subject to change. This sort of a set up allows the worker to collect some relevant information and this helps in the in depth acquisition of information required in the decision making phase. The numbers on the questionnaires will act as a base to know how many workers took the test. Managers should encourage their juniors to take the test. 3.0.2 Case study PayPal is an online payment system that has been in this business for a very long time now.The company offers the services that allows the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. It operates accounts that are owed by individuals and can also allow the wiring of money to individual customers’ accounts using the wire transfer method. This has made the conduction of business online possible and a lot has been saved in terms operation costs in the inbound and outbound logistics. Many international companies have account with the company hence helping them in the global coverage in the provision of their goods and services. In the recent times, the company’s services had been slowed and halted for a number of days. This was primarily caused by attacks from cyberspaceon their system by a hacking group called anonymous. This was due to the company’s refusal to support the transactions conducted to support a whistle blowing website, wiki leaks. The website has been on the forefront in the exposure of cable hacks from different US embassies around the world .Mostly, the information from the website was hacks from African countries that have poor information infrastructures that allow easy entries to be carried out. In the attacks on PayPal, anonymous used open source software from sourceforge.net a website famous for posting of software projects requiring upgrades.LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Canon), as it’s commonly called was a software posted on the site and was subject to be upgraded prior to its release in the market. The software was basically to be used in the assessing of computation powers of different information systems. With minor addition of codes, the software was used in directed attacks on different website causing a wide spread distributed denial of services on the company’s website.The losses caused were tremendous and it resulted in the adoption of more safety measures on its website not allowing any cases of injection of codes in the HTML body of the website. The company invested heavily in the information infrastructure making it incur a lot of losses in the duration it was out of service (http://www.zdnet.com/news/paypal-hit-by-ddos-attack-after-dropping-wikileaks/489237). 4.0 priority areas 4.0.1Reference points Data collected is highly analyzed and this will be conducted against a stipulated guideline. This will help in the onsite analysis of the different departments in the organization. The panel of investigators will incorporate my firm Moko Consultancy and will incorporate professionals from different field in the organization who will help in the problem identification process and this will help the implementation of measures to curb problems. This allows companies to view their problems from an ‘out of the company’ view that helps in the proper identification of problems (Stacey 2005). From the number of employees who take the exercises, answers given priority will be areas concerning information system adoption. Tables should be incorporated in the analysis where they will have the standard ways of system acquisition and adotion.This will include the different levels or phases that the organization should follow in the process. Second in priority will be areas concerned with public relation and those concerningthe hierarchy of power within the organization. These areas will allow the look at the different levels of the managerial team and the stipulated roles that each manager has in the overall business activities. The issue of authority will form the basis of the analysis. Public relations will also help in the identification of the various interactions in the organization and this will determine the root cause other than the ones in the authority pillars. 5.0Information systems: The way forward The findings acquired allow the implementation of the different concerning the information system adoption process for organizations.From the questionnares,the company’s worker results showed that the workers were discontented.Job description issues took the big share of 70% inthe questionnaires and 30% in the interviews.This has resulted in the workers’ developing lack of trust among themselves which could have caused the calamity.The interaction of the workers and the outside world has been on the rise in recent times where barring of visitors beyond certain points has not been adhered to.Measures should be laid out that will help the proper phase following and this will eliminate the many problems that are overlooked by the management. Decision making protocols should necessitate a revisit that will allow the adoption of the best practice policies to curb the vices nmaed above. The emerging technologies like the use of the social sites may pose as danger points and this should be avoided at all costs.Running of programs should be keenly analysed and the creation of fire walls should be paramount in ensuring the security of the company is guaranteed.Customers should have restriction as to the places they are visiting .The inlcusion of security personnel in the business should be revisited. The findings have shown a clear state of the organization and this will help in the comparison analysis with other organization. This allows the organization to best identify the best strategy used by other organization to salvage the situation and also to prevent future occurrences of such events. The results has defined the kind of relationships possessed by the organization and this will allow the implementation of measures that have minimalistic associations that may cause company downfall. Conclusion The trends in any business are factors that need to be looked at and compared with other business around conducting the same transactions. This helps in the acquisition of the information that aid in the planning of the business processes and the general business value addition. The advent of emerging technologies should be first valued and investigated to avoid business problems. Recommendations Businesses must establish a culture that is originally theirs and they must cultivate it to enhance the creation of a brand that can be reckoned with. This in returns helps the flexibility in the plans of the business and also the presence of many alternatives for the best way forward. 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