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MIS - Cool Care Manufacturers in Btoswana

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MIS – Cool Care Manufacturers in Botswana Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Introduction of the proposal to the Bo ard…………………………………………………1 Background of the organization/department………………...…………………………….2 The Existing System (Critical analysis and evaluation)…………………..………………2 Part A: Systems Analysis………………………………………………………………….4 1.1 Problem description……………………………………………………………….4 1.2 Feasibility Study………………………………………………………………….5 1.3 Cost Benefit Analysis……………………………………………………………..6 1.4 Information Requirements………………………………………………………...7 Part B: Systems Design and Development………………………………………………..8 2.1 Proposed IT Infr astructural Design ( Hardware and Software)……………………8 2.2 Networking and Telecommunication options…………………………………….9 2.3 Storage…………………………………………………...………………………11 2.4 Back up……………………………………………………………………..……11 2.5 Security…………………………………………………………………………..12 2.6 Systems functionality…………………………………………………………….13 Part C: System Implementation………………………………………………………….14 3.1 Systems Testing………………………………………………………………….14 3.2 Implementation strategy………………………………………………………….15 3.3 Resolution of problems………………………………………………………..…16 Part D : Systems Maintenance……………………………………………………………16 4.1 Maintenance Procedures…………………………………………………………16 4.2 Updating and Upgrading…………………………………………………………18 Conclusions and Recommendations …………………………………………………….18 Bibliography ………………………………………………………...………………….19 Appendix A …..…………………………………………………………………………20
Transcript
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MIS – Cool Care Manufacturers in Botswana

Table of contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1

Introduction of the proposal to the Board…………………………………………………1

Background of the organization/department………………...…………………………….2

The Existing System (Critical analysis and evaluation)…………………..………………2

Part A: Systems Analysis………………………………………………………………….4

1.1 Problem description……………………………………………………………….4

1.2 Feasibility Study………………………………………………………………….5

1.3 Cost Benefit Analysis……………………………………………………………..6

1.4 Information Requirements………………………………………………………...7

Part B: Systems Design and Development………………………………………………..8

2.1 Proposed IT Infrastructural Design (Hardware and Software)……………………8

2.2 Networking and Telecommunication options…………………………………….9

2.3 Storage…………………………………………………...………………………11

2.4 Back up……………………………………………………………………..……11

2.5 Security…………………………………………………………………………..122.6 Systems functionality…………………………………………………………….13

Part C: System Implementation………………………………………………………….14

3.1 Systems Testing………………………………………………………………….14

3.2 Implementation strategy………………………………………………………….15

3.3 Resolution of problems………………………………………………………..…16

Part D: Systems Maintenance……………………………………………………………16

4.1 Maintenance Procedures…………………………………………………………16

4.2 Updating and Upgrading…………………………………………………………18

Conclusions and Recommendations …………………………………………………….18

Bibliography ………………………………………………………...………………….19

Appendix A …..…………………………………………………………………………20

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cohesive software solution across all company functions. ERP seeks to integrate

operation processes and information flow in the company.

Background of the organization/department

Cool-care manufacturers were established in May 1997 and are based in Gaborone,

Botswana. It manufactures compressors used in motor vehicle air-conditions units. There

are four departments which are human resources, operations, sales and finance with a

total capacity of 412 employees including 34 mangers. Only 113 employees have access

to a computer and 12 printers. Cool-care has seven international customers in Motor 

Manufacturing business who are already digitally enabled. The annual sales were $17.5

million in 2008. The increasing inefficiency of legacy system contribute to information

inconsistency, unavailability and accessibility across the organisation coupled with peer-

to-peer network system and unavailability of a website. The personal computer used for a

server does not have the capacity to sustain the company data and is insecure. Poor 

control and management of information due to independent information storage.

The Existing system

The existing legacy system faces a number of challenges in running business activities

due to unreliable infrastructure, network systems, database servers, storage or personal

computers to assist with the day-to-day business processes. An Information Technology

department does not exist to support and maintain information technology infrastructure,

their international customers are digitally enabled, and information management and

control arises from poor data quality in giving satisfactory customer service, inaccurate

inventory and lost orders. Lack of data sharing between functional departments and

timely availability inhibits information sharing thereby slowing company growth.

Unavailability of a website contributes to difficulty in winning or looking for new

 business prospects.

