BCO6653 - Comparative Case Analysis of IT Management: Amazon & Takeda

This case study provides a comparative analysis of the IT management strategies employed by Amazon and Takeda. It begins with background information on both organizations, followed by a literature review of IS planning and security. The study then presents findings from interviews and surveys r...Read More

BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
ASSIGNMENT #2
Case Analysis for
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A study of issues in:
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IT Human Resource Management
Business Continuity Management
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
IT Manager Interviews for place names of businesses here
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Jane Smith, [e-mail]
Abstract
The report is associated with discussing about the IS infrastructure of two the organizations namely
Amazon and Takeda. In this report a brief overview of two of the organizations has been provided and
along with this a survey has been conducted so as to compare the IS infrastructure that they are
having. In this paper a literature review has also been conducted so as to understand the basic
concepts of IS and compare the IS infrastructure that the organizations are having. Followed by the
comparison is the section in which the issues faced by the IS infrastructure are analysed and are
described in brief along with the reason for choosing those issues.
Introduction
The report mainly discusses about the two organizations namely “Amazon” and Takeda. In the first
section of the report a brief discussion has been put forward regarding the two organizations. This has
been done so as to make the readers understand the various issues or problems or opportunities that
the organization is having. After this the IS planning of both the organizations has been provided after
which a literature review has been conducted along with a comparative analysis. After the completion
of the literature review the issues have been identified. Once the identifications of the issues are
completed certain solutions are provided for both the organizations.
Organisation background
AMAZON
Amazon is one of the American Electronic Commerce and Cloud computing company which is based
in Washington in the City of Seattle. This organization was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year of 1994.
This is one of the tech giant and is also considered to be the Largest Internet retailer in terms of the
revenue and the market capitalization whereas it is the second largest in terms of total sales after
Alibaba group. This organization firstly started its business as an online bookstore whereas later it
expanded to provided other type of services like the streaming and downloading of various MP3,
audiobooks and video files along with other products like electronic, games, and many more. Besides
this the organization is also having separate retail websites for different countries and the countries
mainly includes the United Kingdoms and Ireland, Canada, Spain, Italy, United States, France, India,
China, Turkey, Mexico, Japan and Singapore.
The website of this organization known as the amazon.com is accessed by almost 615 million visitors
annually in the year of 2008. Whereas it attracted almost more than 130 million of customers in the
US website per month by the year of 2016. Besides this huge investments were also made upon the
massive amount of server capacity for the websites mainly for the purpose of handling the excess
traffic at the time of Christmas holiday season that is in the month of December. The results which
gets generated by the Amazons search engine are partially decided by the promotional fees. A review
feature is also provided by Amazon where the users can submit their reviews regarding each products.
The rating of a product is generally done by means of the rating scale that is from one star to five star.
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
Fig 1: Homepage of Amazon
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
This is the largest pharmaceutical company present in Japan and in Asia. Besides this the organization
is also listed amongst the top 15 Pharmaceutical companies of world. The company is having almost
more than 30,000 employees all around the world and has been associated with achieving around 16.2
billion USD in revenue in the financial year of 2012. The major focus of the organization includes the
different kind of metabolic disorders, gastroenterology, neurology, and inflammation. Besides this the
organization is also associated with focusing upon the oncology by making use of its independent
subsidiary which is also known as the Takeda Oncology. Headquarter of this organization is located in
the country of Osaka in Chuo-Ku. Along with this the organization is also having its office in Tokyo
in Nihonbashi, Chuo. Fortune Magazine ranked this organization, Takeda Oncology Company as one
of the 100 best companies working for the United States in the year of 2012.
This organization was founded in the year of 1781 on 12th June and was incorporated in the year of
1925 on 29th January. In US the organization first entered in the year of 1977 by creation of a joint
venture with the Abbott Laboratories which is also known as the TAP Pharmaceuticals. The major
places of operation of this organization are based in Japan that is Osaka and Tokyo whereas the United
States Subsidiary of this organization is located in Deerfield in Illinois. Besides this all other Global
Operation conducted outside Japan and the US are situated in Opfikon (Zurich), Switzerland. Along
with this the research and development sites of this company are maintained in Osaka and Shonan in
japan, Brooklyn park, San Diego, Cambridge in United States and many more.
