Information System Management For POS Solutions: Impact, Risks And IT Strategy

Information Systems and Information Management

Information management or IM can be stated as the major procedure by which significant and confidential information is being provided to the various decision makers within a scheduled manner (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). A variety of stakeholders are involved for the respective organizational information management, including the people, who are subsequently responsible for the assurance of quality, utility and accessibility of information and proper decision making. The information system is the organized system that helps in collecting, organizing, storing and communicating information. The data could be easily disseminated as well with this information system (Bajdor & Grabara, 2014). It is an automated system and hence information management is much easier with this information system.

The following report outlines a brief discussion on the information system management for a significant software organization of Australia, namely POS Solutions. This report analyses the entire impact that the information system has on the organization as well as the changes, occurred to the business managerial roles and the competitive advantages. Moreover, the analysis of MIS with analytical approaches with business process engineering and IT strategy in POS Solutions would also be provided here.

The information system or IS can be stated as the collection of several human as well as technical resources for the purpose of providing storage distribution, communication and computing for information that is needed by any part of the enterprise (Demir & Krajewski, 2013). The special form of the information system is the management information system that gives confidential information to manage the enterprise. The data processing as well as data management is also easily done with the help of this information system. The software, hardware, users of information systems and connections of computer systems are the main parts of this information system (Klukas, Chen & Pape, 2014). The various types of the information systems are the operations support system like transaction processing system, management information system, executive information system and decision support system. It is a basic computerized system and for describing the telephone switching, it is highly required. The main function of this information system is that it helps in reducing the complexities of information management and data management to a greater level (Li, Hsieh & Rai, 2013). The interrelated components are worked together for the collection, processing, storing as well as disseminating the information subsequently. A variety of socio-technical elements are present eventually for the proper interconnection of technology and other components. There are various approaches to theorize and understand the information system (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dziuban, 2013). It is quite vital for all organizations to reduce their information management complexity.

Organizational Chart of POS Solutions

Description of the entire organizational chart of POS Solutions with the major organizational bodies. Since, it is a software company, the IT services are the main services of this company (POS Solutions. 2018).

The president of this organization is the main head of the top management level and hence he is the main person behind every decision of IT services. The information flows from him and is then distributed to the rest of the organizational bodies. With the help of information system, the president is able to share his views with the vice president. Next, the vice president shares this information with IT technologies, proactive servicemen, client CIO and project manager. These four mentioned individuals are further responsible for providing the information to their subordinates. The major gap of this organizational structure is that the low management level cannot communicate with the top management level and hence the top management has no idea about the problems faced by their juniors. The middle management level is responsible for taking all decisions about their subordinates. The major organizational decisions are taken by the president and vice president.

The organization of POS Solutions is eventually utilizing the information system and information technology within their business (Dahlstrom & Bichsel, 2014). The factors such as recession, incremented competition as well as inflationary pressures could eventually hinder the proper achievement of goals and objectives and hence POS Solutions is looking for the strategies, which could lead to the competitive advantages (Eason, 2014). One of these significant strategies is the proper adoption as well as implementation of information systems and thus the information systems could help the organization in making the adequate utilizing of the data, reduction of the work load and assisting with compliance with the several important regulations (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). The most significant and important roles of the information systems within this organization of POS Solutions are as follows:

