Business Information Systems

Case Study Analysis

Topic:

Some information systems are purely designed to improve team collaboration. How can
effective collaboration improve the result and performance of a team?

Collaboration Information Systems

What Is Collaboration?

Collaboration is when two or more people work together to achieve a common goal, result, or work
product. If done right, the results are great than the sum of its parts

An important element of collaboration is consistent feedback and iteration. This is the process where
group members review each other's work and give feedback over and over again until the desired
result is achieved.

The effectiveness of collaboration is driven by the following

1. Communication:
1. Communication skills and the abilities of the people in your group. This is ability to take
a give critical feedback is especially important.
2. Content Management:
1. The process of mitigating content interference through keeping everyone informed of
who made changes, why they happened, and what changes were made.
2. Permissions: In version-control system, authorizations to access shared documents
stored in various directories. Typical permissions are read-only, read-and-edit, and
read-edit-and-delete; some directories have no permission-they are off-limits.
3. Workflow control:
1. The process of procedure by which work is made, edited, used and disposed (Business
188 Notes, 2015)

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Hardware

Hardware describes the physical components of a computer system which can be categorized as input
devices, a central processing unit, internal and external memory and output devices. Input devices are

used to capture or enter data into the computer. The central processing unit (CPU) performs
processing by carrying out instructions given in the form of computer programs. Internal memory is
used as a temporary means of storage data and instructions while external memory provides a means
of storing data and programs outside of the computer. Output devices translate the results of
processing into a human-readable form. These hardware components will now be described in more
detail.

Software

This chapter provides a review of the features common to a range of modern software applications,
and the way in which software can be used to support the business activities of an organisation.
Software can be defined as a series of detailed instructions that control the operation of a computer
system and exists as programs which are developed by computer programmers. There are two major
categories of software of systems software and applications software.

3.1 Systems software

Systems software manages and controls the operation of the computer system as it performs tasks on
behalf of the user. Systems software consists of three basic categories: operating systems, software
development programs and utility programs.

3.1.1 Operating Systems (OS)

The operating system interacts with the hardware of the computer by monitoring and sending
instructions to manage and direct the computer’s resources. The operating system functions as an
intermediary between the functions the user needs to perform, for example a database search, and
how these translate to and from the hardware in the form of responding to mouse clicks and displaying
information on the screen. The basic functions of the operating system include: allocating and
managing system resources, scheduling the use of resources and monitoring the activities of the
computer system.

6.3 The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web provides a standard method for exchanging and publishing information on the
Internet. The medium is based on standard document formats such as HTML (hypertext markup

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language) which has been widely adopted because it supports a wide range of formatting facilities
making documents easy to read on different access devices. It also incorporates graphics and
animations which can be integrated into web pages and interaction is possible through HTML-based

forms that enable customers to supply their personal details for more information on a product, perform
searches, ask questions or make comments.

It is the combination of web browsers and HTML that has proved so successful in establishing
widespread business use of the Internet. The use of these tools provides a range of benefits such as
increasing the ease to which navigation between documents is enabled by the use of hyperlinks or
images. This soon becomes a very intuitive way of navigation which is similar across all web sites and
applications. It can provide a graphical environment supporting multimedia which is popular with users
and gives a visual medium for advertising. The standardization of tools and growth in demand means
information can be exchanged with many businesses and consumers. (Hardcastle, 2008)

Business Information Systems: Business Applications on Spreadsheets

Overview

Spreadsheet software packages are widely used applications for analyzing and displaying data.
Spreadsheets can help users develop graphs, charts, reports of financial data, or statistical analyses.
Typical spreadsheet software has a wide variety of features including file creation and retrieval, report
generation and printing, graphics, sorting, mathematical and statistical computing. The most widely
used spreadsheet software packages are Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quattro Pro. Spreadsheet
software packages can be used on almost any type of computer including personal computers,
workstations, and mainframes and can run on virtually all the major operating systems (Chou &
Gensler, 1993).

