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IMS 3002

Information Systems Strategy and Management

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IMS3002 Information Systems Strategy and Management

Lecture 3 Impact of IT on Organisations, Individuals and Society

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Impact of IT on Organisations

• flatter hierarchies

• span of control

• centralisation

• power/status (“knowledge is power”)

• job content

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Impact of IT on Organisations (2)

• automated decisions

• less reliance on experience/ expertise

• decrease face-to-face communication

• Standardisation

• speed – rapid identification of problems/ opportunities

• speed – quicker decisions

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Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

• A plan to get a company “up and running” as soon as possible after any sort of disaster.

• A company must identify criticalprocesses and put plans in place to ensure that these processes can be resumed as quickly as possible.

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Business Continuity Plan (BCP) cont….

• The plan includes all aspects of a company’s business, not just the information technology (IT) department

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Business Continuity Management

• All sections of a business to ‘own’ the BCP• Business continuity management is everyone’s

responsibility• Insurance is not enough!

– designed to cover specific consequential losses, such as new equipment and recovery of lost revenue

– claims may take time to process and it may not be possible to replace specialised equipment straightaway

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Disaster

What is it?Any event that interrupts the normal business of an organisation and prevents it from delivering products and services to its customers for an unacceptable period of time.– Natural disasters (such as floods and lightning strikes) – Deliberate acts (such as terrorist activity)– Accidents (for instance, accidental cutting of electrical

cables).

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BCM and E-Commerce

• Increasing use of the Internet for business has brought new problems for business continuity

• The scope of disasters has widened with the greater use of technology– Vulnerability is now a supply chain issue

• Any interruption in service is immediately obvious to customers– Competitors have an immediate opportunity to fill the gap

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Spending on BCM

• Awareness has increased generally and there is some evidence that more resources are being put into BCM

• However, it is still seen in many instances as a discretionary expenditure– IT can be the first to have its budget cut

during a cost cutting exercise– IT suffers from a “it won’t happen to us”

attitude in many instances

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Significant Events in BCM 1

• Year 2000 (Y2K)• provided an impetus to look at the risks faced

and how they could be dealt with • Raised the visibility of BCM as not just as a

matter of recovering from a computer failure, but as a need for contingencies for how all work is to be carried out

• Some plans were put aside after Y2K passed (lesson learned?)

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Significant Events in BCM 2

• September 11, 2001– Buildings surrounding the WTC were also severely

damaged– So swift and devastating that some businesses located in

the WTC had no chance of carrying out a BCP, however well it had been tested

– Again: insurance did not help in the short term– Many businesses had underestimated the effects of a

disaster

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Recent Lessons

• Some plans failed because they were written on the assumption that any incident would only affect an individual building

• Plans that were too detailed were often less effective

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Recent Lessons

• Many organisations need to be more realistic about what is actually possible in the aftermath of a disaster– Access to computers? telephones?

transport?• Key employees may be unable to cope

with the emotional trauma of the disaster and may not be able to carry out their assigned duties

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Expanded View of BCM

• As stated earlier, BCM is more than just recovering PCs and networks– This is a shift in viewpoint from the early

1990s• Covers all aspects of the business,

including– Employees– Supply chain partners

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A Study of BCP in Australia: 1996 and 2001

• 10 Melbourne -based businesses interviewed in 1996

• Examined BCP in financial (banks, etc) and non-financial (health, education) businesses

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1996

• Main findings in 1996:– Financial businesses more likely to have

BCP in place, or be well advanced– Major problems were corporate awareness

and management commitment– Other issues, such as organisational

structure, complying with regulations and budget were issues that affected BCP

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Changes Since 1996

• Increased importance of the Internet to business• Increased levels of awareness of BCP overseas

(especially UK)• Y2K• September 11, 2001• The study was repeated in 2001, with nine of the

10 businesses making themselves available– In that time, there had been a number of

organisational changes in some of the businesses

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Summary of ResultsOrganisation status in 1996 BCP Status in

1996 Organisational Changes since 1996

BCP Status in 2001

Influenced by Y2K

Influenced by Sept 11

Contacts before BCP

person found Provides insurance services; has a number of associated companies

Full BCP Taken over by one of the major banks. All operations now organised in New South Wales.

