Research Topics: Information System Management

System availability management for small to medium sized marine shipping companies in Hong Kong

Introduction   Overview The world is fast entering the Information Age.  Transactions and commodities may be packaged through data.  There is a disintegration of the concrete to give way to what is abstract and digital.  The digital and information for that matter are equally shaping and determining the contemporary world. Jackson, Harris & Eckerseley (2003) believed that any business in the world today cannot survive without information systems.  Information systems are essential for its role in making communication convenient and cheap significantly.  It allows information transfer in an efficient and fast rate.  Cost is reduced and communication is even improved and disseminated better.  Information systems made it possible for people in great distance to be closely linked together and allow them to truly convene with each other.  Transactions and agreements can be arranged swiftly without having to spend much.  What information systems bring is a new way of operating and managing a business, and that is through data transfer.  Basically, information systems (IS) are often related to e-based business or e-business. E-Business is often described as the use of electronic data and gadgets in the transmission of information used in business (Jackson, Harris & Eckerseley 2003). This includes the usage of devices and databases.  It is more centered on man’s usage of the many machine and data benefits and advantages in the operation of a business. Meaning to say, e-based processes in businesses can also be applied to any industry, e.g. marine shipping companies in Hong Kong. The adoption of a digitalised approach in business procedures however has its own pitfalls.  Communications arranged in a digital environment would certainly lessen personal relationships and reduce the participation of human elements.  Internet communication is complex and will not be comfortable to the inexperience.  It calls for a new approach to communication that relies on computer languages instead of the basic telephone alternative.  On the other hand, the Internet is an open environment that may be used by anyone with a computer and a modem.  Therefore transactions must be made secure from outside interventions.  Security is very fragile as users capable of data manipulation in the Internet may just as easily do so unless steps are undertaken against fraud among other threats. An open environment would also mean that it would cater to all computer users in the world allowing the electronic medium to be the universal means of communication.  Internet allowed the bridging of the gaps that has been limiting individuals to gain access to a larger network of market and opportunities.   The Internet continues to expand daily as web sites are continuous in their composition. The biggest issue of e-based transaction and communication is trust.  This is a necessary ingredient in the completion of business agreements.  They are the medium and the connection of which two parties arrange bargains and settlements. With this regard, there are many small and medium size marine shipping companies in Hong Kong. However the system availability is low.  This research will be focusing on the system availability and how it affects the business.   Context             From the previous discussion, this paper will be discussing the system availability management for small to medium-sized marine shipping companies in Hong Kong.  Basically, the research is set in two companies in Hong Kong, i.e. Transfield ER Resources Limited (TER) and Clarksons Asia Limited (CAL). Actaully, the word “small” and “medium” means the business and operation size in Hong Kong, not for the whole company.  TER is a medium size marine shipping company with over 70 full time staffs.  The headquarters of CAL is in the United Kingdom, It has a representation office in Hong Kong with 15 full time staffs.  Both companies are well known in marine shipping industry in Hong Kong.  As previously stated, the research will focus on the system availability and how it affects the business. Currently, Internet and other network systems connect people in the world, system breakdown means loss of business and loss of company reputation.  Companies cannot survive without computer system.  The vessels are running in different countries and different time zone.  Staffs are required to work at anytime, anywhere.  The demanding of the computer system is increasing and they don’t expect any down time.  However, small and medium sized marine shipping companies in Hong Kong are still having low system availability issue.  How can we improve the system availability and reduce the down time? From the drawbacks of implementing an IS, it is unpredicted, frustrating, inconvenient, and the whole business will be shut down because everyone is relying on computer system. Actually, system unavailability can suddenly strike without warning. System downtime can be caused by natural disasters, system failure, user error or illegal intrusion and routine; however, every system requires off-line maintenance such as software and hardware upgrades and checking. Only prepared companies can continuously conduct business after system downtime as if nothing happened or with minimal outage; this is due to the reason that prepared companies have acquired technology that ensures continuous business operation even at system downtime and have taken well-planned steps in securing valuable company data and mission-critical applications are properly backed-up and continuously available anywhere in real-time. From these issues, this research is hopeful to formulate set of guidelines for IS implementation. The guidelines will provide the system evaluation and recommendations.  It consists of three parts, they are Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.  The research will focus on of Business Continuity Planning, Computer & Operations Management.  The set of guidelines is important to show business owner of marine shipping companies what the problem is and how can they improve the system availability       Literature Review   The computer is one of the most widely used modern information technology devices in the world today. Companies and organisations need computers in order to manage data into an organised manner for the success of the business. According to Mohsen (2003), information technology or information systems has become one of the main assets in information era. He also added that the efficient use of information is significant in determining the success of a certain organisation. Making awareness of information value and the ability to manage information organisation-wide will have great impact on organisation progress results. Since information is used in every feature of business and generated in every process, a centralised supervision function is needed to structure, combine and distribute it effectively and efficiently. As discussed, information technology development has become a standard practice in business and educational settings in industrialised countries and they have realised the potential of IT to yield tangible benefits for them. Different countries are beginning to see the advantages of having suitable information system (IS) in business, government and commercial enterprises. One example is Hong Kong shipping businesses, which is the focus of the study. Its current economic condition and readiness to the implementation information technology development have caused problems in terms of communication progress which is important in any kind of society. According to Checkland and Holwell (1998), Hong Kong is keen on taking advantage of the rewards of having a competent information system established in its government and commercial organisations. The said information system (IS) is expected to have positive implication to the development process of Small to Medium-sized Marine Shipping Companies in Hong Kong.   Management Support The rapid development of IS has become the driving force for the innovation of every industry (Atakan et al., 2000). The belief is that the increased levels of information system (IS) usage and diffusion provide enhanced economic benefits and opportunities for economic growth (Nawawy & Ismail, 1999). The advances in information and communication systems are quickly transforming the industry through redefinition of products, services and markets. The underlying technologies provide a suitable environment for the creation of electronic markets, digital economies and new organisations within the enterprises. In this regard, it is very vital to consider the support of management of an organisation regarding IS implementation. To measure this variable, the researcher will conduct a survey and interview pertaining to this issue. The respondents and survey details will be described in methodology chapter. Actually, reliable subjects or respondents will also be considered to ensure the quality of responses. During the turn of the century, the world experiences more drastic changes than before, which include changes in the environment, culture, education, knowledge, the society, and technology. The world has evolved into a massive ball of information and technology that led to the expansion and the development of the society in several aspects. However, despite the improvement of the performance of many companies, these changes also contributed to the distress of some, which are not apt for these changes. From this, it can be understood that, existing and persisting in the business industry is not as easy as it seems. Because of these, many business organisations and companies are encountering a variety of problems and issues that determine their success or failure in the business arena and in the industry. These problems and issues arise from the external and internal changes that the company encounters.             