Spreadsheets can aid in analytical tasks that range from the simple to the very complex. Analysis of
tabular data is a rather straightforward and simple use of spreadsheets. Decision support processes,
on the other hand, involve the analysis of business intelligence using problem-specific methodologies.
The purpose of an SDSS is to solve an unstructured problem in a business environment. Therefore,
knowledge of procedures for problem solving is critical in the process of building an SDSS. Knowledge
of the decision-making process is also critical in performing decision selection (Chou & Gensler, 1993).
(http://www.enotes.com, 2015)

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Risk Management Concepts

Categories of Risks

 Physical damage- Fire, water, vandalism, power loss, and natural disasters

 Human interaction- Accidental or intentional action or inaction that can disrupt productivity

 Equipment malfunction- Failure of systems and peripheral devices

 Inside and outside attacks- Hacking, cracking, and attacking

 Misuse of data- Sharing trade secrets, fraud, espionage, and theft

 Loss of data- Intentional or unintentional loss of information through destructive means

 Application error- Computation errors, input errors, and buffer overflows

 Social Status- Loss of Customer base and reputation

Risk Management Practices

A risk management team should have the ability and follow the best practices, some of them which
include

 Establishing a risk acceptance level as provided by senior management

 Documenting risk assessment processes and procedures
 Establishing proper procedures for identifying and mitigating risks
 Getting support from senior management for appropriate resource and fund allocation
 Defining contingency plans where assessments indicate that they are necessary
 Ensure that security-awareness training is provided for all staff members associated with
information assets.
 Strive to establish improvement (or risk mitigation) in specific areas when necessary
 Should map legal and regulation compliancy requirements to control and implement
requirements
 Develop metrics and performance indicators to be able to measure and manage various types
of risks
 Identify and assess new risks as the environment and company changes
 Integrate IRM and the organization's change control process to ensure that changes do not
introduce new vulnerabilities

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Ways to deal with Risk

There are four basic ways of dealing with risks:

 Transfer it: If a company's total or residual risk is too high and it purchases an insurance then it
is transfer of risk to the insurance company
 Reject it: If a company is in denial about its risk or ignore it, it is rejecting the risk
 Reduce it: If a company implements countermeasures, it is reducing the risk
 Accept it: If a company understands the risk and decides not to implement any kind of
countermeasures it is accepting the risk. And this is actually what all computer systems boil
down to. There is no way to mitigate the risk if the system is going to connect to the internet.
Having only one user without any networking with others computer systems is the closet you
can ever get to not having any risks.

Once given console access (sitting at the actual hardware device be it computer, server, router) there
is no security that can keep a skilled person from getting into that system. Not one. This is the
"beginning of knowledge" of computer system security. And increasing knowledge increases
sorrow.

These two things you must accept as they are the facts. If you can't handle these two absolute facts
like an adult maybe you should go do something else. Try becoming an actor maybe, or poet, but do
not continue with believing you have any computer security knowledge if you can't get into this
mindset. It's OK not everyone can handle dealing with the truth, it's hard, uncomfortable and it literally
hurts (that feeling of pain is called cognitive indifference.) (https://en.wikibooks.org, 2015)

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 References
Business 188 Notes. (2015). Retrieved from http://bus188notes.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/chapter-2-
collaboration-information.html: http://bus188notes.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/chapter-2-
collaboration-information.html
Hardcastle, E. (2008). Business Information Systems. Ventus Publishing.
http://www.enotes.com. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/research-starters/business-
applications-spreadsheets: http://www.enotes.com/research-starters/business-applications-
spreadsheets
https://en.wikibooks.org. (2015). Retrieved from
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Information_Systems_Security/Information_Sec
urity_and_Risk_Management#Information_Risk_Management:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Information_Systems_Security/Information_Sec
urity_and_Risk_Management#Information_Risk_Management

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