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The limitations of a legacy system is which inhibits managers from having timely

information for decision making and making forecasts. This contributes to reduced

revenues and potential loss of customers. Independent functional data storage has draws

 backs of file duplication, data redundancy and inconsistency which leads to lack of data

sharing and availability of timely information therefore affecting the opportunity

innovation, poor understanding of market dynamics and market growth. The peer to peer 

network system warrants poor security and management data control resulting in the

vulnerability of company information to loss, theft or being tempered with by

unauthorized individuals. The server lacks the capacity to sustain massive data storage

for a long time which can be costly because more servers need to be added to

accommodate ever increasing information and wastage of space. Unavailability of a

website to advertise its products and services to the global business environment makes it

lose the opportunity to increase clientele base, suppliers and opportunity to discover new

markets and growth. Management’s performance is affected because the valuable timely

information needed to analyze customer purchasing patterns and preferences, planning,

decision making and achieve the company goals cannot be attained easily due to the

hurdles contributed by the legacy system.

By comparison with the legacy system, a fully integrated information system can produce

 benefits to Cool-care such as:

a) operational excellence in achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in

 business processes;

  b) improved the quality and efficiency of customer service, production and

distribution through integrated and improved internal business processes;

c) provides cross-functional information on business performance to assist mangers

in making better decisions;

d) customer and supplier relationship is reinforced through providing consistent

customer service experience;

e) faster decision making through provision of timely information thereby making

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informed decisions, improve planning and allocation of resources accordingly;

f) helps the company identify, reward and market to their most loyal and profitable

customers;

g) survival in the market is enhanced through network systems and online website as

its international clients are digitized (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:43-45).

Part A: Systems Analysis

1.1 Problem description

The current legacy system is a combination of obsolete applications which service the

firm’s operational day to day processes. A website needs to be created to enable the

company’s survival and compete in the current global environment. The peer to peer 

network is limited and should be upgraded to local area network to enable many personal

computers and workstations to be connected to share resources and communicate with

one another (Bentley and Whitten, 2007:485). A centralised database server will enhance

 business services as the finance and sales departments will work faster on requests, order 

and calculations. The company can also cut costs of keeping good customers through

accessibility of consolidated view of the customers’ needs and their performance.

Database management systems solves the traditional filing system in alleviating data

redundancy, inconsistency, reinforce management control and security. Customer 

relationship management system helps incorporate some of the independent data into

single information. It would also solve administration’s use of traditional filling system

which may result in data loss, file duplication and redundancy.

Enterprise applications are costly but some measure of information integration can be

achieved using intranet and extranet which connects employees with each other or 

external users. It is cost effective and requires very little work to maintain (Laudon and

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Ladudon, 2010). The enterprise resource planning solutions seeks to integrate and

automate many business processes and information systems.

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ERP include tools like decision support systems, executive information systems and data

mining for decision making and this improving business processes. Supply chain

management assist all movement and storage of raw materials collaborates with supplier 

and customers, plan production based on actual customer demand and reduce inventory,

transportation and warehousing costs (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:373). Customer 

relationship management systems, according to Laudon and Laudon (2010:87) help

companies manage relationships with their customers and consolidate customer 

information from many communication channels.

The systems developed should be able to interface with existing legacy data and

computational systems that are already running.

1.2 Feasibility study

Laudon and Laudon (2010:516) define feasibility study is undertaken to determine

whether the solution is feasible, achievable for financial, technical and organisational

standpoint.

Organizational feasibility involves efforts to ascertain how the system is going to affect

Cool-Care Manufactures stakeholders. Having conducted a survey on the main

stakeholders to establish how the system is going to affect them and how they perceive

these anticipated effects, and found out that it is going to positively affect the duties and

roles of management. The success of management largely depends on the disposal of 

information and one of the objectives of this project is to improve the quality and flow of 

information as well as to incorporate decision-making supporting mechanisms. The

employees’ morale among Cool Care Manufactures staff members will be boosted due to

the alleviation of the legacy system .

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Operational feasibility is to establish the urgency of the problem and the acceptability of 

the proposed solution by its systems users as communication is important in sharing a

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language Crowe, Beeby and Gammack (1996: 98-108). In order to achieve this and to

establish whether the managers and users would accept the proposed solution, we first

found out how they both feel about the system. It turns out that they both equally feel that

it has out-lived its purpose and something needs to be done. I went on to explain the

 proposed solution and gave an abstract overview of how it is going to solve some of the

identified problems, at the same time getting feedback about how they feel about this idea

through use of questionnaires and group meetings. Most of those presented with the idea

were pleased that something was about to be done though a minority were sceptic about

the proposed system being locally developed and lose of jobs.