The business danger for an organisation engaged in technologically dependent business is normally greater than for one that is not. Business operations present a unique set of danger, including an increased reliance on technology and increased vulnerability to the rapid changes in technology. To deal with such challenges, an organisation needs to develop an efficient strategy. An effective strategy requires operational efficiency; within organisation’s information systems, this means an emphasis on information security and controls. Apparently, Bailey (1998) stated that IS is always present to almost all areas of business, industry, education and government. Increasingly far-reaching information networks linking computers and databases provide important benefits, including greater staff productivity and a sharper competitive edge. The more that we expand the reach of our information networks, the more important network security becomes. During the early days of computer systems, software development consisted of a programmer writing code to solve a problem or automate a procedure (Kay 2002). This type of system development is said to be poorly planned, leading to inadequately designed systems, which are not user-friendly and not meeting the requirements of the organisation. Due to this problem, a myriad of changes have already taken place to accommodate the transformations being experienced by business organisations. In the current era, there are systems in the cyber world that need teams of architects, analysts, programmers, testers, and users in order to create millions of lines of custom-written code that helps the enterprises.  And from these changes, Kay 2002 stated that a number of system development life cycle (SDLC) should be created. These models comprise the fountain, waterfall, spiral, rapid prototyping, build and fix, incremental, and synchronise and stabilise (Kay 2002). Basically, from these models, the most popular is the waterfall model in which comprises of sequences of stages. The output of each stage develops into the input for the next, and can be typified and turn down in to different ways (Kay 2002). With regards to the IS implementation management and other models in software development, it very important to evaluate the methods since it reflects to the possible output of the IS implementation. Software developers frequently confront the task of IS implementation and interface evaluation. Aside from these models and methods in software development, the interface in which the IS implementation is to be placed should be in good condition. The interface is a medium through which users communicate with a computer system. Specifically, it is a combination of hardware (e.g., visual display medium, input devices), software for controlling user-system interaction tasks, and information presented via the display medium (Kay 2002). Effective interface evaluation is critical to the eventual success of any system software because it provides a means of identifying both existing and potential deficiencies in the interface. Once interface weaknesses are correctly identified, a developer can focus efforts on improving the existing design. According to Cleland and Gareis (1994), IS implementations should transform an unsatisfactory (existing or future) state to a better state within a certain time, using a limited effort. In a more pragmatic terms, a IS implementation means that there is someone who always has the unique needs for something new tangible outcomes (the creation) of it, and requires knowledge and resources to conduct the realisation of the concept within the specific constraints of time, money and specifications (Cicmil, 1997). Furthermore, required expertise and resources are needed, either in-house or from the market, need to be pooled together to create the change – the transition from the idea to the creation, according to the client’s expectations, which are provided by professionals, consultants, contractors and sub-contractors (Cicmil, 1997). In the study conducted by Davis (1998), he stated that “a study group of researchers was formed to discuss the software crises which happened in year 1967”. At the end of 1 year, the group concluded that building software is similar to other engineering tasks and software development should be viewed as an engineering like activity (Davis 1998). Thus, the phrase software engineering was born, along with the belief that programming was simply the application of certain scientific and engineering principles. As a result, texts were written and metrics established for the purpose of identifying the scientific principles of software engineering. The fact that programs still contain bugs, are delivered late, and are over budgeted should tell that many of the basic scientific principles of programming remain undiscovered. Yet the goal remains that software engineering is a discipline whose aim is the production of quality software, software that is delivered on time, within budget, and that satisfies its requirements. As a result, most software engineers interpret technology assessment as the set of procedures that are used to determine how well the software meets its initial specifications. On the other hand, most software users maintain that technology assessment should be a measure of how well the software meets the user’s needs. In order to meet each of these goals, the scope of software engineering has become extremely broad, encompassing every phase of the software life cycle, from requirements to decommissioning. It also includes different aspects of human knowledge such as economics, social science, and psychology. To this end, a variety of techniques have been developed for performing and evaluating various software production tasks, from requirements and specifications to maintenance. In addition to measuring the quality of software, there are numerous studies that compare different techniques and methodologies used to write, comprehend, and debug software. As a result, the relatively new challenge for software engineers is to develop assessment techniques that work and possibly reflect the more human aspects of software development, those that acknowledge the importance of both the programmer and the user (Davis 1998).   User Involvement User involvement is very vital in determining the system availability management for small to medium-sized marine shipping companies in Hong Kong. Actually, the involvement of user is helpful since it defines their insights regarding IS. By examining the risks and other factors involved in IS implementation to public and private manufacturing businesses will be able to design measures to minimise the risks. Further, through the understanding of the needs of their customers in terms of security and satisfaction, this study will help manufacturers in the process of implementing IS. This variable will be measured using survey questionnaires and interviews to be discussed in methodology section.   IS maturity IS maturity are issues in the modern world. With this devastating opportunity several manufacturing businesses tends adopt to these changes. Basically, there are some shipping companies that are very applicable for this system and others are laggards (Ghanem, 2001). In lieu to this, the IS maturity verification of a certain business should be considered in order to adjust the needs of development.             Basically, IS maturity is shorthand for the degree to which a business surroundings is favourable to information-based commercial opportunities. According to the website entry of Jurgens Pieterse, maturity level will determine the readiness or level of adaptation of a certain process regarding new technology solution.[1] It is an idea that spans a wide range of factors, from telephone dissemination to online security to intellectual property protection.   IT in Action             Information technology (IT), also commonly referred to as information and communication technology (ICT) has been applied in various forms within different business industries (McCue, S, 2006). In the shipping sector for example, IT has played a significant role in business process. A number of information technologies had been made available to owners of business organisations for this purpose, from less-sophisticated to more advanced systems (Reynolds, J, 2004). Basically, internet technology also led to the development of different companies. Through this innovation, product and service customisation, information searches and online deliveries are some common services that are now available to the customers. Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors on the other hand, benefit from internet utilisation through well-coordinated information sharing. Online auctions are even made possible with this technological development (Emiliani 2000).             In addition to internet technology, specific programs and systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) also became one of the most well-known strategies for applying IT within manufacturing enterprises, which helps in facilitating information exchange (Evans et al 1995 and Tesone, D, 2005). In addition to this, ERP also helps the business sector by improving various activities such as the monitoring of orders, materials, schedules and inventories as well as business process engineering. The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is yet another IT strategy that is applied by business organisations, particularly in improving their SCM operations. Private wide-area networks or value-added networks (VAN) were conventionally used to implement EDI. This however made EDI too costly for small and medium sized companies. With the introduction of the internet-based EDI, these enterprises are now able to acquire the benefits of EDI application (Johnston & Mark 2000).             The retailing industry is also one of the business sectors that utilise various information technology strategies so as to enhance its operations. One of these strategies was the application of Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS), which was first introduced during the late 1980s. With this strategy, retail companies are able to acquire virtual online information about their respective customers, particularly their demands. These data are derived from the scanned purchases at the checkout counters of retail stores (McCall & Stone 2004).             