University of Derby Network Management and Security Report

This report provides a comprehensive network management plan for Handmade Furniture Ltd., addressing their IT infrastructure and support challenges. The report begins with an introduction and terms of reference, outlining the company's need for a network management plan to address data loss and security threats. It then justifies the selection of a network management plan, emphasizing the advantages of in-house IT staff over outsourcing, particularly in terms of data security, cost-effectiveness, and control. The report details the necessary IT staff requirements, including roles such as IT head, network administrators, and web developers, and explains the components of the network management plan, such as security management, fault management, configuration management, accounting management, and performance management. Finally, the report discusses IT support options, recommending the hiring of experienced IT supervisors and junior network administrators on a contractual basis initially, before potentially transitioning to outsourced support as needed. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adapting IT strategies to the company's evolving needs.

Running head: NETWORK MANAGEMENT
NETWORK MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Terms of reference.................................................................................................................2
Overview....................................................................................................................................3
Justification for the selected network management plan...........................................................3
IT staff requirements..............................................................................................................6
Elements of the network management plan...............................................................................6
IT support options......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion and recommendations.............................................................................................8

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Introduction
Handmade Furniture Ltd. is encountering certain difficulties in controlling IT
infrastructure and providing IT related support for personnel. The current network
management and the support services do not follow a fixed procedure thus leading to loss of
data. There have been many hacking attempts as well in the company. These in future can
lead to financial deficits, disruptions in the services and many more that can have an adverse
effect on the brand name of the company. The company should be having a network
management plan that should consider the existing infrastructures along with the future
implementations. There are multiple criteria that need to be considered such as costs,
administrative control as well as the security plans. The importance of network management
plan in an organization needs to be understood and the company needs to select a proper IT
option by the help of a network management plan. In this report; terms of reference, proper
justification why this network management plan has to be deployed, elements or components
in the same and various options for enhancing the IT support as well as suggestions are
included.
Terms of reference
Handmade Furniture Ltd. needs a network management plan and they are also
confused with the IT option they should choose thus requiring the advice of a consultant or an
expert in this field. The report will include components of network management plan and will
not be including the technicalities of the equipments that are being used to upgrade the
network. Some of the main components of the network management plan are mistake
management, performance management, security management, accounting management and
settings management.

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Overview
With every passing day, information technology is becoming the integral part of
businesses and is being used by the companies to achieve their set goals. Network
management refers to complying with regulations, enhancing reliability, enhancing security
along with smooth functioning of the various business operations. Handmade Furniture Ltd.
can make use of network management services for streamlining various IT related processes
thus completing various operations in an efficient manner. Network management plan is
considered to be one of the excellent approaches that can help to acquire new business leads,
identify some of the best practices, going with the business trends, saving money and
accelerating the growth of the network (Ding 2016). Once the IT functions are streamlined
and the new enhancements completed, IT support outsourcing option should be chosen. The
network management plan will consider two sub programs that are:
1. Plan that includes restructuring of the network infrastructure.
2. Plan to support or incorporate new functions and associated steps.
Justification for the selected network management plan
IT support outsourcing is not the preferred option rather use of in-house IT staff can
provide various advantages to the company. The current network issues and the happenings
need to be considered. The company should incorporate changes in the operational
procedures and check that each of the tasks is being done as per plan. This can certainly lead
to backing up or archiving the data of the company, bringing changes in the passwords,
creation of accounts of the customers etc. Data can be considered as the most important asset
of any company and thus it can be said that using outsourced party in order to handle data
will not be good for the security implications of the company (Aarikka-Stenroos and Ritala
2017). The company needs to employ a Wi-Fi system, the PCs needs to be updated and cloud

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should be preferred medium for storing messages and systems. The end user accounts need to
be handled along with the data and associated security steps. By incorporating in-house IT
personnel the security issues can be checked. The functional cost is the major disadvantage of
in-house IT staff but it can be said in case of outsourced support there is a lot of competition
between the IT support firms that offer different amount of charges for providing
maintenance of the site. In maximum of the instances it has been found that these offers that
are provided by IT support firms include less number of engineers in comparison to a specific
team of personnel that is available in-house. In case of the outsource team more number of
support staff are required thus having a adding to the budget. In-house IT team can provide
the company with quick backing whenever it is required by the firm. The in-house team will
have a better knowledge of the IT infrastructure thus will be able to solve problems quickly
(Hovik and Hanssen 2015). The members can be chosen from among the workforce and it is
up to the management to choose anyone they feel eligible to be in the team. The company
will have full control on the team members which is another advantage of having in-house IT
team. Another major advantage of an in-house team is that only two levels of communication
exist that is between the staffs and the manager or the senior employees. But contrary to this
in an outsourced IT team, many different levels of communication such as in between
manager or senior staff and many more as such. The main problem in outsourced IT support
is that whenever the company will encounter any IT related problem, external agents will get
through the systems which can give rise to security issues. The major advantage of
outsourcing IT teams is that the cost will be reduced and the company will not have to invest
on hiring or managing a team. The outsourcing companies are meant to provide these
services and they have far more work experience as compared to the in-house team. They
work with different firms and thus their experience as well as dealing with work will be
different from that of the in-house experts. The outsourced team will have more tools,