Technical feasibility is performed in order to assess whether it’s technically feasible to

support the project in terms of hardware, software and technical expertise. Technical

Feasibility is inclined on the technical expertise and the availability of the equipment

to be used and competent to produce the specified product.

The new systems will address the requirements of owners by making data more

organized, easier to retrieve and enhance performance. Both management and staff feel

that the system needs to replace the legacy system which concludes that the project is

operationally feasible.

1.3 Cost benefits analysis

Cost benefit analysis is a system for calculating and comparing benefits and costs for two

 purposes, to determine if it is a sound investment and to see how it compares withalternate project. It is an analysis of the cost effectiveness of different alternatives in

order to see whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

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Use of a computerized management information system, manual filing will be replaced

 by a database management system, once the program is implemented costs will not be

above average costs of maintaining any other system and tried and tested solution can

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 prove to be cheaper and reduce costs if the appropriate package is purchased. Improved

decision making capabilities will be incorporated as desired as well as customer relations

features will be incorporated like web site development, customers queries can be posted

online and quality flow of information. The hardware and software selection has to be

compatible with the requirements of the owners such as server, network system that is

standard and easy to maintain, latest operating systems and security maintenance. Buying

could be a bit costly for hardware but there are other computer vendors who lease and

maintain their hardware which could be cheaper in a way. There are open source software

which can be used to manage and maintain security and protect company systems from

invaders, these are free and can be downloaded form the internet.

The benefits derived are reduced to errors and cost, increased operation, flexibility and

timely consistent information for decision making. Communication is improved thereby

transactions and agreements can be done more swiftly without having too much money

1.4 Information requirements

According to Bentley and Whitten (2007:83) the requirements analysis does not specify

any technical possibilities or solutions and that the systems analyst has to work closely

with systems users to identify needs and priorities. Laudon and Laudon (2010:516) argue

that faulty requirements analysis leads to systems failure and high systems development

costs, therefore thorough investigation and causation needs to be observed. The new

system should provide:

• Database servers to record different functional information to appropriate users on

time, adjust and correct error promptly;

• Should handle the accessibility of the employees in effective manner and fast data

access;

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2010:203).

Source: (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:203)

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Software includes operating system software, Web browsers, software productivity

suites, database management systems, software for business applications like customer 

relationship management and supply chain management. The following are software

requirements for Cool-care:

• Database management and storage – SQL Server 

• Internet platform – Microsoft IIS

• Operating system – Microsoft Windows XP

• Enterprise software applications – SAP

•  Network/Telecommunication –Microsoft Windows Server/Verizon

2.2 Networking and Telecommunication options

  Network telecommunications technology consist both physical devices and software,

which links the various pieces of hardware and transfers data from one physical location

to another (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:51). Client/server computing network and use of 

 packet switching integrates computing across the entire Cool-care company (Laudon and

Laudon, 2010:280).

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Source: (http://www.google.com/images)

The networking requirements for the ideal system are based on:

Performance

Consistency

Flexibility

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Availability

Reliability

Recovery

Security

 Network topology is defined as the physical interconnection of the various elements of a

computer network, which can be a physical design including the devices, location and

cable installation or logical, how data actually transfers in a network as opposed to its

design. The rules and regulations of communication as well as the language of 

communications are collectively called access protocol and communication protocol. The

most popular hardware protocol available for Local Area Network is Ethernet and the

Transmission Control Protocol or Internet Protocol is for communications protocol.

A bus topology links a number of computers by a single circuit; failure of one does not

affect the entire network and is used for a small network that is not expected to grow

much. In a star topology all computers and other devices are connected to a central host

computer. It is easy to modify and add new computer to the network. If the central hub

fails then the entire network is down and is used for a large network which is expected to

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grow in future. In a ring topology each computer is connected to the next computer in

line forming a circle of cable which uses a token to pass information. Failure of one

computer can affect the whole network and requires a higher speed network. A mesh

topology has a dedicated point to point to every each device. Failure of one node

computer does not affect the network by is expensive due to the amount of cabling

To improve the networking systems requires a client/server networking technology that

uses packet switching, transmission control protocol/internet protocol for linking

desperate networks and computers. A local-area network with a star topology would be

ideal to connect all computers in several buildings in close proximity, can link to wide-

area networks, internet or other networks (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:283). Cool-care

would be able to hold conferences with its international customers and share information

with its employees.