As retailers operate for several years, especially the food retailers, they were able to acquire a large customer database that can more or less give a good representation of their total demand. Customer data basically include information such as consumer sales in terms of brand, product, outlet and region. Information about the customers such as names, frequency of their visit to a particular outlet and payment method can also be obtained and stored in the database. With these data, retail companies are able to develop and make successful television campaigns based on the product sales obtained from a specific region (McCall & Stone 2004).             The information that is stored on the database is mainly derived from the bar code reader. With this system, the reader, which is an electronic data input device, collects information and transmit it to the central computer. Aside from stock control, this data-gathering technique is also used to conduct market basket analysis, which is mainly used for developing profiles of individual shoppers (Czerniawska & Potter 1998).             The introduction of information technology to business application even made the development of a customer database even easier and more effective. The incorporation of IT to customer data then led to the construction of the EPOS strategy. With this added feature, businesses now can make the most of the data derived from their customers. In addition, the development of results from analysing these data is now easier and faster than before. Data storage and classification are no longer a problem either.             In organisations that observe regular office settings, IT application strategies had also been used. One of which is the use of information technologies in developing virtual teams.  Business organisations have long been searching for mechanisms or systems that will make their operations work more efficiently (Bielski, L 2004). In the past, industries had recognised the efficacy of creating teams from their workforce in achieving this objective (Bielski, L 2004). Based on corporate experience, organisations have witnessed that team-based working environment is capable of drawing productivity and creativity out of their employees. Moreover, a dynamic business environment exemplified by work teams enables the member to overcome challenges better (Bielski, L 2004).             However, as teams are integrated into an organisation’s work operation, management had started to encounter several problems and dilemmas. For instance, some work assignments require frequent relocations. This then would call for expensive travel expenses to transfer a particular work team. Due to this, organisations are not able to maximise the use of team-based workforce as work teams tend to be constricted on small projects only. Furthermore, traveling causes much delay on work actions and decisions. Without the full and complete presence of the teams’ members in a common work site or location, no work progress is achieved. This has been the case until information technology was introduced.             With new software programs, faster communication systems and more efficient processors, business sectors now have access to a useful technology known as virtual connectivity (Slack, N, Chambers, S & Johnston, R 2004). The access to these new technologies and innovations has allowed people all over the world to communicate even at great distances. This transition has given organisations the idea of creating virtual teams. Virtual teams are made up of organisational members whose main form of interaction is made via electronic communication means. Through the use of the telephone, fax machines, the internet or other computer-based media (Townsend, DeMarie & Hendrickson 1996), team members are able to communicate without actually seeing one another and even without being in one work location.             By means of these virtual communication systems, team members can easily decide or select which information system is appropriate for particular work tasks. For instance, in a work assignment that needs the exchange of information, lean technologies, such as electronic mailing or instant messaging, are used. Complicated work duties on the other hand, like conflict resolution or brainstorming, require more advance technologies such as video conferencing. Leonard (1998) noted that as the members of the virtual team are aware of the resources available to them for specific tasks, they are able to develop a refined sense of efficiency in communicating and conducting business operations as a team.             The application of information technology has also been used as a strategy for improving the businesses’ marketing efforts. For instance, internet technology may be integrated to other marketing tools in order to develop a strategy known as Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). IMC is the strategic coordination of multiple communication voices. Its aim is to optimise the impact of persuasive communication on both consumer and non-consumer such as trade and professional audiences by coordinating such elements of the marketing mix as advertising, public relations, promotions, direct marketing, and package design (Moore & Thorson 1996). From these examples, it is clear that various strategies in applying information technology have been developed to address the different needs of business companies.   IS Implementation Process Information has become one of the main assets in information era. The efficient use of information is significant in determining the success of a certain organisation. Making awareness of information value and the ability to manage information organisation-wide will have great impact on organisation progress results. Since information is used in every feature of business and generated in every process, a centralised supervision function is needed to structure, combine and distribute it effectively and efficiently. Where the finance department monitors and manages the financial aspects of organisation and the legal department handles all legal affairs, the Information Organisation should manage this important business asset. With regards to the contents and quality of the new IS, one of the most vital and difficult tasks is determining important information and the proper way of using it. Where legal concerns and financial matters tend to identify themselves automatically, although often too late, with information this is not always simple. Data is engendered in all processes in and outside the organisation. Determining the possible information value of these processes and creating a system to effectively use it requires specialised skills. Meaning to say, we need to combine in-depth business knowledge with in-depth system/process knowledge. Eventually, when the information value is close to the procedure, e.g. obtaining direct process competence, this link can often be made by the organisation. This can be very difficult when information value is business-logically separated from the information source. Information is an asset that needs processing and care. Handling it wrongly can render valuable information useless where money can be transformed and traced easily. On the other hand, information can be copied and used on different locations multiplying its value. Like money the optimal use of information requires strict procedures for handling it. As for money this depends on the specific organisation.             From the discussion, this paper aims to evaluate the system availability management for small to medium-sized marine shipping Companies in Hong Kong. Basically, an organisation may plan to have a complete of IS to suffice the needs of their employees and patients. Some of the activities needed to get the system started are: Ø  Negotiation with the IS  company Ø  Shipping the equipment Ø  Recruitment of IT and  Staff Ø  Installation of the system Ø  Pilot operation   Making computer and IS more secure is both a technological challenge and a managerial problem. The technology exists to incorporate adequate safeguards within these systems, but the managerial demand for secure systems is virtually nonexistent outside of the defence and financial industries. That so many of commercial systems provide marginal security at best is a reflection of the lack of managerial awareness and understanding of the need to protect the information stored in, and transmitted between, computers. From this, it is essential to determine the technical and non-technical concerns of the possible e-project management system requirements of the company. Basically, the technical problems that may arise in this project include the suitability of the software and hardware to the type of information to be protected. In addition, employees/members of an organisation should be aware on how this systems works. Apparently, issues such as system design, system capacity, system control, system maintenance, and system response to requests for information should also be considered. The systems to be used by the organisation must be appropriate, to capably meet the needs of both employees and customers. With regards to non-technical issues of information management systems implementation, the inclusion of project constraints, such as money, time and staff must be analysed. The company must be able to evaluate the financial aspect needing to accomplish the project. As part of non-technical issues in the project, time in accomplishing the project should also be observed. This is important since time and the amount of money the company will be spending to accomplish its projects are intercorrelated. Every organisation wishes to lessen expenditures, so identifying the project’s specific time frame would enable the company to allocate enough resources for the project. Lastly, staff participation is also essential in the project since they are responsible for making the project move forward. Typically, the function of an information management system in an organisation is to optimise decision-making by delivering the right information in the right format at the right time. Basically, the information needs changes