1. Information Storage as well as Analysis: The first and the foremost role of the information system within the organization of POS Solutions is the proper storage as well as analysis of information (Marchewka, 2014). The confidential data or the information is manually managed with registers and within the hard copy formats. With the implementation of the information system, POS Solutions could substantially make use of the comprehensive and sophisticated databases, which could comprise of the every imaginable piece of data regarding the organization (Kellermann & Jones, 2013). The information system stores, updates and also analyses the information that the organization could utilize to pin point solutions for the current or the future problems. The systems could also integrate the data from several sources and thus the internal performance as well as external opportunities or threats are checked properly (Holtshouse, 2013).
2. Assisting to Make the Decisions: The second important and significant role of the information system within this organization of POS Solutions is to assist to make the various decisions (Bloom, Garicano, Sadun & Van Reenen, 2014). The decision making process is extremely made easier with this type of information system. The long term success of the POS Solutions eventually depends on the adequacy of the strategic plans. The entire management team of this particular organization utilizes the information system for the core purpose of formulating the strategic plans and then making the decisions for the purpose of prosperity and longevity (Lloyd, 2017). They are using the information system for evaluating the information from every source like information from the external references and providing the information properly. The proper analysis or the comparison of the market trends help them in analysing the overall quality of the strategic decisions (Schwalbe, 2015).
3. Proper Considerations: The next subsequent and noteworthy role of the information system within the particular organization of POS Solutions is the proper considerations (Alwahaishi & Snásel, 2013). The proper implementation of the information systems within this company could be proven to be expensive. Since, this is a smaller organization, in comparison to the others; cost effectiveness is highly required here, else they would be facing significant issues due to this. The implementation costs could include not only the system installation, but also the employee training session (Oztaysi, 2014). Moreover, the employees might view the implementation of the information systems as the unwarranted changes and hence could even resist to the changes. The resistance to these changes could also hinder the business operations and could cause the respective employee turn overs. POS Solutions is also having leadership in place for assessing the decision adequacy for having the information system and hence guiding them through the respective transition phase and gaining potential benefits (Wagner, Beimborn & Weitzel, 2014).
4. Better Efficiency and Communication: The fourth important role of the information system for the POS Solutions organization is the better efficiency, effectiveness and communication (Andrade & Doolin, 2016). The overall business processes become more effective and efficient without any type of problem. Moreover, the complexities regarding the business processes are also reduced to a high level and hence this specific organization of POS Solutions is benefitted eventually. Furthermore, the communication within the organizational departments are also benefitted with this and the organization does not face any issue regarding their communication system (Brooks, 2016). Being a software company, it is important for them to maintain a good communication with its clients and this is well maintained here.

POS Solutions, although is utilizing an information system within their business; they are also vulnerable to several types of risks within these information systems (Wagner, Vollmar & Wagner, 2014). The major and the most significant risks within these types of systems are as follows:

1. Unauthorized Access of Confidential Data: The first and the foremost type of dangerous risk that is extremely common for the information system of POS Solutions is the unauthorized access of the confidential data or information (Stein, Newell, Wagner & Galliers, 2015). The hackers or the attackers could easily and promptly access the sensitive organizational data if any type of security is not present within it and hence the organization of POS Solutions often could face some of the major problems.
2. Loss or Release of the Critical Business Data: The hackers could also release or lose the critical business data without undertaking the permission of the management (Zhilenkov & Chernyi, 2015). Hence, this could lead to major destruction of the data and hence the organization faces some of the most significant issues.
3. Lack of Security as well as Identity Management: The next significant risk or threat of the information system is the lack of security as well as identity management. The organization often faces some of the most noteworthy issues, when the hackers or attackers hack the confidential data and loses the data security (Wagner, Beimborn & Weitzel, 2014). Moreover, these hackers act as the most trusted identity and hence the authorized users have no idea regarding the authenticated data and they face issues related to security or identity management.
4. Issues of Hardware Implementation: Another important and significant risk is the major issue related to the hardware implementation. The hardware plays one of the most important roles in information system (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). Without the proper implementation of hardware, it is not at all possible to use the information system properly and efficiently. Thus, when there is any issue regarding hardware implementation, it becomes a major problem for POS Solutions.
5. Downtime of the IT Services: The next subsequent risk or threat is the down time of the several services of information technology (Klukas, Chen & Pape, 2014). The availability of these specific services of the information technology is extremely low in information system in comparison to any other system. Thus, it is another important risk of the information system.
6. Quality of Data Degradation: The sixth important and significant risk and threat is the degradation of the data quality (Gallagher & Sixsmith, 2014). The poor data quality subsequently causes major damages and losses for the several factors like the process failures, decline of the customer satisfaction and even the several compliance issues.
7. Malware Attacks: The virus attacks or the malware attacks are the next possible and probable risks or threats (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Any type of information system might be facing some of the major issues related to the malware attacks. If proper strategies are not applied here, this becomes a major issue for the organization to deal with all of these issues easily and promptly.
8. Risks Related to Integration: Another popular and noteworthy risk or threat that is quite common is the various risks related to the integration within the company. Being a software company, this particular organization has to deal with some of the major integration issues (Bajdor & Grabara, 2014). Each and every department should be able to integrate the departments so that the flow of information is much better here and the organization does not face any issue regarding information flow. However, with the presence of information system, this organization of POS Solutions often undergoes the risks or issues related to the integration.
9. Operational Risks: The next important and significant risks related to the information system is the operational risk (Li, Hsieh & Rai, 2013). There is a high potential for the technology failures within these systems for the core purpose of disrupting the various business processes and operations. Hence, these risks should be mitigated on time.
10. Risks Related to Physical Data Security: The risks related to the physical data security is the next subsequent risk or threat for the information system in this specific company of POS Solutions (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dziuban, 2013). The security at the respective organizational data centres is extremely vulnerable some times and hence the organization undergoes these issues eventually. Moreover, there should be a presence of physical security within the data centre so that there is no chance of data theft.