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2.3 Storage

Laudon and Laudon (2010:205) state that there are a few choices for enterprise database

management software for organising and managing the firm’s data so that it can be

efficiently accessed and used such as DB2, Oracle, SQL server, Adaptive server 

enterprise and MySQL, a Linux open source and Storage-area network. Companies can

use different types of store their data depending on their business processes such as:

a) Hard disk storage which have low access times, availability, capacity;

 b) External hard drive

c) Optical disk is recordable CD and can be restored on any machine with a CD-

ROM drive and is cheap and rewritable’s such as DVD-Ram and CD-RW ;

d) Floppy disk has a low data capacity which makes it an unpopular and obsolete

choice today;

e) Flush memory, thumb drives, USB flash drives, Compact Flash, Smart Media,

Memory Stick , Secure Digital cards, etc., these devices are relatively costly for 

their low capacity but offer excellent portability and ease-of-use;

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f) Remote backup services, backs up data via internet to a remote location are

gaining in popularity;

g) Magnetic tape can be used for bulk data storage, backup, archiving and

interchange;

h) Network based storage technologies such as storage area networks (Laudon and

Laudon, 2010:205).

For Cool-care’s, storage area networks would be ideal as it creates a large central pool of 

storage that can be rapidly accessed and shared by multiple servers, cost effective and is

reliable in case of a crash data will not be lost.

2.4 Back up

The process of backing up refers to making copies of data which will be used to restore

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the original in the event of loss, accidentally deleted or disaster such as:

• Traditional backup software simply copies critical business data;

• Blade servers are cheaper and easier;

• IBM mainframe computers are more expensive and require Unix software;

• A backup site or data recovery center can be another location operated by the

organization, or contracted to a third party such as Symantec Backup Exec 2010;

• Floppy disks or CD-R/DVD-R media which takes minimal information;

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is a relational data model that adequately provides the

levels of data independence and includes services to facilitate the changes;

• Symantec Enterprise Vault automates the migration, storage and retention of 

unstructured information in accordance with IT policies while improving performance, reducing costs and simplifying management.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is a management system that provides backup services to

improve reliability, has a wide range of data types, permits concurrent access,

spontaneously updates and edits a new transaction.

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2.5 Security

There are four security requirements widely agreed on (Parker, 1981, 1988) discuss

confidentiality, integrity, availability of information should only be made available to

authorized personnel and (Chokhani, 1994; Rohm, Pernul and Herrmann, 1988) came to

a similar conclusion about non-repudiation being important in enabling financial

transactions and data interchange which are keys to electronic commerce. Laudon and

Laudon (2010:323) refers security to policies, procedures and technical measures used to

  prevent unauthorized tempering, damage to information systems and managements

standards. Types of security are:

• Firewalls prevent unauthorized users from accessing private networks which is a

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combination of hardware and software that controls the flow of incoming and

outgoing network traffic. Cisco Pix, Symantec firewall and Sonicwall are

commonly used for corporate environment and are very expensive;

• Antivirus software is defensive technology for both individuals and businesses

and these must continually be updated to remain effective and antivirus software

vendors are McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro as well as Norton and AVGopen source;

• Antispyware software tools such as Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D and Spyware Doctor 

are used in combination with antivirus software;

• Encryption and public key infrastructures are used to protect digital information

sent over the internet enables the client and server computer to communicate

securely;

• Access control are polices and procedures used to prevent improper access to

systems by unauthorized insiders and outsiders and users must be authorized and

authenticated;

• Authentication established by password systems, tokens, smart cards and

intrusion detection systems (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:345-347).

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2.6 System functionality

According to Laudon and Laudon (2010:340) a good acceptable use policy defines

unacceptable and acceptable actions for every user and specifies measures for 

noncompliance. An authorization policy determines different level users who can access

to information assets and authorization management systems establish permission to

certain parts of the corporate database. User rights are put in place to protect privileged

information of internal users e.g. employers and customers’ information.

Bragg (2004:526) is of a similar view that systems functioning user rights are defined by

domain controller security policy. The important thing is not to give full right to users,

default settings maybe adequate and additional user rights must be given after a thorough

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investigation. Companies have policies and procedures in place to control and prevent

improper access to systems by unauthorized insiders or outsiders e.g. staff in human

resource department some have user rights to access employee benefits information and

some have access to update employee information e.g. contract extensions. Laudon and

Laudon (2010:344) argue that user access or rights must be authorized and authenticated

using a password only known to the user.