continuously. They explained that to be useful the supplied information must keep matching the evolving information need of the individual users. Conversely, an information management system should understand the organisation’s need to deliver the right information. Interaction with users is critical to determine the best content and format for new information. Furthermore, to be able to continuously deliver necessary information, the system in an organisation should anticipate the future information needed and gathered data beforehand. Actually, the relationships with the data sources are necessary to maintain a reliable source for information. The relationships with business and sources together with organisation wide information value awareness are the base of e-based project management system. Lamentably, organisation is not immune to e-project management system failures precipitated by inadequate management capacities. Many systems failed to perform up to specifications and, hence, had to be scrapped. The report attributes the difficulties squarely to poor management, ineffective planning, and lack of user involvement in implementation. In addition, a certain organisation needs to create a data bank that enhances the production function of an information management system. It is a tool supporting the e-project management system since it consists of a centralised historical database with data management and reporting functions. Normally, the data bank maintains data integrity and consistency and supports the administration of business rules and information definitions. Currently most e-project management system in other organisations are built as Data Storages, i.e. a significant database with reporting effectivity. From the list of activities presented, the critical path analysis as part of Task Management Plan is important.  If an organisation wanted to reduce the completion time of the entire project, then they must reduce the completion times for some of the constituent activities.  Such an action is called crashing of activities.  If activity is to be crashed, it should be on critical path. While every organisation seems to invest in technology, there are other aspects that should be considered in attaining a holistic performance of their respective organisation. One aspect that needs as much, if not more attention and investment than technology is human capital management. An organisation’s human capital management philosophy must value the workforce as a key asset that will define an organisation’s character and performance capacity (Lipiec J 2001).  “In fact, human capital is a critical factor that would either lead the organisation to success or to failure,” as stated by Lipiec. Furthermore, organisations must realise that in order for them to recruit, develop, and retain skill employees for future missions, they need to unleash their human resource employee relation’s imagination to create capability and flexibility to institutionalise a well-defined system to expedite the handling of disputes and grievances. Therefore, it is imperative that human resource departments adopt a modern day progressive employee relation’s paradigm that embraces and enhances the recruitment, development, and retention of employees in concert with human capital strategic management planning initiatives. According to Ward, the coach and a mentor frequently perform their work using similar skills tests, such as strong interpersonal and communication skills. Actually, effective mentors, like supervisors, managers, and executives also use effective coaching skills (Ward, 2006). Although analogous, these two terms are actually different in each other. Basically, coaching is teaching someone certain skills, techniques and other things to allow them to reach their full potential in activities. On the other hand, mentoring has to do with knowledge and helping them developing their thinking skills. In any business organisations, there are lots of things that the company, managers and staff can do in order to arrive at a successful implementation of e-project management systems.  As part of coaching and mentoring capabilities of managers, they need to talk to people, inspire them and get them excited to the possible growth of the company. They may also use reward and recognition for good response. Apparently, team effect and inclusion of people from the union should not be neglected.   Crisis Management in Information Age Information age provides a great impact in the current society.  Technologies, mechanism, network, online services and internet are the primary issues in the information era.  Basically, information age creates advancement and provides good communication that gives people a convenient lifestyle. However, these improvements possess some disadvantages or for worst a crisis. With the increase in usage of the Internet, certain concerns about security arise. Privacy violations, pornography, transaction security breaches, unsolicited e-mail (Koprowski, 1995) and other questionable or illegal activities being conducted on-line have become hotly debated issues. Some see regulation as the only answer to protection from unwelcome intrusion; but due to the universal nature of the Internet, regulation will be extremely difficult, if not impossible (Peeples, 2002). According to a survey conducted by Udo (2001), security concerns are a major reason that users give for not shopping online. Many consumer organisations and government agencies provide tips on how to transact safely on the Internet by providing key information such as its return policy and privacy practices (Udo, 2001). In theory, consumers could choose not to patronise sites that fail to provide key information, but in practice, consumers do not search for this information, if at all, until after they have spent considerable time investigating a site’s product offerings (Udo, 2001). The purpose of Udo’s (2001) study was to investigate the privacy and security concerns of online IT users in order to establish a consensus among them. The survey data used in this study came from 158 participants. As indicated by the study findings, the majority of the online IT users today have serious concerns about their privacy and security while shopping on the Internet. They are also concerned about the safety and confidentiality of their e-mails. IT users do not only lose confidence in the technology but they also have very little hope that the government is capable of significantly reducing their concerns in the near future. The majority of the online IT users who participated in Udo’s (2001) study believed that the advancements in such technology as encryption and other security features are not sufficient to reduce their privacy and security concerns. Based on the responses of those who took part in the study, an overwhelming majority of employees prefer the organisation to have policies for e-mail and Internet use and to also notify the employees of the policies. Consumer privacy issues are not new (Rubin, 1995). Consumers have worried for years about how personal data are used by the government and, more recently, by businesses (Rubin, 1995). The consumer privacy issue is taking on greater magnitude, as the number of people accessing the Internet’s information resources grows exponentially and the public becomes more technologically savvy (Rubin, 1995). According to a 1999 report from the United States Department of Commerce (1998), information is gathered on the Internet both directly and indirectly. When a user enters a chat room discussion, leaves a message on a bulletin board, registers with a commercial site, enters a contest, or orders a product, he/she directly and knowingly sends information into cyberspace. The report further states that data can be gathered indirectly, without the user’s knowledge (Udo, 2001).   Synthesis Based on the discussions above, it is found out that information is a key resource of the organisation, together with people, finances and material assets. Thus, it is accepted to state that information is a business issue. The discussion above revealed that through effective information management of the organisation’s resources and systems, organisation administrators can add value to the services delivered to customers, reduce risks in the organisation’s business, reduce the costs of business development and service delivery and encourage improvement in internal business processes and external service implementation. On the other had, it is recommended that when developing an information system just commence to make sure it produces important information and not data. It is better to build a report that is ideal for a specific need then to make a report based on a predefined concession between several users. The shaped information will have value and increases insight into information needs and the way the business is looked at. Adding more and more information to the system and solving the problems as they occur will eventually lead to a system as mentioned. In fact, that is the way any functional Information System is developed. Having an experienced team helping you take the first steps and educating your staff in the first period can make all the difference. Apparently, the important role task managers play in information project management system design and implementation becomes clear. Due to the importance of their role in attaining project success, task managers must then be equipped with the right knowledge and skills, particularly in handling the different problems that could arise in the process. Task managers should not only be skilled when it comes to performing different tasks, but they must also be people-oriented, involved, committed, enthusiastic, creative and innovative. The different aspects of task management also indicated that while there are many methods or styles that a task manager may apply, no single method can be considered as the most effective or appropriate. Thus, it is recommended that task managers take an individualised approach in managing, leading, communicating, mentoring and coaching the project team. Through this, task managers will be able to employ the right project management practices as the situation requires it. To completely evaluate the information management of the organisation, particularly in shipping business, it is advisable to adopt the devised decision making model. The model consists of the following steps: Ø  identify and define the problem; Ø  identify the desired goal or condition; Ø  consider obstacles to the goal or condition; Ø  identify alternatives; Ø  examine alternatives; Ø  rank alternatives; Ø  choose the best alternative ; Ø  evaluate the actions. Finally, the use of the quantities in decision-making model helps us to minimise mistakes.  