Discuss about the Ethical Issues in IT.
The Maters Home Improvement was a well known business organisation that had managed to provide hardware services at very low cost to the customers in more than 20 locations all over United Kingdom. Different kinds of hardware were installed by the company at very low cost along with there were options of online service booking or delivery for small jobs that cost less than $1000. The time between order and delivery of services were also reduced and the installation of the hardware components was also satisfactory and efficient. One the other hand, the other business organisation named Mitre 9 was another hardware servicing store which had provided services in over 23 locations all over Australia (AO’Brien et al, 2006). The company had also provided world class high quality services to people which had satisfied their customers to a large extent. The workers of the company were skillful and knowledge as a result of which the services delivery were also done timely and appropriately. The store also did possess good lighting and music had been played within the store. A big plasma TV screen was also set up along with displays of multimedia sales and mannequins that further improved the decoration of the store. The report mainly illustrated about the merging of these two hardware companies for providing excellence to its services delivered to the customers (Applegate et al, 2007).
Management processes and involvement in planning for information systems and information technology in an organisation
The senior management decided to name the merged companies as Hardware-r-us. The new company would retain all the workers who previously worked in the two companies and also all the hardware equipments would be restored. As Mitre9’s system was becoming old fashioned so it would be replaced with the new and improved system and it would also provide good quality and wide range of hardware servicing at very low prices. The bookings of orders could be done online as well in case of small jibs that cost less than $1000. A service charge of 15 percent would be placed though. With the merging of the two companies, the Hardware-r-us would also implement newer and advanced information systems and information technology so as to provide assistance to customer that would not only influence them to make choices regarding purchase from the company but would also set up a good brand image (Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 2016). So, proper processes of management and planning were essential so as to set up the information systems and technology in order to become successful within the business environment. The information systems would be implemented within Hardware-r-us which is an essential component for achieving success in business. It could help in administration and management within the business environment as well as serve as an effective tool for ensuring successful business operations and processes. The information system included all the organisational workers and staffs, hardware and software components, networks used as well as data sources that were used for collecting, exchanging and distributing of information to the client regarding the services provided by the company (Bhatt et al, 2005). The information system could be formal, informal, manual or computer based information systems. On the other hand, the information technology was mainly implemented so as to change the resources of data into various information and data about the services provided to the customers. The information technology systems also supported major business operations that helped Hardware-r-us to track the orders placed by customers as well as services wanted by them online. The services would be provided along with customer assistance 24*7 which provided ease to gather as well as integrate data and information. The customers would also be acknowledged with answers regarding any sort of issues that they faced. The information systems also supported decision making abilities by managers that further helped them to understand the business outcomes (Blumenthal, 2009). The IT systems helped the managers to analyse the present market conditions and then make decisions quickly and effectively. The company would also be able to gain competitive advantage in business with performing some activity that could be of value to the customers and also might be better than other companies. The management of information system would also be essential for understanding the nature of analysis as well as determine the availability of data and information based on its frequency and demand. The quantity of information as well as its appropriateness and reliability along with securing those would also be possible with the help of information technology system within Hardware-r-us (Boudreau & Robey, 2005).
The information systems mainly dealt with the computer systems usage and technological implementation within Hardware-r-us for providing continuous support to people as well as provide good quality hardware services to people and also ensure that they could book or order online too with much ease and effectiveness. In case of information systems, the computer systems, both hardware and software components as well as staffs were combined as an unit so as to develop, store, modify and also distribute data and information in an effective manner. As it could be seen from the case study, that both the companies Maters Home Improvement and Mitre 9 were merged, so it was necessary to allow for advanced information systems that could improve the organizational workforce structure that could lead to enhanced support and deliver excellent services to people (Buhalis & Law, 2008). The information systems would help to record and store information and also utilize technology based and non-technological tools and techniques so as to enable continuous support and assistance to people and also monitor the records and orders made by them on a consistent basis.
The information technology is a major aspect of the information systems and has very little differences between the two. It basically included the ways by which the designing, implementation and management of the computer based information systems so as to manage proper communication and also make the tasks of people easier for the merged companies. The information technology was applied within the organisational workforce so as to manage the networks as well as hardware and software components by managing data and information and also keep those secure in a digitized manner (Chaudhry et al, 2006). It also support telecommunication systems through which people could communicate among themselves, as a result of which the clients would be contacted easily by the workers of Hardware-r-us easily too. The technological aspects would be managed easily, thereby helping to improve the process of information technology implementation and also achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation easily. The information technology utilization within Hardware-r-us would also help to provide cyber security as well as prevent unauthorized access to data and information as well (Davenport, 2013). The data base would be managed properly along with proper management of infrastructure and network, which would further be beneficial for proper resource planning and development of software. The information technology would include various computer programming languages that would help in developing useful software as well as carry put computer forensics so as to prevent any kinds of theft or frauds related to the computer database system. Thus it could be clearly understood that the combining of information systems and technology would help the merged companies to become high-tech connected, as a result of which the choices and decisions of customers would also be influenced. This would further promote a positive brand image among their minds and would help in ensuring increase in sales and profit in business (Dumas et al, 2005).
