The Role of IS for The 2012 Olympics - Coursework Example

Information systems management: The role of IS for the Olympics BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL DATA HERE Executive summary The objectives of this report were to identify the different demands placed on various agencies responsible for coordinating activities, both private and public, amid the 2012 Olympics in London. The report identifies the problems and advantages of information systems development as well as the objective of recognising how these systems will affect business and the public sector in controlling high visitor volumes during the Games. The methodology for collecting information was a secondary research analysis, utilising various journals and information systems-related publications from a variety of software and service agency reports. Conclusions identified that there are risks associated in the public sector, especially in terms of visitor beliefs about potential privacy issues. Benefits to the private sector are enhanced business visibility and higher tourist/business revenues. It has been recommended to change the communications style about public sector surveillance projects and criminal databases to improve social and cultural standing with international visitor groups Table of contents 1.0 Terms of reference.................................................................................................. 2.0 Introduction............................................................................................................ 3.0 The public sector..................................................................................................... 3.1 Problems with system development............................................................ 4.0 The private sector information systems................................................................... 5.0 Conclusions.............................................................................................................. 6.0 Recommendations.................................................................................................... 7.0 References................................................................................................................ 1.0 Terms of reference On the advice of the module leader, the researcher was required to undertake a comprehensive research project to identify the requirements of various information systems in order to cope with the impending high volume of visitors that will be attending the London 2012 Olympics. This research effort was carried out so as to understand the impact of technology on business and gain understanding of the problems involved in these large-scale IT projects. 2.0 Introduction This report identifies the specific information systems requirements, in terms of usage and development, that will be included as part of the information technology infrastructure at the 2012 Olympics. The research provides how this technology impacts both the public and private sector and explores potential problems with their development, usage and inclusion for various control agencies. 3.0 The public sector Multiple databases are necessary for development and maintenance in different policing agencies that are entrusted with the responsibility of securing the public welfare and sustaining public systems. The UK police force, in anticipation for high visitor volumes, has been forced to re-examine their information systems capabilities and have improved their fingerprint identification systems. There are legitimate risks to public safety in any organised event from individuals who actively look for opportunities to commit crimes against others. The fingerprint identification database is linked with missing persons and crime support, requiring instant access to identify any perpetrators of criminal behaviour (Hallowes, 2008). In order to sustain regional or international databases, the information systems architecture is necessary for immediate retrieval of known fingerprints for comparison to public service archives. With the recent onslaught of bombings and other terrorist-related events, there has been a need to redevelop the defence and security networks needed to maintain constant observation of different public and private infrastructures that can be threatened by a variety of disasters. The EADS Defence & Security organisation has been entrusted to develop a revamped surveillance network for this purpose (Meleard, 2009). Problems with this type of development could potentially include private citizen concern over their personal liberties which could limit potential revenues from visitors that maintain issues with video monitoring. If such concerns exist, it could impact the ability of Olympics organisers in off-setting information technology costs and even affect profit margins from the many sponsors that market products during this event. There are also growing instances of cyber attacks in a variety of international technology infrastructures, and this is something that has been considered in the planning and development stages for various Olympics organisers. The government OCS has developed new cyber surveillance activities in order to launch their own cyber attacks in the event that a threat to government-sponsored IS infrastructure has been identified (Espiner, 2009). Problems that can occur during this type of government activity could include decision-makers ill-equipped with information systems knowledge that launch unprovoked cyber attacks based on perception of threat rather than credible information. This is a risky venture that could impact relationships with a variety of public and private sector organisations. Another positive development has been the introduction of the Mobile Information Programme that will give 30,000 police officers the ability to communicate via mobile data devices (appss.org.uk, 2008). These officers will be entrusted with ensuring security and citizen welfare during the Games and will need equipment for immediate mobilisation of forces should threats be identified. The Mobile Information Programme gives these officers, also, the ability to coordinate interoperability with ambulance and fire services via their mobile data terminals (appss.org.uk). This poses many advantages to businesses by ensuring that their own commercial infrastructures are protected as well as their customers. These telecommunications improvements could enhance revenue production from citizens that might be apprehensive about attending the Games for security and health/safety reasons. The city’s road management organisations and public safety agencies have also incorporated new enhancements to surveillance systems by improving their automatic plate recognition systems related to automobiles (silicon.com, 2006). High volumes of visitors travelling domestically (and through foreign visitor usage of car rentals) will require the ability to track movement through beacon technologies and identification systems. Again, with the apparent rising threat of terrorist activities, business owners can be more confident about the safety of their organisation and their customers by having agencies equipped with the technologies needed to monitor movement along the roadway infrastructures. This removes an element of risk at the business level, especially for different mobile vendors that are moving their bricks-and-mortar products into a public venue. The British Transport Police have also contracted different information systems experts to deal with the expected visitor volumes associated with the Network Rail System (bapcojournal.com, 2009). There is going to be an increase in the usage of the rail system during the Olympics and they need the mobile technologies and mapping tools to ensure that the system is not overrun or burdened by these passenger loads. Obvious advantages of this improved system that ensures no system crashes or problems with the rails is enhanced movement of customers to local businesses that rely on the revenues provided by customers of many different market groups. 