Ethics & Information Security

Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.

The ethical issues surrounding information technology are:

§  Privacy
Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be; to be able to have control over your own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your own consent.

§  Confidentiality
‘The assurance that messages and information are available only to those who are authorised to view them.’

Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal.

A situation could be where a person purchases software and makes a copy of it, not to sell but, to keep as a back-up.

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

Ethical Computer Use Policies contain general principles to guide computer user behaviour. An example of this might be:

§  Management telling the employees to refrain from playing computer games during work hours. This policy says that the employees should behave at work and shows authority within the company.

What are the 5 main technology security risks?

The main five technology security risks are:

1.      Human Error

-        Not malicious

-        Sometimes unavoidable if employee isn’t trained properly

2.      Natural Disasters

-        Floods

-        Earthquakes

-        Terrorist attacks

3.      Technical Failures

-        Software bugs

-        Hardware crashes

4.      Deliberate Acts

-        Sabotage

-        White collar crime

-        Hacking

5.      Management Failure

-        Lack of procedure

-        Lack of documentation

-        Lack of training

Outline one way to reduce each risk.

1.      Human Error

-        Training – properly trained employees won’t make the same amount of errors.

2.      Natural Disasters

-        Proper natural disaster plans – plans that map out what the company will do in case of a disaster.

3.      Technical Failures

-        Back-up files

-        Spare equipment

4.      Deliberate Acts

-        Password protection – including strong passwords and regularly changing them.

-        System audits.

-        Strong penalties for misuse.

-        Firewalls.

5.      Management Failure

-        Training.

-        Documentation.

-        Procedure.

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

A disaster recovery plan is a plan that outlines exactly what to do when a disaster strikes. A strategy that a firm might include:

§  Communications plan

§  Alternative sites – hot or warm

§  Business continuity

§  Keeping data stored off-site

§  Well documented procedure

§  Regular recovery testing

Network Applications & eCommerce

1. Why has the web grown so dramatically?

The web has grown so dramatically because of its usefulness and the connection it provides to people all around the globe.

-        As computers became more accessible, the rise of the Internet/the web was able to move closely behind it.

-        Advanced technology (software, hardware, media) also had a place in this growth.

-        Invention of Internet softwares such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, have made the internet much easier to access and navigate.

-        Easier communication through email and now social networks has also impacted on this.

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

Web 2.0 is known as the Live Web. Personal users using Web 2.0 are able to build their own content online.

The main features of Web 2.0 are tags, blogs, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Wikipedia.

Web 2.0 differs from Web 1.0 in the following ways:

Web 1.0	Web 2.0
Britannica Online	Wikipedia
mp3.com	Napster, Limewire, Bearshare
Personal websites	Blogging
Directories	Tagging
Ofoto	Flickr
Publishing	Participation

3. How could a web 2.0 technology be used in business?

Business users can use Web 2.0 to access information for their employees and customers:

Internal Use	External Use
Blogs – to let employees or company stakeholders be up to date and informed on what’s going on in the company.	Reviews – on the company’s own products or those of their competitors. This allows the business to see how their product is fairing against others in the market.
Email – easier, and more environmentally-friendly communication.	Email – communication to people outside of the business; e.g. potential partners, customers, etc.
RSS – statistics are readily available to managers in real time.	RSS – can easily update potential customers on the company’s products and their news.
Intranet – the company website for employee’s only.	Website – this can work alongside the RSS.

4. What is eBusiness, how does it differ from eCommerce?

eBusiness is when a business operates via the internet. This process isn’t only used for buying and selling products or resources, but also for serving customers and also communicating with the company’s business contacts & partners.

eCommerce is the buying and selling of goods & services via the Internet. It is online transactions.

The differences between these two is that a company using eBusiness tools is connected to its customers; it makes its sales via the Internet. Whereas an eCommerce business does not do this.

eBusiness also participates in online exchanges of information.

5. What is pure and partial eCommerce?

Pure eCommerce:

Pure eCommerce is a type of business whose transactions are mainly carried out via the Internet.

