Managing the Digital Firm, Essay Example

[CH8-1]  Security is a vital component of any business.  A Corporate Security Manager is an extremely important role and has the responsibility of protecting the Company Assets, developing and implementing corporate security strategies, protecting the welfare of the employees and management of the crisis management team. The person is often selected as an ex-Police Officer, Army security Officer or a security services firm.  The position requires a combination of skillsets including knowledge of law enforcement procedures, health and safety procedures, proficiency with firearms and proficiency in self-defence

[CH8-2]  In order to develop a business continuity plan you need to make a critical review of the company’s business procedures and security policies.  This means looking at Business Process Diagrams, Workflow, Health and Safety Reports etc. You would be looking for the most critical systems and points of vulnerability. The continuity plan follows the disaster recovery plan and gets the business back to normal running in the most expedient timeframe.

[CH8-3]  The business would be exposed to a number of external threats with an open portal to the internet (e-commerce site).  This includes the potential of hackers gaining entry to your system. The potential of viruses or malware being introduced through unsecure systems.  These are minimised by effective network monitoring software, firewalls, anti-virus software and integrating these into a tiered security level approach

[CH9 1]  A supply chain may be defined as the number of business practices that move goods from that of raw materials through supply, production and the final distribution of the goods to the customer. Most manufacturing organizations have a supply chain of some description. It is considered that all effective management practices must take into consideration the efficiencies of the component within the chain in order to avoid loss of quality and important customers within the business.

[CH92] Introducing Enterprise software like SAP or JD Edwards is an extremely complex undertaking as it impacts virtually every element of the business.  As such it is necessary for the Management to have a sound understanding of the business strategy and organizational procedures.  The impact of a poorly designed system can have serious adverse consequences to the long term sustainability of a business. Equally, a well-planned system can have tremendous benefits to the Company in terms of growth and sustainability.

[CH93]  The first application to get in place should be that of Customer Relationship Management. It is not possible to effectively introduce ERP or SCM without first having a thorough understanding of the customers’ needs and the way in which the business will satisfy those needs.  CRM forms the very foundation upon which the business will be built.

[CH101]  The internet brings both consumer and supplier relationship by creating immediate contact with one another. It is now possible to conduct quick competitive analysis surveys, ascertain others views on items like quality and service before you buy, conduct searches on the suppliers financial wellbeing etc.  The consumer has been more empowered by the internet and more informed by access to information and knowledge.

[CH102] Most company business models are influenced by the internet. They have to revise their practices in order to maintain competitive advantage in the market place. There is little room for complacency and lack of technical awareness in today’s brutal economy. Technology and the internet certainly empowers business and creates competitive advantage.

[CH103] Social technologies like Facebook and Twitter have enabled consumers to share a wide range of information. This includes the promotion of consumer goods and as such has introduced another layer of marketing. Companies are aware of this and understand the influence of personal recommendations to others as effective persuasion to purchase goods.

[CH11 1]  Knowledge Management refers to the acquisition of knowledge and as such is a vital business process.  Knowledge may be gained through varying activities like Marketing, Market Research, and Customer Relationships etc.  The bringing together of knowledge is of business strategic value in planning sales and marketing campaigns, directing the business and creating areas of competitive advantage

[CH112] Knowledge Management helps in the building of heuristics for the development of Expert Systems in both marketing and production. This may include the application of smart data bases that can be interrogated to answer complex questions. Such knowledge may be used to refine product lines and direct marketing campaigns to the most profitable lines of business.

[CH113]  In order for an organization to be successful it must manage its’ four pillars of knowledge.  These being Leadership, Organization, Technology and Learning.  Information Technology (Pillar 3) has achieved an amazing impact in the promotion and dissemination of knowledge in the business environment.  A more widely accepted scheme being adopted by Organizations, which effectively embraces the 4 Pillars of Knowledge is that of the Balanced Scorecard System Designed by Kaplan and Norton of Harvard Business School in 1996. This emphasises the importance of Business Strategy and the knowledge areas that this combines in order to manage the strategic direction of the Company.

[CH121] The Manager of IT would be instrumental in managing the software application for a Decision Support System (DSS) and as such it is vital that he understands and participates in the design parameters of the system.  As IT is central to the provision of the information needs of the business the Manager needs to understand how all of the business applications interlock and serve the business.

[CH1222] The DSS software systems have been designed to produce an effective analysis framework for helping to make decisions. As such they are an assist or facilitation toolset. It does not necessarily follow that improved decisions will be made but it create an improved culture in terms of a corporate response to resolving business issues.

[CH123] Improved business intelligence and analytics can certainly have a positive impact in refining business strategy.  Strategy by its very nature is a visionary exercise based upon assumptions and what if… type scenarios. Intelligence and Analytics can provide the substance in terms of evidence and factual data to test strategic theoretical models and assumptions. In addition it creates data or information integrity based upon fact as opposed to supposition.

[CH131] The selection of a systems development approach should be made by the IT Executive and Board of Directors.  Information Technology has become the life-blood of virtually every organization. Most large business operations contain  Data Centre’s of expensive computer and communication systems (hardware) and important client information and programs (software). Together they provide the central back-bone of the organization and as such any threat to these systems can be extremely disruptive and costly to the business

[CH132] The use of Application software or 4GL toolsets can improve productivity in the design and build of systems. It is not necessarily the best way to reduce systems development costs. Some application areas may not lend themselves to custom application software solutions (COTS) and may require a more bespoke approach.  It is normally a combination of approach that creates the optimum solution.

[CH133]  The business processes essentially define how the business operates in a conventional sense. Automation will seek to streamline these processes eliminating redundancies, duplications and building in process improvements.  The starting point is the understanding and mapping of the current state processes.  Redefining the new processes helps in the determination of change management and business transition steps  to the new system.

[CH141]  Project Management is a vital component of any new information system. It ensures that a project is delivered according to specification, delivered on time and within financial constraints.  In addition the PM oversees the quality requirements of the system and manages the resource effort in the system build process. The Pm also resolves any risks or problem issues that may impact the effective delivery of the system

[CH142]  It is imperative that the organization has a culture that embraces change, particularly technological change. Failure to do so can be extremely counterproductive to maintaining the integrity of new systems applications.  The systems builders have to factor in human frailty and deviances by provision of context sensitive help facilities, navigational aids and reduce levels of complexity in order to improve human acceptance to the system.

[CH143] The end users should be responsible for the acceptance testing of the system and signing off on the completed system.  It is essential that the final operational system meets all of the end user requirements and specifications. The testing stage is not complete until this mandatory requirement has been met.