The above mentioned identified risks are extremely dangerous and vulnerable for the information systems of this organization of POS Solutions and hence they should be mitigated on time to avoid these issues eventually (Dahlstrom & Bichsel, 2014). The various mitigation strategies for the identified risks within this organization are as follows:

1. Building and Maintaining Secured Networks or Systems: The first and the foremost mitigation strategy for the identified risks is the proper building as well as maintaining of the safe and secured networks or systems (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). This should be done on an immediate basis and hence is termed as one of the most important and significant mitigation strategy.
2. Implementation of Firewalls: The second important and noteworthy mitigation strategy is the proper implementation of firewalls (Kellermann & Jones, 2013). This type of implementation as well as installation of the firewalls is done for the protection and security of the data.
3. Regular Monitoring as well as Testing of Networks: Another important and significant mitigation strategy of this type of identified risk is the regular and periodical monitoring as well as testing of the networks (Holtshouse, 2013). The several organizational networks should be monitored and tested properly so that they do not face any issue regarding network security.
4. Implementation of Anti-Virus Software: The anti-virus software is one of the most important and noteworthy mitigation strategy for all types of identified risks and threats (Alwahaishi & Snásel, 2013). The anti-virus software hence should be implemented properly for the proper mitigation and reduction of the malware attacks or virus attacks.

Impact of Information System on POS Solutions

The values of POS Solutions provide the perspective and actions of them. The value statements help in listing the principles and ethics that are adhered to the company. Hence, an ethical foundation is formed here and the behaviour of the organizational members are properly understood by this and the correct and incorrect conducts are easily determined. Innovation is the next important value of this organization. They always try to bring out something new in their business. Moreover, the integrity is also important organizational value that is possessed by them. These values help POS Solutions in fulfilling their goals and objectives without any type of complexity.

Information system plays one of the major roles in organizational values of POS Solutions. Since, the information management becomes easier with IS, the value like data integrity is easily achieved by them. Moreover, since IS could determine the correct and incorrect conducts, it is reduced for determining and maintaining the organizational value. The decision making process is also easy with IS and thus the organizational members could take the major decisions easily.

There are some of the major and the most significant elements to form the respective IT strategy of the organization of POS Solutions and these altogether comprise to make the strategy of information technology successful for the company (Bajdor & Grabara, 2014). The major elements in this information technology strategy are given below:

1. A Proper Vision: The first and the most important element of this IT strategy is the proper vision. If the vision of the organization is not perfect, it is evident that the organization would be facing some of the major issues here and the POS Solutions will not be able to fulfil the requirements of their customers.
2. Core Values: The second element of this information technology strategy is the core value (Brooks, 2016). The values help in assessing the current state of the organization and hence decision making is done easily and promptly.
3. Clear Defined Outcome: The next element is the clearly defined outcomes or results (Gallagher & Sixsmith, 2014). The outcomes should proper and clear and the IT strategy without these outcomes could result in major organizational issues for POS Solutions.
4. KPIs: The fourth element of this IT strategy is the KPIs (Dahlstrom & Bichsel, 2014). The key elements are the performance indicators for this organization of POS Solutions and hence the employees could properly gain their performance indicators easily.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that management of information system is extremely important and significant requirement for any organization to maintain their confidential and sensitive organizational information. The decision making of the business becomes much easier with this type of system and the coordination, control and analysis are also done properly in any specific organization. The technology and people of that organization are examined and hence the profits and value of the business are increased. The data are gathered from several sources like multiple online systems and computer linked checkout counters automatically. The functions that are displayed are eventually built on the system and are connected by several networks. There is a stronger impact of the information system on any organization or business. The above-report has properly outlined the information system management for POS Solutions. Several details regarding impact of information systems and gaining competitive advantages in POS Solutions are also provided here. Moreover, the IT strategy and analytical approaches of this organization are described in the report.

Risks Involved

References

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