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experience, resources as well as talent. In case of outsourcing the IT team the company would
have to check the background of the company and be careful with the terms and conditions as
chances of fraud are high (Zilberman, Watts, Rotsos and Moore 2015). The company should
go for in-house IT experts so that whenever they requires they can get consultation. The in-
house team will understand the IT requirements of the team in a better way while the
outsourced team will consider the company just as a new client company.
It will be wise on the part of the company to hire in-house experts in the beginning
and then shift to outsourced IT experts. The company wants to adopt news strategies that
include cloud structured email and many such things and in this case having an in-house IT
team will help the company in handling emergency situations. But after they are done with
setting up with the new systems, there will definitely be a rise in the IT support incidents thus
they can go for outsourced team (Bjorklund et al. 2018). Once the new systems get
established well there is no point investing on the in-house IT team as this can add to the cost
of operations of the firm. The size or the number of the employees working in the firm is also
an essential parameter to decide whether the IT team should be outsourced or it should be in-
house. Some major benefits of an outsourced IT support are as follows:
1. It reduces labor cost.
2. The company can pay more attention to the key businesses.
3. Less training or no training is required as the IT staffs who have been outsourced are
expected to have proper skills.

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IT staff requirements
The successful implementation of network management plan depends wholly on the
skills of the IT personnel. The major roles in the company when implementing new system
will be that of the following personnel as given below:
1. IT head
2. Senior network administrator
3. Desktop support
4. Web Developer
5. Network administrators
In order to successfully implement the network management plan there is a need that all of
the above recognized important personnel should understand their responsibilities and work
according to a set plan so that they can achieve their goal (Willcocks and Lacity 2016).
Handmade furniture should ensure that at each of the levels there must be person who can act
in the absence of the first person.
Components of the network management plan
The different components of the network management plan should include the
following:
1. Security management- There is a need to install as well as configure central antivirus
console as at present the computer virus guards are installed as the only measure of safeguard
in each of the computers (Willcocks and Lacity 2016). Monitoring of these virus guards can
be a challenge for the company. The network administrators should install new antivirus into
the system and the system should be monitored on a frequent basis. The senior network

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manager should keep a check on the working of the system at a regular basis and these he
should ensure that these are getting updated on a regular basis.
2. Fault management- The existing as well as the current IT support requests will get the
provision to be handled in a better way by employing help desk. The help desk will provide
proper reporting as well as monitoring facilities for the various support demands (Hong and
Pavlou 2017). The help desk can be useful in both case whether it be for the in-house team or
the outsource team.
3. Configuration management- Analyzing the present situation at Handmade Furniture, it was
understood that there is no such proper documentation that could provide details about the
user accounts, configurations and many such things (Jäntt and Cater-Steel 2017). This can
certainly be a problem in case of emergency situations.
4. Accounting management- The Company needs a central storage that can back up the data
of all the computer systems to it and NAS safekeeping that is already present in the company
can definitely serve this purpose (Wickboldt et al. 2016). By making use of back-up software
and creating folders for all the users in the server can help. The folders that are created can in
turn be updated to the NAS storage.
5. Performance management- In the existing network, there is no provision for network
monitoring system that provides network performance, errors, alarms and speed. This
monitoring system should have certain features such as sending alerts to the administrators by
the medium of text; generate records and others as such.
IT support options
The two options available to the company in context of hiring in-house IT staff are
either hiring permanent staff or hiring staff on contractual basis. These options can be the best

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at the initial level. The company requires an experienced IT supervisor who can effectively
manage the various IT operations (Ding 2016). Desktop support along with junior network
administrators should be hired by the company on the basis of contract. It is the
responsibility of the IT administrator to keep a check on the documentation of the work so
that this can help in providing proper customer services.
Two options for outsourcing the IT support services can be either to outsource the
technical engineers internally within the premises of the organization or demanding support
over call (Wickboldt et al. 2016). Former will add to the costs of the company but is
suggested as the latter will require service level contract having stringent terms.
Conclusion and recommendations
From the above discussion it can be understood that in order to implement the
network management plan there is a need to bring a lot of changes in the IT job roles of the
company. The choice of in-house or outsourced IT team depends totally on the needs of the
company. The company should go with an in-house IT team at the starting of network
management plan and can outsource IT services at the end. In this way, at the initial level it
will ensure that all tasks are carried out properly and everything is properly set up. Opting for
outsourced IT services will help cut costs in the last stages of network management plan. The
company does not have any IT support but after the implementation of the network
management plan, a constant support service will be obtained. The documentation of the
tasks being performed is another important aspect in this case. The company needs to deploy
IT support personnel and prefer IT support in-house temporarily for some months. As per the
IT needs, the staffs should be hired or recruited and after this they must be assigned jobs as
per their portfolio. The immediate supervisors should be listed as well and each of the IT job
roles should be backed with another employee so that in absence of one, the other can address

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the problems. Thus, it can be said that to successfully implement the network management
plan, the company should work on its documentation and distribute the roles and
responsibilities properly.

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