Systems Maintenance and Software Management of iBay - Assignment Example

Information system Name Date Tutor Introduction iBay company high depends on IT since it has its market depending on IT infrastructure. It uses phone, online and catalogue orders for its products. The company’s objective is to grow its sales despites global economic recession. This can only be achieved if the current customers are happy and more customers are being recruited to the companies’ market. This can only be achieved through success in the IT department and the marketing departments. The marketing department has deliberate effort towards achieving the same. This leaves the challenge to the IT department. SLA system is supposed to meet the company needs. It should facilitate communication in the company as well as meet the routine cores that any IT system in the company is supposed to meet. However, there are complaints from the users of the system. SLA system does not meet the requirements and expectation of its users. IT in this company should champion in the process of realizing the company objectives, (Information Systems Audit and Control Association, 2002). It should provide reliable sources of data, information and services. The system should give a framework that that will help the company achieve its objectives. Discrepancy report The company has several Discrepancies in the IT department. To begin with, currently the company is outsourcing web maintenance. Some computers in the company are very old especially those that are used for the training and call centre sales staff. All the 10 computers in the second floor are out of warranty. Another major problem in the company is lack of audit/inventory information about the IT assets in the in the company. There is shortage of human resource in the IT department in the company. First of all, the IT manager left, the personnel in charge of hardware and software works only 20 hours a week. The person in charge of software and hardware some times does not attend software problems yet he is in charge. The IT personnel also do not meet and interact with the other company staff; in fact, there are complaints that they are not always in the office. It is evident that the IT staff lack motivation, competency experience in their work since most of the work is unattended. According to a research done by Jarrod; the person in charge of the hardware and software issues in the company, remote logging software should be implemented. Nobody in the IT department can help handle the problem since the office there are busy handling daily routine jobs on top of lack of commitment and skills required. Current network infrastructure In a business entity, IT infrastructure should meet the company needs. It should aid in supporting the organizations’ effort in striving to achieve set goals and objectives. IT should also come handy to facilitate communications and meeting the business objectives. The company uses token ring networking technology which is a LAN network. It has a 10/100 layer-2 Ethernet switch, the switch is running on cat 5e cables. The architecture used here is routed backbone. It also has a server. It has routers and gateways. It has three levels of network users, these are administrations office, call center level and management level all being LAN which uses Ethernet technology. Except 10 PC which are in the second floor, all the \PC in the company is covered by limited warranty from the vendor. All the desktops ranging from PCs and MAC have been configured to perform the daily routines expected in a company as well adapt to a LAN which is run by a local server. However most of the PC work on Microsoft Office 2003 which is a rather old version lacking some of the important features that ate available in the later versions of the same. Other available application and system software; Norton anti-virus, Outlook/Eudora, Acrobat, WinZip, Photoshop CS, PageMaker, Illustrator, Dreamweaver. The company also has peripheral devices like; network laser printers, inkjet coloured printers. The human resource in this department is ill equipped. Jarrod McDaniels is the only network administrator. He attends all the network related issues which includes maintenance of servers, routers, switches, circuits in the entire network. Another person who works closely with the network administrator is Gurpal Singh. He does all the duties which are related to desktop. These include the hardware as well as software issues in the company. Recommended solution The following are recommendations and future capacity plan for iBay Company on the IT section to improve the performance of the IT. This includes recommendation on cost-effective ways to improve the existing helpdesk system, including future capacity plan and recommended change control procedures. To begin with, there has to be a compute network manager. The manager has to ensure that the network is secure from any security threats including hackers and viruses. The manager should ensure that firewalls are installed; a good virus detecting system has to be installed as well. The virus signature files have to be updated on a regular and frequent basis. These intrusion systems should be installed on appropriate hardware to control what enters the whole system. The system has to be tested on the ability to detect and deal with security threats, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, (2002). There has to be an integrity control system. This should come handy in preventing dubious alteration or destruction PHI. The manager should also perform an information system review regularly check for all the software and hardware in the system. This will ensure that the electronic systems in the systems are traceable within the organization. The manager should also be responsible for creating and storing back up files in the network. There should also be an inventory file which should be reviewed periodically and updated. Regular maintenance