Best Practice Business

Information Technology

Presented by: Micheal Axelsen

Director

Applied Insight Pty Ltd

INTRODUCTION

About this presentation

Objectives

• To provide an overview of what's on the horizon in the next

generation of IT for business, and how to prepare your business to

take advantage of these future IT advances.

Agenda

• Next generation IT - what's on the horizon in the next 2 - 5 years

• Managing risk and protecting your systems in a wireless and mobile

environment

• System selection for your business

• Getting your systems right

– Creating opportunities to develop your business

– Maximising your return from your technology investment

• Conclusion – meeting the challenges of IT

About the speaker

Services

• Micheal Axelsen provides consulting services in

the business governance of information

technology, and the development and

implementation of information technology business

strategy

Position and qualifications

• Director of Applied Insight Pty Ltd

• Chair of CPA Australia Information Technology &

Management Centre of Excellence

• Qualifications

– Bachelor of Commerce (Hons)

– Masters of Information Systems

– CPA (Specialist in Information Technology)

NEXT GENERATION IT

Advances in technology

On crystal ball gazing

• Looking into the future is fraught with danger, and will probably miss

some things

• That said, let’s get the crystal ball out

Major themes for the next two to five years

• Mobility & Convergence

• Innovation is not on the desktop

• Social networking & social media

• Data privacy and quality

Mobility & Convergence

Innovation is not on the desktop

Social networking & social media

Data privacy and quality

Data privacy

• Far more data stored than ever before

• Identity theft and data loss

• Secure access is increasingly necessary

• International trend to increased privacy

requirements

Data quality

• Increasing reliance upon data

• Systems are less forgiving of poor data

• Data’s fitness for the intended use in operations,

decision making & planning

• National Privacy Principles

• Sarbanes Oxley and audit & governance requirements

MANAGING RISK IN A

CONNECTED WORLD

Wireless networks

General advice

• Monitor your internet bill & router log for usage

• Ensure you have a firewall between the wired and the wireless

Internet connection to prevent intruders from accessing your

network

• Firewall between wired & wireless networks, and the internet

Wireless networks

• Change the default security settings as these are well known and

may allow intruders access to your network

• Secure wireless traffic through WEP (Wired

Equivalent Privacy)

• Minimise the transmission range of your

wireless network

Wireless networks

Secure wireless devices

• Wireless comes with many machines by

default – turn it off if there’s no legitimate

need (otherwise, people can browse through

other networks and get past your security).

• Don’t superglue anything!

• Intel vPro allows hardware-level access to

remote laptops and desktops.

• The Laptop Guardian from Lucent

technologies provides a complete

control option for laptops – if this is

that important to you!

Mobile & remote manageability

Mobile machines

• Easily lost so - backup, backup, backup!

• Consider what happens if a Blackberry or USB key falls into the

wrong hands or is lost!

• Remote kill features for mobile devices

• Buy robust machines that will survive

• Consider disk encryption – BIOS

passwords are no use

• Telework implications and the

mobile environment

• iPod slurping (and digi-cam slurping)

Being clear about policy

Consumer mobile technologies

• People can easily circumvent the rules you put in place

and bring consumer technologies in

• Need clear policies and they need to be enforced

• They also need to be sensible and match the risks

• The reasons why:

– Can walk out with all your files

– Could carry viruses, trojans, etc

– Can install software on machines

that create headaches for IT

SYSTEM SELECTION

Assessing systems

Market scan, Vendor focus

Focus upon

• Risk reduction

• Vendor knowledge of your industry

• Quality of named clients

• Short-list quickly

• Vendor compatibility with your business

• Strategic plans of vendor and software

• Vendor client testimonials

• Good software is good, but not as good as bad software

is bad...

Market scan, Vendor focus

How to carry it out

• Document the drop-dead, showstopper issues

• Understand your budget

• Document technical considerations

• Document your expectations from the vendor

• Identify known options

• Develop your Request for Information & forward to

vendors

• Rate, weight & score

• Move to next phase

Market scan, Vendor focus works better

The reasons why

• Long-term relationship with the vendor

• Vendor’s ability to work with your business

• Makes the vendor think outside of the

square

• Focus on vendor’s proven capability

• Less resource intensive

• Shorter timeframe to get to a short-list

CONCLUSIONGETTING YOUR

SYSTEMS RIGHT

What strategic effort fits your business?

What is your organisational focus?

People Process Technology

Scenarios - improving incrementally

Incremental, flexible

• Identify chokepoint

• What is the key impact?

• Devise a solution

• Implement

• Review

Selling stuff

• Salesforce automation

• Electronic mobile

workflow

Doing stuff

• Location based services

• Digital evidence

gathering

Administering stuff

• Fixed mobile

convergence

• Teleworking technologies

Turning strategy into action

Rightsourcing ICT

Turning strategy into action

CONCLUSION

Conclusion – meeting the challenges of IT

Information Technology & Management Centre of Excellence

Forthcoming: Social networking policies & procedures

CONTACT DETAILS

Micheal Axelsen

Director, Applied Insight Pty Ltd

m: 0412 526 375

t: +61 7 3139 0325

e: micheal.axelsen@appliedinsight.com.au

blog: www.michealaxelsen.com

Applied Insight Pty Ltd

PO Box 603

Toowong DC 4066

AUSTRALIA