Case Study Analysis: Governance, Risk, and Compliance at APG Services

This case study analyzes APG Contract Services Limited, a small to medium-sized enterprise providing electrical appliance services. The report explores a suitable governance framework, suggesting a management team model. It identifies key risks, including IT failures, security threats, financial instability, and communication issues during subsidiary acquisitions. A complete risk register is provided, along with suggested mitigation strategies. The study also addresses legislative compliance issues, particularly concerning data protection and contract law, offering remedies to ensure adherence to regulations. The analysis emphasizes the importance of proactive risk management and legal compliance for sustainable business operations, especially during mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on IT infrastructure and data security. The report concludes by highlighting the need for a robust IT infrastructure and legal compliance.

Case Study

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Suggested Governance Framework........................................................................................1
Identification of Risk..............................................................................................................2
Complete Risk Register..........................................................................................................3
Legislative Compliance Issues and suggested remedies........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
IT development has both helped business growth and complicated business operations
because of security challenges (Wang and Juo, 2021). This report is based on the case study on
APG Contract Services Limited that is a Small to Medium Sized venture having specialism in
servicing under contract of electrical appliances including cookers, refrigerators, videos and so
on. The company carry out operations throughout Scotland, mainly in Fife, Angus and Tayside
area as well as Edinburgh. It has seven regional service centres and a central warehouse which
has a large computer system for customer accounting. In addition to this, the new subsidiary
acquired by APG, consumer accounting is completed by employees manually and each services
centre maintain records of its own consumers. After the acquisition the management of
Monymusk Electric Savacentres Limited would like to implement their own hidden software for
both companies and the combined company uses general purpose and tailor made software
within the organization. This report provides information about a suggested governance
framework. In addition to this, a detailed list register and legislative compliance issues with
suggested remedies are also provided in this report.
MAIN BODY
Suggested Governance Framework
The suggested governance framework which is suitable for APG Contract Services
Limited is management team model wherein management team board takes huge cues from
corporate style management structures. Further, the board split into department including
committees that are responsible for fundraising, marketing, human resource management and so
on areas which require overseeing. Within APG Contract Services Limited, the governance
framework can allow board members to put emphasis together with develop skills in specific
area as well as keep decision making in best possible effective manner. The governance model is
same as the ways a company administers its duties. Despite of employing people for being
responsible for planning, programs, raising funds and many more, board forms committees in
order to carry out those duties (Barlow, 2016).
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Identification of Risk IT Risk: APG limited contract services face the risk of information technology failure and
will not abilities as the company currently does not have and advanced information
technology infrastructure. In addition to this the information technology infrastructure of
the subsidiaries acquired by APG limited contract services Monymusk Electric Savacentres
Limited also has IT weaknesses. In addition to this customer accounting at Monymusk
Electric Savacentres Limited is carried out entirely manually at the service centres in each
service centre maintains records of its own consumers. This outdated infrastructure off the
respective company along with the outlets it has acquired from Monymusk Electric
Savacentres Limited can increase weather abilities of the company towards cyber security
threats as well as other types of information technology malfunctions and failures. Other
factors which increase the information technology risk at the respective organization include
multi access online system when it comes to stock control at the firm. This can increase
vulnerabilities of the company’s information technology infrastructure as it can be easily
accessed from our size an attack by cybercriminals. It is important that this risk is
minimized as soon as possible so that the company is able to move on with its operation
without the threat of any information technology security breach and attain its business goals
in a timely manner (Swartz, Da Veiga and Martins, 2019). Security Threats: After this the company also faces the risk of security threats recently there
has been a case at the company where a problem arises because a member of staff was using
the Internet of the form to download music and access pornographic websites. This case
showcases that the level of employee security at APG limited contact services not highly
effective in keeping employees in control and supervising compliance with security policies.
This can lead to compromise in the large computer system located at central warehouse of
the organization which stores important information such as consumer contact information
(Zhang, Sun and Xie, 2018). Any threat to security leakage of such data or further security
breaches by employees can affect smooth functioning of the company and can lead to
closure of the company as consumer trust is broken because of security breach in the
organization. It is important that APG limited contact service centre handles security threats
effectively and immediately imposes security controls so that any mistake from an
employees and does not introduce danger to security of the overall company.
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 Financial Risk: There is also financial risk when acquiring a subsidiary from another
company which affects they expect if case study of APG limited contact services centre.
There is a risk of unexpected costs associated with the deal affecting the financial stability of
