The Importance of IT Systems in Business

This assignment examines the crucial role of IT systems in contemporary business operations. It highlights how IT systems address challenges associated with manual record-keeping and emphasizes the importance of electronic models for efficient data management. The document delves into the use of data warehouses for secure data storage and explores methods like firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) to mitigate cyberattacks. Additionally, it discusses cloud-based backup solutions as a cost-effective and secure alternative. Finally, the assignment references relevant books, journals, and online sources to support its arguments.

Businesses Information

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
An introduction to RM education...............................................................................................1
The manual process used in the company and the proposed model...........................................2
Different ways IT systems store and process data......................................................................2
Knowledge management.............................................................................................................3
Customer-relationship management............................................................................................3
Techniques that can be adopted for data management................................................................4
Communication management......................................................................................................4
IT systems can be used to support value-added change for improving business operations,
performance and sustainability ..................................................................................................5
IT solutions for common business problems found within your organisation............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The basis of design, enhancement and maintenance of business process is formed information
systems (Geary and Gore, 2017). The problems of business can be solved by using computerized
information technology. In the process of business the products or system of information
technology will be used. In any business information technology is important as it reduced
burden of work that ned to be done in a business. The understanding of aligning information
system with business goals can be gained.
This report will provide an introduction to RM education company. The manuals process
that is used in this company will also be described. The different ways to store and process IT
systems will be explained in this report. The proposed system that will bring a change in manual
process of company will be described. This report will examine techniques that can be adopted
for data management. Also, assessment of IT system will be done for improving operations,
sustainability in the organization. In this report IT solution will be given to problems that is faced
by other organization.
An introduction to RM education
This company is the principal division of RM group, which is a British organization. The
company provides products if information technology and services to educational organization.
The key market of this company is UK education that consists of schools, colleges and
universities. Around 1,700 people are employed in this company. In 1973 as research machines
the company was discovered (Hashem and Khan, 2015. ). In the schools of UK in the 1980s RM
sold thousands of computers. This company deals with technology infrastructure, software and
services etc. For the use in learning curriculum this division focuses on products for the use.
Both desktop and server computer are been manufactured by company. The software such as
maths alive, living library and success maker is offered by the company. In order to make easy
centralized installation on RM network they also package titles of software from other
organization (RM Education , 2017.).
The main objective of this company is to provide technology solutions in order to make
life of people easier and also to make the best possible impact on opportunities of education. All
products and services that are offered by this company are simple. Each year more and more
schools are switching to the solution of broadband that is provided by the company. The
company is top supplier of secure internet connection at school and universities.
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The manual process used in the company and the proposed model
The company still make use of manual process in order to keep maintain the records of
products and services that has been sold to customers or school or universities. A paper and pen
is used by company in which all data of customers is written. In these records the name, process
and products that had been sold by the company is also written. For each customers there is a
record. Suppose if there are 100 customers to which the company have offered its products and
services then there are 100 records for each customers. So in case of updation that have to be
done in the record ,a lot of time is wasted in it (Galegher, Kraut and Egido, 2014.). As first
company need to search for that particular records then update it. In case of any fire or
theft ,these records are not secure. There is also chances that private information can be leaked
about a particular customer or company. For the reputation of company it is not good. A lot of
money is also needed in order to maintain records for each customers. So all manual process that
is used by company need to be change in order to ensue that updation is done on time and the
private data is not leaked to third party.
Today most business make use of electronic record-keeping as it is efficient way of
maintaining records and also need less space of storage. It will also allow backing up records and
help them to keep them secure from any theft or fire. The company will also be able to email
vices to clients as many accounting programs provide such facilities. With this the employ pay
records, financial reports etc will easy to maintain. All the transaction of business can be records
with electronic record-keeping.