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
Fig 2: Homepage of Takeda
IS Planning Literature Analysis
According to the author Peltier (2016), there is a need to develop information security system so that
the confidentiality of the data can be maintained. . Maintaining security for the information stored in
the system become very much necessary as every information is confidential to for their organization
and should be stored with highest security. Information security system is referred to the
methodologies and way that is described for protecting the information stored within the system.
These helps the system to prevent unnecessary access an also does not allows any unauthorized person
to access or modify the information stored within the system. There are basic 3 key characteristics of
the information that is stored within the system and needs to be protected by information security, this
includes confidentiality, availability and integrity. Confidentiality refers to the process of giving
access to only authorized persons. Integrity refers to the fact that the information is intact and is not
being altered by someone else throughout its life cycle. Availability states that the data is accessible
all the time for the authorized persons.
The ways in which the information security system can maintain its privacy is can be done with the
use of cryptography. This helps to ensure the data is kept secured and the access is given to the users
who is having the decryption key. In this method the data is being encrypted with the help of a private
and only the person with key can decrypt the message. This helps to maintain the data integrity and
the chances of data getting breached also reduces. In order to ensure the data integrity, the user can use
strong authentication or by restricting the number of users can help the system to maintain the data
integrity (Laudon and Laudon2016). In addition to this with the help of documenting system activity
can help to maintain the integrity of the data. The biggest challenge that is faced while maintaining the
information security is that there is a need of maintaining the balance between the access and
protection provided towards a secure information system. The access should not be given to everyone,
this will help them to detect the problem easily.
The threats that are likely to be faced by the information system includes, security threats. Security
threats referred to action of performing an activity that will lead to disclosure or loss of the
information that is stored within the system (Pathan 2016). There are basically three components of
security threats this incudes, targets, agents and events. With the implementation of CNSS security
model one can improves the information security system.
Amazon
A gist of the planning strategy was provided by the organization when they wre asked about the
methodology that their business follow. According to them as Amazon is a vast organization which
consists of various sub-units and for that reason they have been associated with integrating the
security in a seamless way as much as possible with the various applications as well as with the
workflows and data in a unified environment. Besides this they also stated that by depending upon the
type of unit that they work with, they would make further plans for the IS. However they did not
disclosed the alignment of the IS plan with the corporate or business plan due to some privacy
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
reasons. For making sure that the IS plan is being followed they have been associated with including
the awareness regarding safeguard of their customer and employee data in their mission. Besides this
their mission also includes the instilling of the awareness so as to safeguard the applications, services
and the assets as well. For accomplishing their mission they have been associated with uniting with
the other Amazon organizations so as to implement the best security practices into their entire system.
The guidance and the leadership equipment provided to their partners are very helpful in maintaining
high security standards. According to the organization, IS plays a very vital role in achieving success
and efficiency and this is generally evaluated by the Audit team of the organization. In case of
outsourcing, the disadvantages and the advantages of the IS structure and IT system nothing was
answered. The only thing that they told was that they are associated with assessing of the risks along
with classifying the data and systems, detecting of the potential intrusions and rendering of the data as
useless in case when they are leaked. They are having there is teams across 10 different countries of
the world which mainly focuses on different areas. The areas mainly includes the security intelligence,
application security, incident response, security operations, risk and compliance, acquisitions and
subsidiaries, and external partner security.
The organization is plans of relying upon the external experts so as to manage the human resources in
cases when there is a need of elevating the internal staffs. In case of recruitment process they makes
use of their own proprietary job website where the qualified persons can apply for the jobs depending
upon the requirements and availability of jobs. Amazon is also associated with providng various kind
of opportunities for the IS employees which generally varies from the low level to managerial level. In
Amazon progression of the career also plays a very vital role and this generally begins by proving
each and every employee equal opportunity while taking ownership of certain tasks. A fast-paced
working environment is provided which evolving at a continuous rate and it is seen that each and
every person associated with Amazon is passionate regarding the ownership and the delivering of the
results to the company. The IT turnover is managed in a proactive way and is dependent upon the
certain scenarios.
Takeda
According the survey report the organization Takeda is not associated with the adaptation of any type
of particular methodology while making plans for the IS and besides this they are associated with
making a plan for two years while moving ahead with making plans for the IS. Besides this they also
stated that there is plan is generally driven by the strategic or the business plan that they are having. In
order to make sure that there is plan is working properly they meet at least every quarter so as to get
aligned with the IS plan. Takeda evaluates the success of there is plan by looking into the quantitative
side which means that they only see if their target budget has been achieved or not at the end of the
year.