Full BCP Yes Yes 4

One of major banks in Australia with branches overseas

Partial BCP None Full BCP Yes Yes 2

Australian based international financial services organisation with overseas branches

Full BCP Taken over by a global financial company; BCP operations now based overseas

Full BCP Yes Yes 2

Provides superannuation services to public sector employees mainly

Partial BCP Organisation has split – now smaller

Full BCP Yes Yes 4

Concerned with entertainment, gaming and wagering

Full BCP Organisation slightly larger but same structure

Minimal BCP No No 1

Provides health care services to several suburban areas

Partial BCP Major restructure of health care network

Partial BCP Yes Yes 2

Provides private health care services to several suburban areas

Partial BCP No changes Partial BCP Yes No 2

University No BCP Organisation larger Minimal BCP No No 4 University Partial BCP Minimal changes Partial BCP Yes No 7

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Discussion

• As expected, 4 of the 5 financial businesses were operating on a Full BCP by 2001.

• For 2 businesses this meant an increased level of emphasis since 1996

>External pressures (legal and regulatory) were cited as a reason for this

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Discussion

• Non-financial institutions had virtually remained at the same BCP levels as back in 1996

> One university had upgraded its BCP from none at all to minimal

> A comment by one hospital interviewee was that senior management felt that the money was better spent on other things, such as improved patient care

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Discussion

• All of the financial businesses that had full BCP in 2001 said they were influenced by Y2K and Sept 11

• Non-financial institutions were more affected by Y2K (75%) than Sept 11 (25%)

>One business mentioned the Sydney 2000 Olympics as being a defining event

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Discussion

• With E-Commerce, risks increase as systems begin to directly affect activities of customers and suppliers

> New legal requirements affect the privacy of customer data

> Services to customers can be severely disrupted by a system breakdown

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BCM Summary

• BCM forms an important part of an organisation’s defence against unexpected events

• An effective BCP goes beyond backing up the computing facilities to trying to ensure a rapid return of an organisation’s business position– in the normal and e-business marketplace– with minimal effect on employees, customers

and suppliers

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BCM Summary

• Complete BCM is more likely in financial than non-financial businesses

• Major events can influence expenditure on BCM

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Impact of It on Individuals

• job satisfaction- enriched- routine

• individual identity (see decreased face-to-face communication)

• isolation• stress

- speed

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Impact of IT on Society

• opportunities for disabled• quality of life• science/ health advances• crime fighting (???)• global village• pace of life

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Other Issues

• telecommuting

• productivity- personal- business

• free speech vs. Internet indecency

• others

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Assignments

• focus• research and preparation• organizing• writing• citations and references

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Assignment Focus

• the first step in an assignment is to decide the approach you wish to take to the topic

– Analytical

– Polemical, etc

– do not worry about disagreeing with authorities (even the lecturer)

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Research and Preparation

• literature search– library– Books– Articles from refereed journals– Academic periodicals– internet– NB - record all sources found for the bibliography

(reference list)• personal experience may be relevant in some cases

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Organizing the Assignment

• all assignment submissions benefit from careful organization

• Follow the overall requirements for the assignment– Abstract– Introduction– Current practices– Comparison – Conclusion– References

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Writing

• be clear about what you are trying to present• be concise (don’t waffle to make up the word-count)• avoid too much repetition in the body of the text• use short sentences for the most part

• NB - it is clear in many assignments that the student has never clarified his/her own goals - the reader reaches the end of the assignment without knowing what was intended to be the point

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Citations and References (1)

• citations in the body of your submission should be made as follows (for books or articles)

– (author year, page)– (Gould 1999, 24)– do not use footnotes

• book references

– Gould, S. 1999. Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms. Vintage.

• article references

– Kell, M. 1995. “Pulling the plug: software project management and the problem of project escalation”, MIS Quarterly, December.

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Citations and References (2)

• the same model can be used for website references if there is anauthor and a title

– Kell, M. 1995. “Pulling the plug: software project management and the problem of project escalation”, www.whatever, date accessed.

• if there is no author or title listed then for the reference list have

– www.whatever. 2001. website name, date and time accessed.

– in the body of the text the citation should be in the form (website-name, 2001).

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Citations and References (3)

• when to cite– if you are stating something and want to say that it is

supported by a particular authority - e.g.> the theory of punctuated equilibrium is now widely

accepted by evolutionary theorists (Gould 1999)– if you quote something directly

> “a yearning for the good old days infects us all, even though such times never existed outside our reveries” (Gould 1999, 339).

– if you paraphrase something> Gould suggests that everybody may hanker after past

pleasures (Gould 1999).