of workstations should be done. This should be done for the desktop itself and all the accessories that are connected to the workstation. Transmission Security Measures should be put in place to ensure that the ePHI is transmitted in the network. Audit Controls are in place to record and examine information systems containing ePHI. There should also be a security team for the organizations network, the security team should be competent and should have a proper job description. Further training should be offered to the team on the network security issues. These should be proper reporting procedure in place; the security team should come up with a process and protocol of reporting. They should identify security measures and violation. The management should outline criteria for security occurrence, their remedies and personnel to deal with them. These security issues should be well documented. There should also be procedures and policies in place. They should be availed to its users. These security procedures and policies should be reviewed on annual basis. All the configurations should be document for major applications, like operating systems, routers and hubs, (Information Systems Audit and Control Association, 2002). An evaluation of security issues should be assessed periodically to ensure compliance with the required set of polices and standards. Software and hardware need regular update and maintenance respectively. All systems should be updated and assessed for any risks. Whenever there is changes in the system, documenting regarding the system should be updated. Plans should be developed on System Maintenance. If there is any authorization of obtaining and modification of software, it should be captured in a document and kept well. Before any implementation, all software and hardware should be tested whether or not they are obtained and used directly or they undergo modification to suit the company requirements. There should be a disposal procedure for the company software and hardware after thy cease to be useful to the company. This should be targeted to specific media for example, hardware and DVDs. All the disposals should be captured and documented. It is also recommended that all materials be appraised before disposal to ensure that they are re used if they are reusable. A procedure should be outlined for reuse of such materials, Pressman, (2000). A Contingency along with a Disaster Recovery plan should be developed for the iBay company. It should undergo the systems development life cycle. Those who are in charge of this should be provided with a detailed procedures and training on how they should carry out the process. Risk analysis outcome Risk analysis should be contacted to assess potential risks that the company is facing. They should be contacted and capture in written form. It should always be carried out upon occurrence of any changes. In the process, all the source of threats should be identified and documented. They should be determined and documented. All sensitive systems should use access control. The system administrator should have a password management procedure which should User ID should be used to identify the system users along with passwords. The manager should also ensure that whenever there is remote connection to the system, the system should be secure. Each user should be able to access data at his/her level depending on their job function. This should be done in accordance with the company needs as well as the type of tasks that are performed by individuals. Review plan Activity time table Schedule of network activities Jan and February March and April May June July August Activity Network design Network cabling Infrastructure development Network implementation Network testing Network launching The network shall be developed through normal network development life cycle which includes system design, development, implementation, testing and launching. Under network design for the company, a feasibility study of the company shall be contacted to determine the network equipments of the company, (Barzelt, 1997).. The requirements shall be considered if they are being met by the existing system, if the existing system does not meet the requirements, a design of new network that will meet current and future company equipments is drawn. In the cabling, the desktops are arranged as per the plan, they are interconnected by cabling. In this phase, servers, routers and hubs are installed. It is in this phase also that the system configuration is done. Network implementation involves the trained of personnel who will use the network, these include the IT department and other company employees. At this phase, all the hardware and software are fixed in place ready for work. Testing phase involves the actual testing to see if the system works, this facilitates fixing of problems that were not identified during the implementation phase. After testing and all errors fixed, the system is ready for use. At this phase, the employees also can get a chance to test the system for its effectives. Upon completion of testing the system, it is launched it starts its operation, Barzelt, (1997). The last stage is launching, at this phase the system starts operating. This will call for regular maintenance of the system, disaster mitigation and troubleshooting to identify any upcoming trouble. Reference Information Systems Audit and Control Association, (2002) Standards Booklet; Index IS Auditing Procedures, retrieved on 3rd Oct, 2012 from: http://www.isaca.org/standards Information Systems Audit and Control Association, (2002) Risk Assessment, effective, (Standards Booklet pages 61-73 retrieved on 3rd Oct, 2012 from : http://www.isosecuritysolutions.com Barzelt, Helmut, (1997), Software Management und Qualitaetssicherung Unternehmensmodelierung Spectrum Akademischer Verlag,. Pressman, Roger (2000), Software Engineering – A practitioner’s Approach – Europea Adaptation, 5th ed. Read More