According to them as they are global organization so their IT systems are decentralized in nature. This
has led to various kind of problems while seeing the big picture. For this reason they are working on
the process of migrating their IT infrastructure to the cloud so as to understand the situation and
standardize their various processes. Besides this they highlighted the fact that while moving to the
usage of cloud technology exists various challenges like hacking or virus attack and for this reason
they need to have a robust security and online pipeline so as to secure their IT infrastructure. The only
thing that has been outsourced is the out desktop service and the major benefit from this is cost
benefit. This has led to problems in providing of customer services and also led to increase in time
consumption for opening of tickets to closing of tickets. But still they have decided to outsource this
particular function.
In addition to this while managing the IT human resources, rather than asking questions related to IT
they are also associated with providing IT case studies which helps in completing the process of
interview along with helping in conducting the interview. No such information has been provided
regarding the size of the IS organization, different job related to IS, the different hierarchical levels.
The minimum qualification requires is bachelor’s degree and minimum experience of 3 years besides
this there exists career progression and proper training is provided so as to manage the turnover.
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
Comparative analysis
Both the organizations are having an entire different IS infrastructure. From the survey conducted it
can be stated that the IS infrastructure that organization 1 or Amazon is having is much more secure in
nature as well as strong. Whereas for the second organization that is Takeda the IS infrastructure is
comparatively weaker in nature. The human resource management is also better in case of Amazon
where it is seen that the opportunity for career growth is much more than Takeda. Similar thing has
also been seen in case of Outsourcing where Amazon in associated with more outsourcing than
Takeda. The IS planning strategy of Amazon is entirely depend upon the situations where the IS plan
of Takeda is generally made each time the team meets at quarterly intervals. One of the major
disadvantage of Takeda is that they are having a decentralized IT system and they mainly focuses upon
the cost benefits. Whereas all this details has been kept hidden in case of Amazon as in order make
sure that the privacy of the company is kept. Amazon is also having IT teams spread across various
locations so as to tackle any kind of challenges. So from the answers obtained from the survey it can be
stated that the IS of Amazon is much more secure than Takeda as they look after the security and
privacy of the data very seriously.
Issues studied
The major issues that has been noted in case of both the organizations is listed in this section of the
report. For Amazon, the major issues that has been noted is that they rely on external expertise so as
to elevate their internal employees and the second issues which has been identified includes the
presence of 10 teams in ten different countries but as the business is spread across different countries
so it is important to have a team in each and every country where the organization conducts its
business. In case of Takeda the major issue which has been identified is the lack of proper IS. Besides
this the second issue which has been identified is the presence of decentralized IT system despite of
being a worldwide organization.
Topic 1 – Presence of Decentralized system
Being a worldwide organization the decentralized system acts as a major disadvantage of Takeda. For
Amazon this details has not been revealed due to some privacy reasons. The decentralized system
makes the process of handling the IT resources very much challenging besides this the presence of the
decentralized system is responsible for loosing of control over the day-to-day activities of the
organization. Besides this the presence of the decentralized IT system might led to different type of
conflicts between the staffs and the higher officials of the organization. Besides this some other major
challenges that are faced in case of presence of a decentralized IT system includes the following:
1)lack of consistency throughout the entire organization, 2) exists the need of a stronger and more
consistent communication, 3) risks are overlooked in this type of systems and are generally
mischaracterized, 4) requirement of more staff.
Literature Analysis
According to the records of last few decades it is seen that the interest of adopting the cloud
computing by various organizations has increased a lot. According to Elragal and Haddara (2012),
Cloud computing technology is having the potential of reshaping the way by which various
organizations acquire and manage the needs related to computing resources in an efficient and cost-
effective way. Whereas according to Su et al. (2009), cloud computing is the notion related to the
sharing of the services which means that the cloud computing is an innovative model associated with
sourcing of the various IT services which in turn is associated with the generation of values for the
organizations which are going to adopt this new technology. As per the authors Garrison, Kim and
Wakefield (2012), cloud computing is the technology which enables the enterprises to focus upon the
core business activities that they are having. This in turn helps the organization in increasing their
productivity. Besides this the adaptation of the cloud technology is increasing day by day due to the
scalable, flexible, agile and simple nature that it is having. According to the report “ Right Scale State
of the Cloud Report” states that the almost 77% of the large organizations are associated with the
adaptation of the cloud computing technology and besides this it is also recorded that 73% of the
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
small and medium sized enterprises are associated with the adaptation of the cloud computing
technology.
