Risks on IT/IS change

Assignment # 2

Based on the orgnaization(s) that you visited, what do you think are the risks associated with business and IS/IT change? (1000 words)

The company hunting..

The company that my group mates visited for the first assignment is actually the same company that I will be featuring for assignment number 2 which is the DOLE Philippines.

Since sir Randy already approved DOLE as our adopted company for our module discussion, I already assume that he allow DOLE as our company to be featured in this assignment..Hehe ( I hope I’m right..)

Our interview was conducted mostly by using the vernacular language..therefore my answer to this assignment is largely the way I understand what our interviewee was trying to say. I mainly picked out the keywords that she mentioned and elaborated it according to my understanding.

Company background..

Here is a brief company profile of our adopted company for this assignment according to the official website of the DOLE Philippines(http://www.dole.com.ph/CompanyInfo.htm.)

Dole is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fresh cut flowers with a growing line of quality packaged foods. Dole’s dedication to quality is a commitment solidly backed by: comprehensive programs for food safety, scientific crop protection programs, stringent quality control measures, state-of-the-art production and transportation technologies, continuous improvement through research and innovation, and dedication to the safety of our employees, communities and the environment. Dole is committed to nutrition education to communicate to the public the health benefits of eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

In the Philippines, Dole has introduced premium quality, healthy food products in fresh and packaged foods. Its focus on health and nutrition remains strong even as Dole continues to expand its healthy food products. Its product lines range from canned pineapple solids, canned mixed fruits, canned beverages, packaged fruit snacks to tomato sauce.

Risks on IS/IT change…

Here are the risks of IS/IT change that I picked out from our interview with the MIS programmer of DOLE.

The first thing that she mentioned as one of the primary risk involving a system change would be System Failure. This kind of risk usually happens when the system was not properly planned and well designed. She deliberately emphasized that the company should have a thorough, extensive and proper planning before making any change of system. She also said that it is important to asses first if there is really a need for a change of system or not. The IT personnel should determine if changing the system is the really the best option there are other alternatives such as system upgrade rather than whole system change. She also mentioned during the interview that the IT personnel should determine what specific component of the system must be changed. Is there a need to change the database or programming language used or is there a need to convert from desktop to web?

She also mentioned that one of the probable risks is financial. She didn’t expound much in this aspect maybe because the reason was too obvious. This kind of risk largely affects the financial aspect of any business. Just like any kind of project, investing on changing a new system will require money and resources that if (worst case scenario) the system will fail, will cause the company to lose certain amount of resources that could have been used on other projects and future undertakings.

On the organizational level, she mentioned that the risk involving a system change would primarily concentrate on the employees. If a system change would happen, there is a risk that employees who are accustomed with the old system may have a problem dealing with the new system and will therefore prefer to the use the old one and disregard the new one. That’s why it is very important for the company to deliberately involve the end users and make sure that they will have a proper support and training for them to use the new system effectively.

On the technical level, she also mentioned that one of the risks on making a system change would be the loss of data. Data is one of the important components of any IS or IT system. The loss of data can be crucial because data is considered as one if not the most important component in any information system. It is a possibility that during a system change such as an IT/IS change in a company, inaccuracy and incompleteness of data may occur. This kind of risk will boil down to loss of integrity of the data in general.


NOTE:
The interview is supported with a recorded evidence.