Different ways IT systems store and process data
In data processing system a set of machines, people, processes are used as input in order
to produce a set of output. Some companies make use of batch processing systems in order to
store and process data (Enck,Gilbert and Sheth, 2014.). This system executes the transaction in
sequence and one transaction at one time. No problems are faced with serialization since
transactions are serially executed. For an instance the batch application can be used for the
computing the value of stock market portfolio. The batch application can also be used in
computing the monthly bills for telephone f clients. The tax report documents can be generated
with the help of application of batch system. In order to execute a batch can take minutes, hours
or even days. The data warehouse system are also used by some companies .In order to take
strategic decisions a data warehouse can be used to organize, understand and use through data.
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The database management system is also used for storing file as it will maintain a database for
processing and storing file. The updation can be done on that record. The data storage is the main
function of DBMS (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu, 2013). The electronic data processing is also
used in some IT systems. The computer fields are also used for collecting records that will
provide complete information about a particular entity. The information takes up less space than
manual filling information can be modified and updates easily in this. The data can be accessed
faster .The chances of duplication is less in this.
Knowledge management
The knowledge and information of an organization can be shared, created,used and
managed with the process of knowledge management. The best possible use of knowledge is
made in order to achieve the goals of organization. In the fields of business administration,
information systems, management the knowledge management includes courses. The efforts are
made by knowledge management in order to enhance performance ,innovation in the
organization (Kaihatsu and Kurozumi, 2014. ). The various strategies and plans are made by
organization for knowledge management. Some strategies can be as follows-:
 Sharing of knowledge
 Cross -project learning
 Knowledge fairs
Various technologies can be used for knowledge management. The software such as
groupware can be sued as it provides collaboration and sharing of information of organization.
The workflow systems can also be used. It will present process and create documents according
to knowledge of organization (Enck, Gilbert and Sheth, 2014). The e- learning can be sued as it
will help organization to provide customized training to its employees to improve
performance .The online classes can be included and the progress can be monitored. By using
knowledge management system there will be increased employee satisfaction in organization.
The distribution of knowledge will be improved as all employees of organization will have
knowledge. The quality of information will also improve when everyone can contribute towards
the internal knowledge.
Customer-relationship management
The customer relationship management(CRM) will provide methods and tools to mange
the relationships with customers .This will help organizations to manage business. With the use
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of this electronic data the records of customers can be maintained easily. The CRM need to not
to spend a lot of time in order to find it out. The updation can also be done easily without
wasting time. Also, increase if there is any theft or fire then backup is possible. The CRM can be
benefited in numerous ways by making use of electronic record in organization. All the
information about client will be protected by this proposed models. There is no threat of any
danger as it will store record online. In case of any accidents at workplace the data will be
protected. The insight knowledge about behavior of customers can be gained with the help of
CRM.
Techniques that can be adopted for data management
The data warehouse and data quality management techniques can be adopted for data
management. The large amount of information of business can be electronically stored in data
warehousing (Dinh, Niyato and Wang, 2013.). The current and historical information can be
stored in data warehouse. Around the globe in the largest and most complex business the data
warehouse is used extensively. From multiple heterogeneous sources the data are gathered in
data warehouse. The errors in the data are also corrected in it. The techniques that are used for
data management need to ensure that data should be valid. From a multiple heterogeneous
sources a data warehouse is construed. The data cleaning, data integration and data
consolidations are included in data warehousing. The data is collected from various sources. In
order to enhance the quality of data the data cleaning and data transformation are important
steps. Big data is sued for storing large amount of data .There are various sources from which the
big data is collected. Some of its source are social websites such as Facebook, twitter etc. In e-
commerce sites also the data is collected. Hadoop allows processing and store big data in a
distributed environment(Ross and Steiner, 2014.) .It is an open sources framework so cost is not
an issue in this.
Communication management
In an organization communication management is systemic planning, monitoring and
revisions of all channels of communication (Chan, 2013.). The strategies and plan are made in
organization in order to make communication efficient .For an organization it is empirical to
have appropriate communication management. The overall objective of business can be achieved
if the communication is effective. In a communication system sender sends a message and a
receiver will receive a message. By making use of communication channels the sender will send
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message to receiver. In many organizations in order to secure or protect the information the
sender sends encrypted information so that authenticate receiver can receive the information.