the company and creating problems in smooth financial management for current and future
projects of APG limited contract service centre. The financial risk is also associated with
the stocks currently held by the company and which will be acquired from money mask
service centre (Ford and Ihrke, 2019). This is because different factors such as due diligence
practices or integration conflicts and cultural differences don't affect the company from
successfully acquiring the service centre and stocks from Monymusk Electric Savacentres
Limited. This financial risk needs to be looked at quickly so that the company can move
forward with assurance that viable results will be provided in the future.
 Synergy and communication risk: Finally, there is also a risk related to negative cultural
effects of acquiring stock in subsidies from Monymusk Electric Savacentres Limited early
stages of the deal of acquisition can be affected by the council differences between two
companies. In addition to this, lack of communication and transparency can also affect
employees of a company in completely trusting the organization and successfully achieving
objectives of acquisition (Abraham, Schneider and Vom Brocke, 2019). It is essential that
the respective organization develops smooth communication channels with employees so
that leaders can ensure their acceptance and participation in implementing acquisition
process an achieving company objectives.
Complete Risk Register
No. Risk Effect Possibility Mitigation
1  IT Risk Low High Usage of five stages of IITL
which are:
Service Strategy.
Service Design.
Service Transition.
Service Operation.
Continual Service Improvement.
2  Security High Low Applying the five COBIT
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Threats principles is helpful in mitigate
IT risks. These are Principle 1:
Meeting stakeholder needs.
Principle 2: Covering the
enterprise end to end (McShane,
2018).
Principle 3: Applying a single
integrated framework.
Principle 4: Enabling a holistic
approach.
Principle 5: Separating
governance from management.
3  Financial Risk: Moderate Using Insurance is helpful when
dealing with financial
management risk (Fell and
Hartford, 2018).
4 •Synergy and
communication risk
Moderate Low Application of Belbin Theory
and Tuckman’s team
development theory.
Legislative Compliance Issues and suggested remedies
There are ample number of legislative compliance issues that APG Contract Services
Limited can face while carrying out practices. Mentioned below are some of compliance issues
and suggested remedies for APG Contract Services Limited:
APG Contract Service Limited engaged in a service contract with their customers by
providing them opportunity to offer repairing at a fixed cost for future period. However,
managers of APG Contracts Services Limited are not eligible for asking extra fees from their
customers for after service or repairing.
Their website is also not protected by their IT team thus they not comply with the GDPR
which essentially frame companies to follow the guidelines and compels them not to sell the
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personal information of company to third parties for profits. It is necessary for establishments for
making compliance with data protection laws, negelance of this can can land them in trouble in
an significant manner (Van Wyk, 2018). The Data Protection Act is the most important act
which needs to be followed by businesses when it comes to managing information technology
activities of the company so that the firm is able to achieve complete security of its information
technology infrastructure (Greuning and Brajovic-Bratanovic, 2022). It is advantages for the
respective company to follow the GDPR law so that the guidance can be used to cover key
information technology issues and ensure that the detail of consumers and employees is being
utilized and protected in a lawful manner.
By not complying with contract act as well as data protection, APG Contracts Service
Limited can face significant legislative issues. Companies can be given imprisonment or can be
asked for filing heavy fines in an exponential manner. This can also restrict them to perform their
business activities in an effective manner (Ye and Liu, 2021). An organisation who fails to make
compliance with legislations can loss their reputation in market. APG Contracts Services Limited
also face issues regarding safety convictions as well as damaging their financial outlay.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that implementing electrician with another
business is looking at information technology infrastructure details of the company so that risks
related with IT and financial risk can be avoided. This can be completed by using a risk register
so that the risks are avoided and responsible individuals are communicated regarding their status.
In addition to this there are different legal areas which need to be considered by businesses when
completing acquisition of another business. The data protection law is an important idea of
which needs to be considered when acquiring information technology infrastructure of another
company.
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References:
Books and Journals
Abraham, R., Schneider, J. and Vom Brocke, J., 2019. Data governance: A conceptual
framework, structured review, and research agenda. International Journal of
Information Management. 49. pp.424-438.
Ford, M. R. and Ihrke, D. M., 2019. Perceptions are reality: A framework for understanding
governance. Administrative Theory & Praxis. 41(2). pp.129-147..
Swartz, P., Da Veiga, A. and Martins, N., 2019, March. A conceptual privacy governance
framework. In 2019 Conference on Information Communications Technology and
Society (ICTAS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Van Wyk, D., 2018. GRC and IT. Without Prejudice. 18(3). pp.53-53.
Wang, C. H. and Juo, W. J., 2021. An environmental policy of green intellectual capital: Green
innovation strategy for performance sustainability. Business Strategy and the
Environment. 30(7). pp.3241-3254.
Ye, X. and Liu, D., 2021. An interpretable sequential three-way recommendation based on
collaborative topic regression. Expert Systems with Applications. 168. p.114454.
Zhang, Y., Sun, W. and Xie, C., 2018, September. Blockchain in smart city development—The
knowledge governance framework in dynamic alliance. In International Conference on
Smart City and Intelligent Building (pp. 137-152). Springer
Online:
Barlow. J. 2016. Board Governance Models: A Comprehensive List. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/board-governance-models-a-comprehensive-list/>
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