Aside from the steps above, it is also recognised to list all the alternatives, identify future events that may occur, and construct a pay-off table in making effective decisions.   References: Jackson, P Eckerseley, P & Harris, L 2003, E-Business Fundamentals: Managing Organisations in the Electronic Age. 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Bradley & R. Nolan (Eds), Sense & Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era (p. 292), Harvard Business School Press, Boston. McCall, J & Stone, A 2004, International Strategic Marketing: A European Perspective, Routledge, New York.   McCue, S, 2006, Farce to Force: Building Profitable E-Commerce Strategies. South-Western Educational Pub; 1st edition   Moore, J & Thorson, E 1996, Integrated Communication: Synergy of Persuasive, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.   Slack, N, Chambers, S & Johnston, R 2004, The Model of Continuous Improvement, Operations Management, The Newcastle Business School MBA: Pitman Publishing.   Koprowski, G. (1995) The electronic watchdog. American Demographics   Available at [www.texshare.edu]. Accessed [04/03/08].   Peeples, D. (2002) Instilling consumer confidence in e-commerce. SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol. 67.   Udo, G.J., (2001) Privacy and security concerns as major barriers for e-commerce: a survey study. College of business administration, University of Texas (USA)   Rubin, M. R. (1995). Private rights, public wrongs: The computer and personal privacy. New York: John Wiley & Sons.   United States Department of Commerce (1998). The emerging digital economy. Available at [http://www.ecommerce.gov/danintro.htm]. Accessed [04/03/08].   Townsend, AM, DeMarie, SM  & Hendrickson, AR 1996, ‘Are you ready for virtual teams?’, HR Magazine, 1 September viewed 04 Feb 2008 <www.highbeam.com>   Atakan, F Kayacik, G Zincir-Heywood, AN & Eren, S 2000 E-commerce: A case study of Turkey. Available at [www.cs.dal.ca]. Accessed 04/03/08].     Ghanem, I. 2001, Business law: through judicial precedents. Sana’a, Obadi Studies & Publishing Centre.   Mohsen, S 2003, ‘Information technology master plan for Yemen’, Yemen Telecommunication and Information Technology, viewed 05 February, 2008, <www.escwa.org>.   Nawawy, MA & Ismail, MM 1999, Overcoming Deterrents and Impediments, Strategic Management Journal, 11: 118-130     Bailey, JP 1998, Electronic Commerce: Prices and Consumer Issues for Three Products: Books, Compact Discs and Software, OECD/GD(98)4,OECD.   Checkland, P & S Holwell. 1998, Information, Systems and Information Systems: Making Sense of The Field, Chichester, UK: John Wiley.   Cicmil, S 1997, “Achieving completeness through TQM principles and organisational learning”, The Learning Organisation, MCB University Press, Vol. 4 No. 1.   Cleland, D.I. & Gareis, R. (Eds) 1994, Global Project Management Handbook, McGraw-Hill International Editions.   Davis, M 1998, Thinking like an Engineer: studies in the ethics of a profession, Oxford University Press, New York.   Kay, R 2002, Computer World Development, viewed 03 February, 2008, <http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,71151,00.html>.   Ward, M 2008, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, viewed 04 February, 2008,<http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OI.NF/00000000000000000000000000000000/9d1b496115203e5b88256e7c000180a7!OpenDocument>.   Lipiec J 2001 . Human Resources Management Perspective at the Turn of the Century. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 30. (2001)   [1] From: http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/practices/archives/tracking-process-maturity-8879 Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

System availability management for small to medium sized marine shipping companies in Hong Kong

Introduction Overview The world is fast entering the Information Age. Transactions and commodities may be packaged through data. ...

Information System of Sports-Qits

System of Sports-Qits             Task 1 Business Aim, Information System Requirements and Constraints <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%">Business Aim</li> Sports-Qits is currently facing different problems regarding its operational activities and in different activities of the company such as its sales, marketing as well as its customer related strategies. Primarily, there have been many complaints from their customers regarding their services, primarily about their customer care service as well as the delivery of their products. That is why the company does believe that technology or Information System (IS) will help them in order to manage their overall process. It will enable them to have referencing data and information that will help them in their decision-making process in order to meet the demand, preferences as well as the expectations of their customers. With connection to their decision-making, application of IS can help the company to centralized as well as standardized their processes that will enable them to gather, store as well as process consistent and efficient data. Eventually, the said effort will help to reduce the human intervention to the process that will help to reduce workload for the employees, thus driving error-free processes. Above all, the main objective of the company is to gain competitive advantage by helping the company to be ready for future expansions as well as future enhancements. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Information System Requirements</li> There have been many flaws and disadvantages from the current system of the company. If you are going to look at all of the major dilemmas and problems of the system, you will notice that it can be solved with the use of the Internet. Internet has become one of the most important tools that are used by people, for personal and even for commercial purposes. E-commerce is considered as a medium that enables people to sell different products, services and even contents using the Internet (Koper & Ellis 2001, p. 1). Online selling will be a good strategy of the company due to the fact that online marketing is still at the peak of its growth, as a matter of fact, it was reported by the Forrest Research that during the year 2002, the online sales have increased to over 50% compare to the preceding year. The said phenomenon in the USA has its equivalent in the UK, the Interactive Media in Retail Group had said that I the same year, the online shopping had grew to up to 19 times faster than that of the conventional retailing spot. In addition to that, the Street.com had reported in December of the year 2003 that the sales of the e-commerce had boosted from 20% to 35% and it was said that, it was because of the holiday season (Reynolds 2004, p. 1). Another important characteristic of e-commerce is that it is more connected to the customers than the traditional way of selling and buying goods and services. That is why, the result of the study that was done by the eSpending in 2003, had showed that 62% of the online shoppers that has been a respondent to the study had stated that they are satisfied with their experience in their e-shopping. On the other hand, there is a small amount or percentage (7%) of the respondents who stated that they are not satisfied with the services and products that are available in the net (Reynolds 2004, p. 1). As of now, the company is facing a huge problem regarding their relationship with their customers; this is due to the fact that the company does not have a formal customer service committee or department that will handle the request and comments of their customers. Another thing is that, customers are already complaining about their services as well as their products. Those reasons, pushes the company to apply IS and other computer technologies to their current system. Due to the fact that most of their customers and target customers are requesting real-time information anytime, a company website will be a good help. It will handle the overall e-commerce processing of the company from ordering up to the payment. In addition to that, the website will also help to develop the marketing strategy of the company by offering real-time or update information regarding the products and services that the company is offering. It will also help the company to save time, money and effort in giving away leaflets and other related marketing methodologies. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Constraints and Limitations <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Changing of IT Infrastructure</li> </li> One of the major constraints of this project is the change of the IT communications in the organization. The project team must be able to address all of the important problems regarding the infrastructure as well as the standard of IT in the organization like as the hardware, software, network as well as the data storage. As of the now the company bought latest versions of personal computers which will be used in the project, however, it must be considered in application of different software as well as in planning and deployment of network. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Scalability, Reliability and Security</li> Scalability is considered as one of the most critical issue with accordance to the infrastructure of IT. Furthermore, network infrastructures need to be handle and scale in order to meet the future demands, at the same time providing high levels of performance as well as availability for the mission-critical applications. The network system of any company can be considered as sensitive to different versions of Operating Systems as well as the network management software, together with the different applications that demands for a given version of each application. That is why it will be hard and complicated to make all of the components and aspects of the large diverse networks to work together as efficiently as the management prediction.   