There could be a number of issues of technology during the management processes involving the planning of information technology systems. As it could be seen that the two companies had been merged so as to improve the organisational processes and also make sure that the services delivered to customers were also of good quality. The new company named Hardware-r-us managed to replace the traditional old system with new and innovative computerized system as a result of which the management of business operations and processes was much easier and effective than before. Few of the technological issues that emerged before the two companies were merged included problem to communicate with the clients and discussing with them about the problems that they faced regarding the hardware servicing (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2013). The time taken between the placing of orders and providing services was much more as a result of which quite a lot of customers were unsatisfied and took the help of other hardware servicing companies. Due to the absence of new and improved information systems, the costs of servicing was somewhat greater and there was also reduced number of visits at home for measuring and quoting the problems related to hardware servicing. With time, the company decided that it was high time to manage improvements and make sure that information systems and information technology within the organisation must be planned so as to attract more customers as well as influence them to make purchases from the company rather than from any other companies in the competitive business environment (Jasperson et al, 2005). Previously few of the other emerging issues were lack of proper communication between the workers too, which hindered successful services delivery to the clients. As the two companies merged, the previous systems were all replaced by new ones though all the products, supplies and workers were all retained. The services were also subjected to change and improve, due to which those were available at low cost and the company also provided tips for the clients so that they could use those themselves. The orders could also be made online by the customers now with the implementation of information systems that helped in customers support as well as online services delivery. The booking of orders could be made for the jobs that cost less than $1000 with a very less amount of service charge, i.e., only 15 percent (Mell & Grance, 2011). It could be clearly seen that with the proper planning of information systems and technology, it was implemented within the merged company Hardware-r –us. This definitely helped to enhance the quality of services provided as a result of which the customers were quite sure about making the right choices of getting hardware servicing from the company rather than from any other company (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). The customer services were also improved, as a result of which customers could get 24 hours services and held desk support talk throughout the whole week. This had also spread a positive brand image among the customers, which had results in trust and loyalty among them too. With the implementation of information technology systems, the company also managed to advertise and promote their company and its wide range of products and services through television, magazines as well as internet. This attracted large number of customers as well as retained the existing customers who previously used to make purchases from the two companies earlier before merging. International business was also one the focus of the company in the upcoming years, which would give rise to newer opportunities like trade services that would further ensure growth and development of the company as well in the future (Melville, 2010).
Conclusion
The current topic illustrated about how the two hardware servicing companies merged together so as to provide improved hardware servicing and installation services delivery to people all over Australia and also reduce the ethical issues of information technology management systems. This had not only attracted new customers but also retained the existing customers, thereby created a positive brand image too (Mun et al, 2006). The senior management made a number of decisions, as a result of which the existing staffs, products and services provided by the company remained intact and the services were also available online within a very reasonable cost too. The old system of Mitre 9 was replaced with the new and improved systems of Mater Home improvement. Though the information systems and information technology were implemented for the benefit of the company, still I personally would prefer some other improvements as well within the new merged company Hardware-r-us (O’Brien & Marakas, 2005).
It is recommended that the information technology system must be used for sharing and exchanging information with other companies and also establishes a global business presence, which would incur more profit in business and also ensure business growth and expansion as a whole (Peffers et al, 2007).
The advertising and promotional activities must be done with the help of information systems which could attract as well as retain more potential and existing customers towards the company.
The 24*7 customer services support would be recommended as well for providing assistance to the customers regarding any problems that they might face.
A documentation of communication plan would be recommended as well for including communication about projects and also discuss about the cost of expenditures (Turban et al, 2008).
The new technologies are always beneficial, though there might be chances of risks and issues when the data and information are not kept secured. The database must be managed properly so as to keep and store the data and information safe, thereby preventing any sort of unauthorized access as well (Venkatesh et al, 2012).
The encryption must be embedded for different types of products that could ensure both privacy and security.
It is also recommended to protect the copyright as well as maintain integrity of data.
References
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