Maintaining a secure password is sometimes difficult due to sniffing, sharing them or 

 poor password that easy to guess hence new authentication technologies have been device

such as tokens a device for a single user like identification card, smart cards like credit

cards that which reads and interpret individual human traits such as finger prints, irises or 

voice to grant access.

Part C: System Implementation

3.1 Systems testing

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There are three testing methods that can be used for systems testing which are unit

testing, systems testing and acceptance testing (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:518 and

Bentley and Whitten, 2007:709).

Unit testing or program testing are were individual components of the system are tested

independently without other system components to locate errors and trying to find all

ways to make a program fail as there is no program that is error free. Once the errors are

found they are rectified. Systems testing ensure that the entire application of which the

modified program was a part still works or there are any discrepancies to the way the

system works and the way it was programmed as well as checking performance time, file

storage capacity, handling peak loads, recovery and restart capabilities and manual

 procedures. They are evaluated by users and reviewed by management.

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Acceptance Testing determine whether functioning as per user requirements and ready to

 be used in a production setting. Once all parties are satisfied the system is formally

accepted for implementation.

The system testing is a better method as it tests the modified program and the main users

are the role players. Also considering their business operations, there is need to check the

entire program and rectify any errors.

3.2 Implementation strategy

According to Laudon and Laudon (2010:521) conversion is the process of changing from

a legacy system to the new system and four strategies may be used. The parallel strategy

allows both the legacy system and the potential replacement to run concurrently for a

time until everyone is satisfied that the new functions are correct. This strategy is safe in

case of errors or processing disruptions the old systems can still be used as backup

though is very expensive as additional staff or resources may be needed. The direct

cutover strategy replaces the old legacy system completely with the new system on an

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agreed dated. This can be risky compared to running two systems at the same time in the

event that serious problems are found. As there would be no system to fall back on while

rectifications are made can be very expensive and time consuming. The pilot study

strategy introduces the new systems to a section of the organization e.g. human resource

or operations department. Once the new system is operating correctly the new system can

 be implemented through the entire organization or can be in stages. The phased approach

strategy introduces the new system in stages such as stating with the headquarters and

then moving down until the whole organization in installed.

As Cool-care’s legacy system has been running though obsolete I would recommend the

 pilot study approach as it is not very expensive and there is a back when things go wrong.

Also the installation of the new system will be installing once and for all once all the

errors have been rectified in the pilot study phase.

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3.3 Resolution of problems

Laudon and Laudon (2010:422) defines call centre as an organizational department

responsible for handling customer service issues by phone, email or other channels which

is cheaper than a live customer representative. Bentley and Whitten (2007:709-10)

discusses the system recovery methods to resolve problem such as the systems analyst

acts as intermediary between the user and those who can fix the systems. The roll forward

method is used to recover lost data between the last back up and the database’s

reprocessing recovery. In cases where a crash occurred during a transaction, then any

updates done to the databases before the crash must be undone before reprocessing the

complete transaction using the roll back method.

The other technique to resolution of problems is to call technicians or vendor service

representatives to fix the hardware problems or the analyst will automatically or by

coaching users to manually avoid a software bug or debug. Technical support is provided

to users routinely, conducting user-satisfaction surveys and meetings, providing

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additional training as necessary and logging enhancement ideas and request in the

repository.

As Cool-care is a manufacturing company dealing with international motor manufacturer,

having a call centre would prove to be a worthwhile move as it quickly responds to client

queries regarding also time difference between countries.

Part D: System maintenance

4.1 Maintenance procedures

Once the system has been installed it needs to be maintained. Outsourcing can be used to

maintain a system. There are three external sources for software maintenance which are

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software packages from a commercial vendor, software services from online provider and

outsourcing custom application development to an outside software firm (Laudon and

Laudon, 2010:217).

Software package is a prewritten, predesigned and pretested commercially available

 program which organization can buy to use instead of writing up its own software. SAP

and Oracle-PeopleSoft are vendors that have developed these software to support

 business processes of a firm worldwide at a cost less than developing it themselves.

Package vendors provide ongoing maintenance and support. A company can customize

its unique requirements as the vendor packages include capabilities for customization. It

can be expensive and time consuming if additional programming is required. Analyst

evaluate the functions provided by the package for flexibility, user friendliness, hardware

and software, data requirements, installation and maintenance efforts, documentation,

vendor quality and cost. Once the analyst is satisfied with the selected package the

organization will have no total control over the system design process (Laudon and

Laudon, 2010:531).