Partial eCommerce:

Partial eCommerce is a type of business whose transactions are mainly done in the real world (‘offline’), but does also use the internet for some transactions.

6. List and describe the various eBusiness models?

A eBusiness Model is an approach to conducting electronic business over the internet.

Model:	Definition	Examples
Business-to-business (B2B)	Businesses that buy/sell to each other over the Internet.	eMarketplaces
Business-to-consumer (B2C)	Businesses that sell to consumers over the Internet.	eShops, eMalls
Consumer-to-business (C2B)	Consumers that sell products/services to businesses over the Internet.	-
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)	‘Websites that offer goods/services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the Internet.’	eAuctions – eBay, C2C communities

eMarketplaces – interactive business communities that provide a central market where many buyers/sellers can interact and engage in eBusiness activies.

eShops – a retail store where customers can shop 24/7 without leaving their home/office.

eMalls – a number of eShops; it’s a gateway where consumers can access many eShops.

eAuctions – ‘sellers and buyers solicit consecutive bids from each other and prices are determined dynamically.

7. List and describe the major B2B models?

The major B2B models are:

-        Sell-side B2BWhere one seller sells to multiple buyers.

-        Buy-side B2BWhere one buyer buys from multiple sellers.

-        Electronice ExchangeWhere a business acts as an intermediary between multiple buyers and sellers.

-        Collaborative CommerceWhere a ‘Hub Manager’ acts as an intermediary between buyers, sellers, industry associations, universities, communities, governments and other bodies.

8. Outline 2 opportunities and 2 challenges faced by companies doing business online?

Opportunities
Customer Loyalty	Customer loyalty can potentially increase through eBusiness. This is because with the additional channels for communication, responding to and accessing customers is a lot easier.
Convenience	‘eBusiness automates and improves many of the activities that make up a buying experience.’

Challenges
Security	Because the Internet is universal, companies have to be able to protect themselves against accidental or malicious misuse. ‘System security must not create prohibitive complexity or reduce flexibility. Customer information must be protected from internal and external misuse.’
Leveraging Existing Systems	The Internet is an alternative way to conduct business. Therefore a company must incorporate its existing system with its online system to avoid duplicating functionality and to maintain usability, performance and reliability.

Strategic Decision Making

20/03/11

Define TPS & DSS, and explain how an organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages.

TPS: Transaction Processing Systems

These systems involve elementary business activities, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and flow of materials. They aren’t specific to a single functional area and are transaction area. They are fundamental to the operation of a business.

DSS: Decision Support System

This system assists decision making to more complex problems.

An organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantage by:

·         A TPS can help a business look over its transaction records and analyse the finances that flow in and out of the business. This can help make financial decisions for the company, like pay cuts or rises, investing in new equipment or technology, buying more assets, or any other money-related decisions.

·         A TPS can help a business gain a competitive advantage by putting the moneys of the business towards new research and development and marketing research to find what sort of product/service would give the business an advantage over its competitors. Furthermore, the company’s financial assets could then be used to finance the new competitive product/service.

·         A DSS can be used to make decisions for a company because that’s what the system is designed to do – it helps solve complex decisions.

·         A DSS can help a company gain a competitive advantage by using the system to make decisions that other company’s haven’t and using those answers to create a competitive advantage.

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

The three quantitative models typically used by DSS’ are:

1.      The 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.      The What-If Analysis
Checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution.

3.      The Goal-Seeking Analysis
Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal.

These are all found in Excel.

Describe a business processes and their importance to an organisation.

What is a business process?

·         Business processes refer to the manner in which work is organised, coordinated and focussed to produce a valuable product or service.

·         It is a set of activities that accomplish a specific task, - processing a customer order or enrolling a student.

·         Organisations are only as effective as their business processes, these must be studied, understood and improved.

Customer-facing processes: results in a product/service that is received by an organisation’s external customer.

Business-facing processes: invisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management of the business. These include goal setting, day-to-day planning, performance feedback, rewards, and resource allocation.