Security is the most important aspect of any system that is using complicated networking as well as electronic transactions with the customers as well as other businesses that are considered as external entities. Networks can be access by hackers as well as thieves and it will give them the opportunity steal as well as to change data. Furthermore, due to the fact that the system is linked to the Internet, the network is even more vulnerable with security threat, due to the fact that the Internet is more open to everyone. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Cost</li> Cost is one of the constraints in the project; this is due to the fact that the company is offering a limited amount of budget due to the size of the company as well as the current financial condition of the company. Furthermore, with connection with the cost, hidden cost will also serve as an important constraint in the project. It is true that the system will enable the company to save money by reducing the time and effort that will be spending for specific transactions as well as the overall savings in terms of error and the marketing strategies. However, improvement in productivity as well as the efficiency and consistency of data will be compensated by the high operating cost in terms of additional labor and training, as well as the money that is required for the maintenance of the system.    <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Communication Gap</li> Communication gap is one of the primary reasons why projects do fail. The relationship between the project team as well as the users of the system has always been one of the most problematic areas for implementing new projects. Different entities who are involved in the system have their different perspective or point of view regarding the system as a whole. This is due to the fact that they have different backgrounds in IT and other related technologies as well as interests and priorities in life. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Organizational Change Requirements </li> The new IS of Sports-Qits will help to recreate the organization into a more effective unit or department, however, the said change will create a huge problems with regards to the issue of cultural change in the organization. More often than not, employees are experiencing refusal to change due to the different wrong impression such as computers will take their job and so on.  However, the new system of the company cannot be successful without changing the traditional ways of approach of the business rules. <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%"> Organizational Culture</li> Applications of new technologies can affect the existing culture of a given organization. This is due to the fact that, there will be traditions and rules and regulations that might be changed with accordance to the application of the said technology. Task 2 Project Plan and Soft System Methodology of the Sports-Qits             Base on all the data and information that have been mentioned from the past part of the paper, it shows that the key resource of the company is to integrate or connect to the Internet and the use of its own Information System or IS. This part of the paper will show the business plan of the Sport-Qits regarding their planned system, the Soft Systems Methodology or the SSM will be used in order to show it.   <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Planning and Requirements Analysis</li> During the phase of planning and requirements analysis, the problem of the existing manual system of the company will be analyze in details in order to come up with different solutions that can help the said problems. The data and information that will be gathered during the said phase will be used in order to come up with the requirements for the planned system.  <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The problem Unstructured Stage</li> The first stage deals with the different problems that pertain to being messy, unorganized as well as vague of the current system. Those are the problems that have a large amount of human intervention that might affect the authenticity of different data and information. It tackles to the problem situation, and not at the problem itself (Córdoba 2003). In this stage, all of the problematic situation of the company will be analyzed such as the error in ordering process such as the wrong storage of the order of the customers as well as the late deliveries of orders, the delivered damage goods, the unavailability of different information about the company or the lack of communication to the prospect or possible customer and the most important thing is the inconsistency of data and information from different transactions of the whole process. <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The Problematic Situation Expressed </li> In this process, the employees, the customers and other entities who are involved in the process will be interviewed and ask some questions regarding their perspective to the problematic situation of the company. In this stage, data and information will be collected via the use of whatever method that will be appropriate such as survey, observation and measurement. In the case of the company, the observation and survey method will be useful. All of this will be done by the method of interview. In this stage, the perception of the employees, who will be the end-user of the proposed or plan system; the customer, who will also use the system as an external user; and the IT team that will handle the initial use and practice of the system as well as its maintenance.       In this stage, the problem will be analyzed using the different data that have been gathered from the different perspectives of different entities who are involved in the whole system.                                                               i.      The Rich Picture Rich Picture is used in the SSM in order to represent the different situations that concerns about the involved elements that influence the overall problem but impossible to be picked up with the use of the formal method (Darzenas et al 1994). Figure 1 shows the rich picture of the different problems that the company is facing, together with the different entities who are involved in the said process. There are major six problems that the company is facing, primarily, the rich picture shows that the customers are always connected to the system and managerial problems of the company. The first problem pertains to the ordering system of the company. The company is using the traditional method where in the customers will call them via phone or make orders using the snail mail. The orders of the customers will be taken care of the administrator. Due to the manual process of ordering, and the big interference of human on the data, there is always a big possibility for the administrator to process wrong orders of the customers due to misunderstanding and sometimes, environmental interference such as noise. The flaws and errors in the ordering system have a significant effect to the issuance of invoice. Due to some errors in the orders of the customers and other flaws that are connected to the said product, the issuance of the invoice takes 28 days in order to deliver the product and to issue the invoice.  The said number of days is long enough to keep the customers waiting. One of the most important problems of the company is the payment process of their customers, due to the unclear payment agreement between the two said entities; the customers are paying the company in late manners. There are also some situation or case where in customers are taking up 6 months before they pay. The said process is somewhat not good for the financial or money flow of the company. The quality of the products which have been delivered to the customers are also another problem, there are some cases where in the customers are accepting products that are not in good condition.           The marketing department is also having their difficulty in dispersing information about the company. They are still practicing the tradition leaflets methods as their marketing strategy. The said strategy offers limited information that is why the customers have to call the company in order to know more, unfortunately, the company is not available only during office hours.   Figure 1 Rich Picture of the Current System Flow of the Sports-Qits <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The proposed System <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Root Definition of the Related System</li> </li> In order to complete the system, a root definition of the related system is needed. It defines the different agreed upon aspects as well as the belief solution to the problem. Due to the case of the company there are three related system that must be done: the company’s website, the ordering and sales system; and the quality control or checking of products system. Table 1 CATWOE Analysis of the Sports-Qits Website The website of the company will handle the marketing strategy or technique that will replace the traditional leaflet method. It will help the company to communicate more with the client 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Customers will get the information that they needed with just one click of the mouse. It will also handle the product and price list of the company which is considered as one of the most important problems.       