is IT worth the risk?

                Today’s competitive marketplace has put tremendous pressure on organizations to deliver, in a timely manner, products and services that customers value. Smart companies are looking at ways to harness technology to improve operations management. An organization’s information technology consists of the hardware, software, telecommunications.database management and other technologies it uses to store data and make them available in the form of information for organizational decision making. In general, information technology has positive implications for the organizations.

IT has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the world’s economy to become a single interdependent system. Companies are tapping into the power of new Information Technology applications as powerful collaboration tools within organizations, using group blogs, wikis, social networking, and peer-to-peer file sharing. Managers rely on information technology for the efficient management and control of operations. Sophisticated IT systems can gather huge amounts of data and transform them into useful information for decision makers. With the help of information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker, and more efficient. IT has made it possible for businesses to be open 24 x7 all over the globe. These are just some of the advantages/uses of IT. The development of IT, has however, brought with it many threats and disadvantages.

While information technology may have streamlined the business process, it has also crated job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing. This means that a lot of lower and middle level jobs have been done away with, causing more people to become unemployed. Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also brought along privacy issues.

In any situation, a manager and the organization for that matter should take time in assessing the advantages and threats before venturing into something, IT for example. It is logical and easy to keep in mind that whenever the risk is greater than the advantage it might provide, then it is not worth the risk. Though IT is essential for organizations to compete in the global economy, it is not always the only solution for organizations  to have its place among its competitors. If the organization know that it is not yet fit to overcome the risks IT might bring, then it should not use IT.

🙂

Is it Secure to Outsource Security?

           Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else. There are many reasons why companies outsource various jobs, but the most prominent advantage seems to be the fact that it often saves money. Many of the companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the work for considerably less money, as they don’t have to provide benefits to their workers and have fewer overhead expenses to worry about.

The promised benefits of outsourcing are so attractive. The potential to significantly increase income without hiring half a dozen people or spending a fortune is impossible to ignore. But why is it that deciding on outsourcing security difficult?  The stakes are high, so it’s no wonder that paralysis is a common reaction when contemplating whether to outsource or not.

The potential risks of outsourcing are considerable. Stories of managed security companies going out of business, and bad experiences with outsourcing other areas of IT, show that selecting the wrong outsourcer can be a costly mistake. Companies should not outsource everything, because some things just don’t outsource well. Either they’re too close to the business, or they’re too expensive for an outsourcing company to deliver efficiently, or they simply don’t scale well. Knowing what to outsource is key…and security is not one of them! 🙂

 

B.I. in the SSS

                 The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it – today these tools collectively fall into a category called “Business Intelligence”.

                   Satisfying its customers through effective service delivery is a major concern of the Social Security System (SSS). For it to do so, it must know who the customers are. The SSS customer is intelligent, knowledgeable, and expects value for every peso contributed to the SSS. The customer also expects real-time service. And lastly, he expects SSS to be competitive in terms of operations and at par with the industry standard.

                     SSS has been using business intelligence to come up with innovative, faster, and more effective ways of serving its customers. Best practices of other international and national organizations are researched on. Data mining tools are used to determine trends in terms of benefit payments, coverage, and collection. The use of BI makes it easier for employees to generate reports needed to tract the progress/accomplishment of the organization. BI helps SSS in delivering to its customers the world class service that they deserve.

An obvious risk

 

             Why is he part of the team in the first place?!? Maybe the person does not have a full understanding of what risk management is all about. Risks are identified, assessed,and prioritized and then resources are coordinated to minimize, monitor and control the probable impact of unfortunate events and to maximize realization of opportunities. Managing risk is not just about assessing and monitoring all the things that could go wrong. Rather it is about understanding all the things that need to go right for an organization to achieve its mission and objectives. The very reason why risk management exist is the uncertainty of the future. We live in a very complex world where we can only survive if we are pro-active. Reacting to problems, issues, circumstance, events, etc… only when when they occur might cause irreparable damages, irreplaceable losses, and worst, end precious lives.

             A team member who does not know the relevance of Risk Management might as well leave the team. It is expected of a project team member to have an open mind and good judgement on things that may come their way before it actually hit them in the head and leave them with nothing. They must have ready solutions to risks that might arise to ensure that goals of the team are reached and failures are mitigated. Having a team member with a reactive attitude would pull the team to failure. Thus, I will try my very best to enlighten him of the relevance of Risk Management at first. If he still insist on his opinion on risk management, I would bluntly tell him to just go home and plant ‘kamote’. After all, he might just become one of the risk that our group might face.

        

Avenues for learning

EXPERIENCE MAY BE THE BEST TEACHER , BUT IT IS NOT THE ONLY TEACHER.

With the use of our senses, we see, hear, feel, smell and taste that which is around us. We learn through the use of our senses and through experiences personal to us, We adjust and adapt and slowly grow as time passes. As we grow into this world we learn things mostly through our own experiences as these are more direct and have the most impact on us, but we also learn through different avenues.

We learn from our environment …. we read and view the news either in print or in other media and likewise learn, we listen to others, observe them or work with them and likewise learn from their experiences, we read books other publications and learn  many facts. Thereafter, we adapt and adjust based on all that we have collected and learned……not only those from our experiences but from everything around us.

I agree that experience is probably the best teacher, but sometimes we forget that experience is not the only avenue for learning and for us to realize the truth and grow as a person. It is not experience alone that guides us but the combination of our personal knowledge, experience, our surroundings, documented things and the experiences of others.

Learning is not limited to the experienced or the seasoned veterans, as they say wisdom grows with age, but it does not follow that the young has none…….