Business processes are important to a business because a business is only as effective as its business processes. Therefore the strength of these processes must be very strong.

Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Business process improvement (BPI) requires taking a broad view of both information technology and business activity, and of the relationships between them. An organisation starts its BPI with a continuous improvement model. This model attempts to understand and measure the current process and make performance improvements.

Business process re-engineering assumes that the process is broken and then tries to improve the experience for the company and then sometimes even sets new standards for the industry.

Comparison:

·         BPI is brought in when the current business processes need to be improved, where business process re-engineering is brought in when the current business processes are broken and need to fixed and/or completely overhauled.

·         BPI works as a current process performance measure and works towards improving that, whereas business process re-engineering fixes the processes and has the possibility of setting new standards for the entire industry.

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

Business Process Modelling

·         Maps out each process

·         Visualises an organisation’s operation; often at the beginning of identifying problems or new opportunities

·         It is a detailed flowchart of a work processes, it aims to:

o   Show process details in a gradual and controlled manner

o   Encourage consciousness and accuracy in describing the process model

o   Focus attention on the process mofel interfaces

o   Provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary

Business Process Models

·         As-is model: the current state of the processes

·         To-be models – the results of improvements to the As-is model

Their Importance

·         The importance of BPM and business process models are:

o   To see the entire operation of an organisation,

o   To map out the process of the organisation; and

o   To show how an organisation can be improved

Information Systems in Business

13/03/11

Explain information technology’s role in business and describe how you measure success?

 Information technology impacts on all areas of business. Businesses ranging from accounting to marketing all need IT in some way. IT helps businesses gain access to worldwide markets and helps reduces costs, generate growth and increase productivity.

IT also helps businesses run smoother through different operations systems. It acts as an enabler for business success and innovation.

You can measure business’ success in IT through key performance indicators which are measures tied to business drivers, and also through efficiency and effectiveness metrics.

List and describe each of the forces in Porter’s Five Forces Model?

Porter’s Five Forces Model determines the relative attractiveness of an industry. By understanding it, businesses can identify potential opportunities and avoid potential threats. This model includes:

·         Potential Entrants
The threat of new entrants is high when  it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and are low when there are entry barriers. An entry barrier is a product or service that customers have come to expect and must be offered to compete and survive.

·         Suppliers
Supplier power is high when one supplier has a concentrated power over an industry. All parties involved in the production of a product are in the supply chain.

·         Buyers
Buyer power is high when buyers have many choices to buy from, and is lower when there are fewer choices. Buyer power can be reduced through loyalty/rewards programs. IT usually increases buyer power because through technology, customers have more choices to buy from – global market access.

·         Substitutes
The threat of substitute products or services is high when there are many alternative choices for the buyer, and lower when there are fewer alternatives.

·         Industry Rivalry
There is always rivalry amongst existing competitors. It is generally higher when there is fierce competition in the market and lower when competition is complacent. Competition can be more intense in different markets.

Describe the relationship between business processes and value chains?

A business process is a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task. Whereas a value chain is a view of a company, which is created through a series of processes, each of which add value to the product/service.

The relationship between these two is that the value chain of a company depends on the business processes in order to actually create a value chain. These two concepts work toward value creation.

Compare Porter’s three generic strategies.

Porter's three generic strategies are:

·         Cost leadership
Includes methods used to increase efficiency and also lower costs. An example is online software– they still create and sell the same product, but use the internet as a cheaper form of distribution.

·         Differentiation; and
Differentiation is used by companies when they make their product/service different from others on the market. An example is Apple computers and their differentiation from tradition PCs.

·         Focus
Focus strategies are used when a company makes their product/service and ‘focuses’ them at a specific market. An example is Apple iPhones being targeted at consumer markets rather than business markets.

Comparison of these three strategies:

·         The differentiation and focus strategies are used to target specific markets, whereas the cost leadership strategy doesn’t have a target market.

·         Cost leadership works toward lowering costs, but also generating growth and more profit, while the differentiation and focus strategies don’t include that. They mainly work toward gaining more profit/growth and not necessarily lowering production costs.