Table 2 The CATWOE Analysis of the Ordering and Sales System               The ordering and sales system will handle the financial and product aspect in the relationship of the company and the customers. It will handle the problems of the company with regards to the wrong order information as well as the late delivery of the products. Another thing is that it will monitor the payment scheme and activities of the customers, helping them to pay on time. Table 3 The CATWOE Analysis of the Quality Control and Product Checking System           The said system will handle the problem of the company with regards to the quality of the product that they are delivering to their customers. This will help the management of the company to maintain the image of the company as efficient and responsible to their products. <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The Conceptual Models</li> Figure 2 Conceptual Model of Sport-Qits Website                       Figure 3 Conceptual Framework of Ordering and Sales System                       Figure 4 Quality Control and Product Checking System                   All of the said related systems are all continuous process. The first system will be started by gathering different historical information and different facts about the company that will be interesting for the customers. After that, the web-developer will design the website with accordance to the image and industry of the company. The final decision of the said design will be based on the decision of the management. After finishing the website and deploying it to the Internet, it will be in great need of maintenance due to the fact that information and data about the company is changing so as the preferences of the customers.       The ordering and sales system will start by enabling the analyst to gather different information of the company that has a connection with its business rules and money and data flow. All of the said information will be given to the programmer, for them to convert the said human language to machine or programming language in order to make the logical design of the system that is connected to the business rule of the company. C. Feasible and Desirable Changes             The changes that can be done to the company are the changes in: the structure, in the procedure and the attitude within the organization. It is important for the company to apply the Information System and the Internet, in order to improve their performance and connection to their customers. The structure of the company will be changed due to the fact that there will be new department that will handle the IT needs of the company. Another thing is that the employees will be trained in order to handle different IT-based processes.             It is important for the company to jump to the bandwagon of the Internet as well as the e-commerce because it will help them to gain competitive advantage as well as to maintain their strong bond and relationship to their client. Task 3 – Leadership Style             Leader is the most important part of the group; they are the one who serves as the guide or the head of any activities. It is important for the leader to know his or her members abilities, knowledge and skills in order for them to the fullest. There are different leadership styles that are applicable for a given situation and people. It is important to know the right styles for the right group in order to maintain the good relationship and bonding of each and every member of the group. Leadership style is the method and technique that is used in providing different directions that will help to implement and apply plans and eventually help to motivate people (Clark 2005).  The US Army Handbook of 1973 had stated that there are three major leadership styles: the authoritarian or also known as the autocratic; the participative or democratic and the delegative or the free region (cited in Clark 2005).             The first type of leadership is the autocratic leadership, the reason why it is also called as the authoritarian is that it is being tied to the authoritarian personality type (Goethals & Jones 2004, p. 69). In this style of leadership, the leaders tend to tell his or her employees or subordinate about what he or she want to do and how it will be done, without getting or asking for the advice or opinion of his or her members or subordinates (Clark 2005). However, the said leadership style had gained many bad or violent reactions because some of the leaders who are applying the said style are much more likely to prefer punishments over the reward as the key motivator for their members. They also believe that punishment will help the members to function well in a given extremely structured situations. The said style also discourages the participation or the voice of the members or subordinates in decision-making process (Goethals & Jones 2004, p. 69). However, Clark (2005) gave emphasis to the difference between the authoritarian leaders and the bossing people around. Authoritarian leadership style is not a vehicle for screeching, using humiliating languages as well as leading by intimidation, coercion and misusing their power. Bossing people around is the informal type of leadership which can be considered and characterized for being abusive and unprofessional.             The said leadership style is applicable if there is no enough time to be used in order to solve problems but the leader must make sure that all of his or her member are properly and highly motivated (Clark 2005). The said application is the reason why, the autocratic leadership style is used only in rare occasions.             The second type is the participative or democratic leadership. The said style involves the leader, together with one or more employees in the decision-making process, but still, the leader has the final decision about the problem or the situation. This style is considered as strong because it will help the leader to gain respect from their subordinates or their members (Clark 2005).              It also uses the reward system as its primary technique in motivating their employees or subordinates. The main difference between the autocratic leadership and this type is that, it hears or listens to the likes, demands and preferences of the members with accordance to a given or problem of the entire organization. One thing that is good about the said style is that it helps the leader to build up their methodical and self-discipline capabilities towards his or her members (Kumar 2002, p. 205).             The said leadership style is being used if the leader had known some of the part of the information while the members also have their knowledge about the other aspect of the information and data. The said leadership style is also considered as the most beneficial style due to the fact that, it allows the leaders to become part of the team at the same time helping them to make a sound and better decisions (Clark 2005).             The last leadership style is the delegative or the free reign. It tolerates the employees to make the decision, but the responsibility about the decision that has been made still relies on the leaders (Clark 2005).             The said leadership style is best applicable if the employees have the capability to analyze the situation as well as has their capability to determine the things that are needed to be done and the process of doing it. The process of delegation and setting priorities is also important in the said style (Clark 2005). It is also use if the company goal had been thoroughly communicated as well as accepted by those entities who are involved in the decision-making (Harris & Hartman 2001, p. 247).                During the planning and requirements analysis phase of the system it will be best to apply the participative or the democratic leadership. This is due to the fact that the employees are already working for the company for years, and they already have the knowledge and familiarity regarding the flow of data, information and money in the current system of the company. It will help the overall development team to organize as well as manage different information regarding the current situation of the manual system from the current experiences of the employees.             During the proposal of the new system, it is important to consider the opinion of the end-users of the employees from the different department of the company in order to make sure that all of the features of the system will be able to meet the demand of the end-users. That is the reason why participative is use. Another thing is that, it will also help the company to make the employees feel that they are involved in the ongoing changes that are happening in the company.             The said style is also applicable during the implementation of the plan. This is in order to manage the impact of the technological as well as structural change, together with other important changes that will happen to the company. The said change can affect the mentality of the employees of the company that might cause refusal to change due to negative thinking about their positions and roles in the company.             Furthermore, the said style of leadership will also open several doors for great reward system that will enable the company to gain competitive advantage by improving the quality of their human resource via the use of motivation. Task 4 – Communication, Mentoring and Coaching             Communication is one of the most important aspects of human’s life. It is considered as important because it creates a bond between the lead one person to another, one group to another and one nation to another. It is a medium that helped many organizations to implement and practice different techniques and tactics with accordance to the goal and mission of the company. Communication is define by the Encarta Dictionary of English as the exchange of the different information between people via the means of speaking, writing and other means of communication with the use of one standard system of signs and behavior. It can also be defined as the process of sending and receiving message by means of different symbols (Diederick & Wolff 1998, p. 387). It is also considered as one of the most important element within an organizational climate (Diederick & Wolff 1998, p. 388).             