Organisation 1: Amazon:
It is very essential for the organization to have a centralized IT system as their business is spread all
across the world. So it is very essential to have a centralized IT infrastructure by making use of some
other technology like the cloud computing. Cloud is the platform where the organization can host all
its services with low investment and low effort in managing the various resources. By moving of the
entire system to the cloud environment it would become very easy to maintain them. Some of the
other advantages includes it is low of cost and can be accessed anytime from anywhere. This sevice is
free from capital expenditure helping in saving of costs as no investment needs to be made upon
purchasing of extra hardware.
Organisation 2
As per Takeda the entire IT structure is decentralized in nature and being a worldwide organization it
is very essential to have a centralized structure. The best way of doing this is by the adaptation of the
cloud computing environment. This would be helping in easy access to various resources. Being a
pharmaceutical organization it is very essential that their services are available to everyone 24X7.
Cloud computing makes this possible as most of the cloud computing maintain an uptime of 99.9%.
Besides this workers would also become capable of getting their needed applications from anywhere.
Besides the availability cloud also helps the organization in becoming more flexible. Clouds would
also be associated with helping the organization in reducing their carbon footprint and along with this
cloud technology also provides and enhanced rate of security whenever any kind of sensitive data is
stored in the clouds. By making use of cloud backing up of the data becomes very easy along with
recovering of the data in case of any kind of data breach or loss of data.
Topic 2: Human resources
Management of human resources is another major problem which is faced by both the organization.
This means that they are lacking is proper human resources and this has initially been leading to
difficulties in developing and maintenance of solid relationship with the employees. Human resources
management is associated with reliving the managers and the owners of the organization from the
stress related to finding of qualified employees whenever a particular position open ups.
Organization 1: Amazon:
Proper human resource management can be obtained by the organization if they think of putting
together a solid team. The HR team would be associated with hiring of good staffs instead of
depending upon external expertise. Besides this it would also become possible to hire as much
employees as possible according the departmental budget. There is also a need of communicating with
the team regarding their expectations and it also to be made sure that the members of the HR team are
understanding their responsibilities in a proper way. The HR team would become capable of working
in an efficient way only if the members of the organization know which team member they should
contact regarding certain cases.
Organization 2: Takeda
Similar thing is also to be done by this organization. The team that they are going to appoint should
specially focus upon the fact that confidentiality is maintained in well maner. Which means that the
HR department which is going to be appointed would be having access to lot of personal data and
besides this they are also responsible for handling various kind of sensitive issues and for this reason
discretion is very essential. Along with all this there should also exists an open door policy for the
management as well as for the staffs. The team members of the HR team is also to be provided with
proper training.
Literature review:
According to Wehrmeyer (2017), Human resource management is the strategic approach which has
been adopted for the purpose of managing the relation of the employment and besides this it
emphasizes on the process of leveraging the capabilities of the peoples which is critical to for the
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BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
purpose of gaining a competitive advantage, this is being achieved by making use of a distinctive set
of integrated employment policies along with the programs and practices as well. According to
Navimipour et al. (2015), the global and the competitive markets has been associated with leading o
facing of numerous new challenges for the individuals as well as for the organizations. Besides this by
not having a well-trained and prepared labour forces the business generally drop the ability of
competing with the national as the international rivals which results in decreased rate of economic
success.
Conclusion
The report helps in concluding to the fact that IS is very important for almost all organizations
especially for the organizations which are larger in size. Besides this the report highlights the IS
infrastructure and their deficiencies as well for the selected organizations Amazon and Takeda. This
two are large organizations which requires a strong security solution for there is. The best solution for
them is the usage of the cloud computing technology. The major reason which lies behind the usage of
the cloud computing solution is that it provides the organization with more flexibility. Another major
reason lying behind the usage of the cloud computing is that the resources present in the clouds can be
accessed anytime and from anywhere. Besides this the usage of the cloud computing would also be
helping both the business in advancing with the business that they conduct.
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