This will reduce the chances of leaking the information to third-party. More and more
organization try to make use of encryption and decryption method in order to secure their data
and information. They did not want that any private information should be used by wrong
person.
IT systems can be used to support value-added change for improving business operations,
performance and sustainability
The business performance, sustainability and performance have been improved due to use
of IT system. As IT system have lower down the workload .The manual process that have been
done in the company now is done automatically with use of technology. For an instance the
company before was making use register and pen in order to note down the salary and details of
employees. But with availability of IT system the company now make use of technology for
maintaining the date sheet of employees (Anzoategui and Martinez, 2016.). With this in case of
any fire or theft it is easy to get a backup and also updation is also easy and automatic with use
of IT system. The use of cloud-computing have been sustainable for environment as energy
consumed in it is less. It stores all the information about companies under one cloud. So it is
sustainable for environment. The employees are also satisfied as there workload have been
reduced in maintaining manual record .The theft of losing data or information have been also
reduced by of such system in business. The relevant information that is important for their job is
provided to employees .There have been increase in productivity as it has made jobs of
employees easier. The customers are also satisfied as all their needs are fulfilled with help of this
system. The upto data information is maintained .So the customers will access the correct and
update data.
IT solutions for common business problems found within your organisation
The various problems are faced by organization in the business. The sensitive data of a
client can be stolen and can be used for wrong purposes during an attack. This can lead to
financial loss for business. The reputation of company is also at risk due to such attacks that is
taking place in organization (Almorsy, Grundy and Müller, 2016. ). The company need to make
use of policies and should monitor the employees need to follow the standards of the policy. The
firewall,IPS and IDS should be used in a company to reduce the chances of attacks. The
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information regarding this need to be update at regular basis. The company should also invest in
the antivirus software for additional protection. For an instance in some other organization there
are problems that is faced is due to back up. In case of any theft or fire backup is not there. This
is not good for the business as the important information can be damages due to this. In such
situation the company need to make use of cloud-based computing as backup is possible by
implementing such models and also it is secure and less costly.
CONCLUSION
Thus, summing up the above report it can be concluded that IT system is essential for nay
business. The problems such manual record-keeping can be solved by making use of electronic
model. The date warehouse can be used for data management as it will store valid data. The
various attacks that is taking place in business can be reduced by using firewall,IDS etc. The
backup issues can be solved by using cloud-based model. It is more secure and cost is also not so
high.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J. and Müller, I., 2016. An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Anzoategui, D. and Martinez, J., 2016. Endogenous Technology Adoption and R&D as Sources
of Business Cycle Persistence (No. w22005). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Chan, H.C., Online News Link Llc, 2013. Information distribution and processing system. U.S.
Patent 8,457,545.
Dinh, H.T., Niyato, D. and Wang, P., 2013. A survey of mobile cloud computing: architecture,
applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and mobile computing. 13(18).
pp.1587-1611.
Enck, W., Gilbert, P. and Sheth, A.N., 2014. TaintDroid: an information-flow tracking system
for realtime privacy monitoring on smartphones. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems
(TOCS). 32(2). p.5.
Fernando, N., Loke, S.W. and Rahayu, W., 2013. Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future
generation computer systems. 29(1). pp.84-106.
Galegher, J., Kraut, R.E. and Egido, C., 2014. Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological
foundations of cooperative work. Psychology Press.
Geary, N., and Gore, H., Precisionpoint Software Limited, 2017. Method and apparatus for
automatically creating a data warehouse and OLAP cube. U.S. Patent 9,684,703.
Hashem, I.A.T., and Khan, S.U., 2015. The rise of “big data” on cloud computing: Review and
open research issues. Information Systems. 47. pp.98-115.
Kaihatsu, S. and Kurozumi, T., 2014. Sources of business fluctuations: Financial or technology
shocks?. Review of Economic Dynamics. 17(2). pp.224-242.
Ross, T.R. and Steiner, J.F., 2014. The HMO Research Network Virtual Data Warehouse: a
public data model to support collaboration. EGEMS. 2(1).
Online
RM Education . 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.rmesi.co.in/. [Accessed on 24
th October 2017].
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