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Software as a service is delivered and used over networks as a service e.g. cloud

computing is delivered as a service over the internet. Companies need to really assess the

costs and benefits of the services as costs may become more than purchasing and

maintaining the application in-house. Outsourcing is when firms contract external source

which can be domestic or in another country for custom software development and

maintenance of it old system. These companies provide lower-level maintenance, data

entry and call centre operations to service their clients. Outsourcing is often less

expensive than hiring permanent new employees who would need extensive training in

the new software package. Companies need to thoroughly understand the project’s

requirements, methods of implementation, benefits, cost and metrics for measuring

 performance. Though caution need to be taken when using an outsourcer to develop or 

operate applications that give some competitive advantage (Laudon and Laudon,

2010:532).

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Cool-care is recommended to use outsourcing as it a cost saver and would benefit if they

thoroughly investigate the risks and vendor’s service.

4.2 Updating and upgrading

The updating and upgrading procedure for hardware and software is necessary and should

 be on an ongoing basis. Cloud computing is more appealing to mal and medium-size

 businesses that have no resource to buy and own their own hardware and software and

these are offered as services over the internet. Data is stored permanently in remote mass

data centres and is accessed and updated over the internet (Laudon and Laudon,

2010:208).

Autonomic computing is an effort to develop systems that can protect themselves and

heal, detect and destroy virus when invaded. IBM and other vendors have started to build

autonomic features into products for large systems (Laudon and Laudon, 2010:209).

Programs can be updated automatically through online antivirus protection services,

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designed to check computer systems and drives for viruses. McAfee, Symantec and

Trend Micro are leading antivirus software vendors. Companies need to remember that

antivirus software is effective in detecting virus already known when the software was

written, therefore should be continually updated to remain effective (Laudon and Laudon,

2010:347).

Conclusions and Recommendations

In the current global market, business organizations cannot do without information systems and

technology. It is the main source of survival and of attaining the competitive advantage positions

in the industry. Though business propellers need to understand that the system indeed need the

human skills for application of information and sharing knowledge for the continuous growth of 

the business.

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Bibliography

Bentley, L.D. and Whitten, J.L. (2007). Systems Analysis and Design for the Global

Enterprises. 7th edition. McGraw-Hill International

Bragg, R. (2004). Hardening Windows Systems , Bulletproof your systems before you are

hacked. McGraw-Hill Osborne.

Chokhani, S. (1994). Towards a national public key infrastructure. IEEE

Communications Magazine. 9 (32), 70-74.

Crowe, A., Beeby, R. and Gammack, J. (1996). Constructing systems and information: a

 process view. Maidenhead. McGraw-Hill.

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Laudon K.C. and Laudon J.P. (2006) Management Information Systems. 9th edition. 

Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River: New Jersey

Parker, D.B. (1998). Fighting Computer Crime – A New Framework for Protecting

Information. Wiley Computer Publishing. USA.

Parker, D. (1981). Computer Security Management. Reston, Virginia. Reston Publishing.

Röhmn, A.W., Pernul, G. and Herrmann, G. (1998). Modelling secure and fair electronic

commerce, In Proceedings of the 14th Annual Computer Security Applications

Conference. 155-164.

Schach, S.R. (2004). Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with UML and

the Unified Process. McGraw-Hill

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Appendix A

Problem Statement

Project: Information systems Project Manager: Mabel Jiri

Created by: Mabel Jiri Last update by: Ashley Madoda

Date created: 16 April 2010 Date last updated: 18 April 2010

Statements of Problems,opportunities or Directive

Urgency Visibility Annual benefits

Priority Proposed solution

1.Order response time as measured

from time of order receipt to time

of customer delivery has increased

to an average of 10 days

ASAP High $190,000 1 New development

2. Currently, four functionaldepartments each has its

independent databases. Therefore,

intent to merge databases into a

single centralized database

1 month Medium $45,000 1 New development

3. There is lack of access to

management and decision-making

4

months

Low 20,000 2 After new systems

is developed,

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information. A centralized

database will enhance sharing of 

information.

 provide users with

easy-to-learn and

use reporting tools

4. There currently exists data

inconsistency in member and order 

files.

2

months

High $40,000 1 Urgent fix, then

new development

5. There is need to create a

website.

2

months

Medium 10,000 3 Newly developed

systems

6. Need to improve the P2P

network system is limited. There is

need to improve networking

 between employees, customers and

suppliers (LAN).

3

months

Medium $40,000 2 New systems

7. The security and control is an

issue that needs to be addressed.

6

months

Low Unknown 4 Future version of  

newly developedsystem

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