3.1 Problems with systems development More than one-half of all IT projects are known to go over their budgets and timetables for completion, often delivering unexpected outcomes or failing to deliver on their planning objectives (Al-Ahmad, Al-Fagih, Khanfar and Alsamara, 2009). One of the risks to the public sector, especially considering the advanced needs of many of the previously mentioned systems projects, is that they are relying on external outsourced partners to conduct these developments or improvements. Internal organisational staff that are not equipped with the necessary education and training in IT support often have complex internal needs for how databases should be organised, therefore budget issues can be affected by high-priced development teams. Without providing a solid map of operational needs, inefficient system launch or stressed budgets can be the end result. The impact on the public sector and businesses are obvious, especially in relation to costs that can arise through outsourcing. 4.0 The private sector information systems The 2012 Olympics will have a great deal of corporate sponsors and merchandisers looking to increase their brand visibility and sell products to many different markets. One common marketing effort in business is to segment customers by their specific characteristics that are most likely to buy a certain product variety. This segmentation includes demographic, psychographic (lifestyle and value), geographic, and behavioural (Trinh, Dawes and Lockshin, 2009). Businesses that are providing merchandise at the 2012 Games need to conduct market research about their expected visitor volumes and have an adequate database to access and store the information for retrieval and development of different advertising campaigns that will communicate their product’s quality or value to the customers. Event sponsors, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, two large Olympics sponsors, will benefit the city and other local businesses if they are able to attract more customers and target them effectively. This stresses the importance of external organisations being able to adopt new market research technologies to guarantee higher earnings for businesses and improve the city’s tourism. Such systems are most definitely linked to non-sponsor, consumer-related buying activities therefore they require development, planning and budget allocation for successful business and city marketing. The Games will require 1,000 network and security devices, 8,000 computers and approximately 900 servers in order to guarantee a successful event (Chapman, 2009). In order to make this happen, public and private sector IS projects have undergone 200,000 hours of testing to ensure they are reliable and accurate (Chapman). Even though these testing activities are necessary, they represent considerable labour costs for businesses and city agencies our outsourcing fees after they have moved from the development stage and are ready for launch. Recapturing these costs might not be possible without the cooperation of other businesses or sponsors who also require effective databases for market research and segmentation/advertising efforts. This is a genuine risk to launching complicated private systems. The Olympics planning committees have also recognised the importance of developing information systems infrastructures related directly to the athletes who will be performing for spectators. Atos Origin was assigned responsibility to integrate and manage IS projects for storing information about individual athletes and ensuring successful rely on competitive results (Mari, 2009). These systems were considered mission critical to avoid any breakdowns that would be quite transparent to spectators and global viewers. Risks of this type of development included ensuring that there was data security and were not restrictive to budget and deadline (Mari). There has also been much more planning in London associated with urban planning and development, including new construction, demolition, parks development and other sectors directly related to visitor psychology and shopping infrastructure. A new, sophisticated technology for these urban planning efforts is the 3D geological modelling software programmes that describe volumetric representations and topography (Royse, 2008). It is known that the UK geotechnical industry has been behind the times in areas of geographical modelling and now had a new need for this sophisticated programme (Royse). These types of IS systems must be inter-linked with different construction organisations and city planning committees and have the data represented to groups that might not have the technological sophistication to read information in graphical or volumetric format. Problems with this costly IS and software development could be unanticipated urban planning failures that impact visitor behaviours when they are completed, especially when dealing with new business construction and public parks development. The city and many private agencies are also including Web 2.0 capabilities to provide visitors with a better social networking experience during the Games (McCue, 2007). Web 2.0 involves changing the IS architecture from traditional Web services and including more socially-interactive content such as linking Twitter, YouTube and other well-known free services. It provides “valuable customer feedback opportunities and an excellent place to promote products and train employees” (Duffy, 2009, p.1). For the Olympics, various businesses have the opportunity to add blogs for comments about their products or their experiences during the games, posing an advantage for companies that want more brand exposure in international market groups. The addition of these social networking features will give customers better changes to use their mobile data devices to communicate and download photos. At the cost level, it is highly advantageous for businesses as it requires little in terms of sophisticated IS support and the social network services are generally free sites that can be easily linked to interactive websites. The goal of Olympics organisers and companies selling products at the Games is to ensure higher ticket and merchandise sales, whilst giving a boost to their tourism industry. The lack of cost and lack of technical know-how are tremendous advantages for including Web 2.0 in their e-business models. 