The application of the new system to the company will means as a huge organizational change. Organizational change is the organization-wide change like adding new technologies, implementation of new software or system, reconstruction of the mission, process of layoffs, mergers and other major collaborations, including application of large new programs (Carter M 2008). The said process is important because it will help to manage the change in the overall industry and global market, where in the business or the organization is involved. Organizational change is the results of different driving force such as the budgets, new markets or new clients, increase in the productivity as well as the emergence of new technology and new competitor (Carter M 2008). A. Communication             Organizational change is not that easy, there are many flaws and problems that the company is going to change, more primarily to the reactions and feelings of the employees towards the application and implementation of computerized system. Communication will play an important role for the management of the company to explain the reasons or the importance of the said organizational change for the operations and performance of the company.             Effective communication will be helpful throughout the development and implementation of the different plans of the system. It can be used by the analyst as well as the programmers, together with the different members of the development team in order to ensure that all of the necessary information and data that will be needed in order to develop the system will be organized and managed. During the first phase, which is the planning and requirements analysis, communication is very important due to the fact that, the said phase is considered as the most critical of all, because all of the different problematic situations are all being analyze, it will serve as the primary data in developing appropriate solution to the problem that will help the programmers and the developers to plan the physical as well as the logical design of the programs that will meet the demand of the different problems.             It is also important in the said phase, because, different entities in the project development have their own perspective regarding the situation. That is why it is important for the project team leader to communicate well with the analyst, the programmers, the end-users, the customers as well as the management itself. This is to ensure that all of the point-of-view of the different entities involved is being analyzed in order to use it for the final physical and logical design of the system as well as in the development process.             It is also the role of the management to communicate to their employees in different medium such as memo but seminars or meetings are more of an advantage. This is due to the fact that it will develop a direct or personal communication between the representative of the company and the employees. The company must explain to their employees that application of the said technology will help them to enhance as well as improve the flow of data, information, product as well as money inside the company. The company must also understand that the application of IT, IS and other related technologies are one of the most misunderstood issues inside the organizations. Due to the said reason, they must understand the fear that the employees are feeling towards the change. There are always notion that robots will replace the human workers, and the different software and computerized systems will replaced the service and brain of the human. In addition to that, most of the employees respond to the organizational change like how they respond in their individual lost as well as anguish. More often than not, employees are having the sentiment or reaction of distress as well as the rejection when a company had already declared about their implementation of a certain organizational change (FEAP n.d., p. 1).             That is why it is important to communicate to them by informing and telling them facts that they wanted to know as well as information that will leave them in peace such as the different benefits of the computerization and other organizational change to the overall performance of the company. Mentoring and Coaching             Sometimes the terms mentoring and coaching are used interchangeably but sometimes it has a great difference (McKeown 2002, p. 193). Both of the two said terms are considered as a process, but coaching pertains to the process of enabling as well as helping, while mentoring is the supportive process (Parsloe 2000, p. 82). B. Coaching             Coaching will be helpful during the implementation of the system. The said activity can help the end-users of the system from the different departments of the company to know more about how to use and manipulate the different subsystems and features of the system that will enable them to go through the different transactions of the company. Coaching will be helpful for the employees because it will help to remove their fear about the use of the new technology. Another thing is that, due to the fact that the employees are not computer literate, it will add up to their fear and might cause of refusal to use due to their fear to make mistake. With the help of training and coaching, the employees will be able to be familiar with the different feature and process of the system. It will also help them to be comfortable about the use of the system.             Coaching will also help greatly those employees who are not that familiar with the computer and other related hardware that the company will be using. It will be great if the company will set up some training session about the fundamental information about the computer, like its part as well as other devices that the company is using like the receipt printer and the likes. By doing those things, the employee will be able to basic about the computer; therefore it will help them to learn the different process in easy way. This can be done before the actual implementation of the system in order to give the employees the necessary background regarding the usage of the new and improved computerized system of the company.             It can also be used during the implementation by the project team leader when he or she will review all of the works of the members. The leader will call for a meeting and will analyze it regarding the goals and objectives of the company as well as the project. When a specific aspect of the project will not be done with accordance to the goals, the leader will advised regarding the areas in order to prevent the unsatisfactory development of the project. C. Mentoring             Coaching pertains to the first or initial learning that is given or taught to the employees. Mentoring is just like maintenance where in it helped the employees to be more attached or connected to the system. Mentoring will help the company to lessen or remove the discomfort of the employees towards the system. Discomfort and lack of confident of the end user of the system might cause different problems to the management such as repetition of the task and prolonging the time that is being spent to a given transaction.             It is also the process of showing the employees on how to get along in the new organization and technologies in the street sense that is called as the learning ropes (Cook 1999, p. 106).             In the case of the project of the Sport-Qits, mentoring can be used in order to help the individual members to develop. During the implementation of the system, mentoring can be used as a process where in the team leader as well as the developer supports the different members of the team regarding the different expertise about technical issues. It will be helpful during the development phase of the project.             Furthermore, it can also be helpful during the actual implementation of the system, by helping the end-users of the system be more familiar with the technical aspects of the system.                 References   Carter, N 2008, Basic Context for Organizational Change, Authenticity Consulting, LLC, Free Management Library, viewed 12 March 2008, <http://www.managementhe lp.org/mgmnt/orgchnge.htm>   Clark, D 2005, Leadership Styles, nwlink.com, viewed 12 March 2008, <http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html>   Coady, J., Rich Pictures and their Effectiveness, viewed 5 September,2007, <http:// 72.1 4.235.104/search?q=cache:uMSJLUy8HsQJ:www.syros.aegean.gr/users/tsp/citations_dnl/Masters_Rich.doc+meaning+of+rich+picture&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2>   Cook, M , Effective Coaching, McGraw-Hill Professional   Córdoba, J 2003, Soft Systems Methodology, The University of Hull, viewed 10 March 11, 2008, < http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/sbsjrc/Teaching/Learning%20resources/S ystems%20thinking/Soft%20Systems%20Methodologies.ppt>   Diederik, P J, Wolff, C J & Thierry, H 1998, Handbook of Work and Organizational          Psychology, Psychology Press   Goethals, G, Sorenson, G J & Burns, J M 2004, Encyclopedia of Leadership, SAGE   FEAP NEWSLETTER: Managing Organizational Change. Faculty & Employee Assistance Program. University of Virginia Health System. Viewed 13 March 2008,<http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/feap/newslette rs/managing-org.-change.pdf>   Harris, J & Hartman, S 2001, Organizational Behavior, Haworth Press   Korper, S & Ellis, J 2001, The E-Commerce Book: Building the E-Empire, Morgan Kaufmann   Kumar, N 2002, Organizational Behaviour, Anmol Publications PVT, LTD.   McKeown, L 2002, Retaining Top Employees. McGraw-Hill Professional   Parsloe, E 2000, Coaching and Mentoring: Practical Methods to Improve Learning, Kogan Page   Reynolds, J 2004, The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-based System, Focal Press   Rich Pictures, systems.open.ac.uk, viewed 13 March 2008, <http://systems.open.ac.u k/materials/t552/pages/rich/richAppendix.html>   Williams, B 2005, Soft System Methodology,Actrox.co.nz, viewed 11 March 2008, <http ://users.actrix.co.nz/bobwill/ssm.pdf>         Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Information System of Sports-Qits

System of Sports-Qits Task 1 Business Aim, Information System Requirements and Constraints Business Aim Sports-Qits is...