5.0 Conclusions Most of the risks associated with the private sector are related to costs and planning for the systems currently in-place or being developed for the 2012 Olympics. Assuming that the proper training can be procured for police officers, they have a new opportunity to enhance instant communications if they understand the technology. In terms of public welfare and security, the evidence provided show short- and long-term gains in the public sector related to mobilisation, response, and the ability to show international visitors that the Games will be a safe and secure travel destination. The aforementioned roadway, railway and surveillance systems have obvious benefits, far more than risks, and it would seem that training and maintenance are the only measurable risks to IT development projects such as these. At the visitor level, security is the main advantage even for costly systems projects. In the private sector, inclusion of Web 2.0 technology and new databases for business management and market research has obvious revenue gains and customer relationship development capabilities. The only real risks associated for development of the previously mentioned systems architectures are in terms of cost and ensuring that non-outsourced personnel provide these developers with adequate business models and maps to avoid project failure or budget over-runs. The importance of how tourism, local businesses, and sponsor marketing efforts are inter-linked create the necessity to have these IS projects developed properly for instant data retrieval and archiving of necessary consumer-related data. 6.0 Recommendations All of the advancements described in the public sector information systems pose potential risks associated with how visitors might view their own personal privacy. Reading publications about these developments in fingerprint identification, missing persons, surveillance, and railway monitoring could create problems for the city in relation to tourism revenues. The 2012 Olympics should be considered a highly social event where people of diverse cultures and backgrounds have an opportunity to learn about international cultures and network at the social and technological levels. The evidence gathered for this report tend to paint these public sector IS improvements as being necessary for enhancing security and, at the visitor perception level, might be considered threatening to their privacy or have elements that are considered inappropriate related to their cultural and social belief systems. Because of this, a quality recommendation is to have Olympics planners and other media outlets describe these public sector IS projects differently to avoid problems with tourism revenues and other business-related revenues related to consumer attitude and socio-cultural behaviours. Many businesses have incorporated social networking into their e-business models to facilitate positive socialisation between domestic citizens and diverse international cultures. The government of the United Kingdom should consult with different media partners and software/systems developers to create a different public image about the necessity of these projects. One of the main themes of the 2012 Olympics is to promote cultural diversity that will be apparent in much of the advertising with different corporate sponsors. The method by which public sector security projects have been portrayed in the media make these seem more like watchdog improvements. If the Games committee is attempting to create the perception of global trust in diverse international cultures, the representation through media outlets about these systems would look to somewhat negate trust and community simply through choice of communications tone. This is something that the government and other Olympics planning committees would need to coordinate at the business-to-business level or through direct media consultation. If revenues might be affected by tourists who are apprehensive about their personal privacy, the impact on all organisations associated with the Games is rather obvious which could be changed simply by altering how knowledge of these products is distributed globally. 7.0 References Al-Ahmad, W., K. Al-Fagih, K. Khanfar and K. Alsamara. 2009, A taxonomy of an IT project failure: root causes, International Management Review, 5(1), pp.93-110. Appss.org.uk. 2008, Minutes of the London 2012 Olympic interest group, The association of police and public security suppliers http://www.appss.org.uk/files/documents/APPSS/081111%20Minutes%20LOG.pdf (viewed August 16, 2010). Bapcojournal.com, 2009, The future for GIS – mobile, interoperable and open, BAPCO Journal, p.30. http://www.bapcojournal.com/news/get_file.php3/id/58/file/GIS+article.pdf (viewed August 18, 2010). Duffy, M.P. 2009, Executive education: Web 2.0 – Serious business. http://www.sbnonline.com/local/article/16166/68/68/0/Web_20_Serious_business.aspx. (viewed August 15, 2010). Espiner, T. 2009, Britain to get official cyber attack dogs. http://www.silicon.com/technology/security/2009/06/25/britain-to-get-official-cyber-attack-dogs-39445480/ (viewed August 16, 2010). Hallowes, M. 2008, Securing the 2012 Olympics: a milestone in the UK policing improvement programme, National Policing Improvement Agency. http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2008homest/oly.pdf (viewed August 17, 2010). Mari, A. 2009, International Olympic committee extends ATOS Origin deal, Computing. http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2242874/international-olympic-committee (viewed August 16, 2010). McCue, A. 2007, London 2012 embraces Web 2.0 and green IT. http://www.silicon.com/management/cio-insights/2007/08/01/london-2012-embraces-web-20-and-green-it-39168019/ (viewed August 16, 2010). Meleard, P. 2009, The eyes of the world will be on London for the 2012 Olympics, Crisis Response, 4(4), p.29. Chapman, S. 2009, London 2012 Olympics turns to green tech. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9129047/London_2012_Olympics_turns_to_green_tech? (viewed August 17, 2010). Royse, K. 2008, Unlocking the potential of 3D geology. http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/unlocking-pot_olymv1.pdf (viewed August 15, 2010). Silicon.com, 2006, 2012 Olympics are major win for UK IT. http://www.silicon.com/management/cio-insights/2006/01/17/2012-olympics-are-major-win-for-uk-it-39155664/ (viewed August 17, 2010). Trinh, G., J. Dawes and L. Lockshin. 2009, Do product variants appeal to different segments of buyers within a category?, The Journal of Product and Brand Management, 18(2), p.95. Read More