ASSIGNMENT 2:

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

Getting Prepared

In business, you can never allow yourself to get comfortable with the status quo, because it is always changing. Surprises may be fatal to your business.

Risk is inevitable, avoiding risk impossible. Risk management is the key, always tilting the venture in favor of reward and away from risk.

Identifying and Managing Risks

While all opportunities are associated with risk, the biggest risk is to miss them. Risk results usually not from unpredictability but from ignorance. The more you know about what you are doing, the less risk you run. If you can define risks, you can limit them. Look back on any opportunities you missed and use your past mistakes to learn how to recognize opportunities.

At any its development stage, the company faces the five major risks that change in nature as company evolves:

1. Growth risk;

2. Technology risk;

3. Marketing risk;

4. Financial risk; and

5. Team and management risk.

You cannot avoid these risks, but you can manage them.

From: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/risks-growth_main.html

What is IS?

In a general sense, the term Information System (IS) refers to a system of people, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization. Computer-based information systems are in the field of information technology. The discipline of business process modeling describes the business processes supported by information systems.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_systems

What is IT?

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware."[1] IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology

IS/IT Change?

IT as a Solution to Environmental Change: The cost of IT has plunged since the 1960s resulting in enormous investments in IT applications that have stimulated increasingly complex organizational change (Benjamin and Levinson, 1993). Benjamin and Blunt (1992) anticipate that technology cost-performance improvements will sustain this trend over the next decade. Presently, IT amounts to nearly one-half of US firms' annual capital expenditures and increasingly affects how firms organize, do business, and compete (Keen, 1991).

IT may be considered as comprising of five basic components - computers, communications technology, work stations, robotics, and computer chips (Morton, 1988). In this article, "IT" is considered to be synonymous with the definition of "advanced information technologies" provided by Huber (1990):

From: http://www.brint.com/papers/change/overview.htm

My Opinion

To start with, we were given a task by our facilitator to interview some local companies or organization and discuss the risk. The company we interview was a mall in Tagum City. We will not state the name of the company to ensure the confidentiality what most important is the sharing of ideas of this article. For the company we’ve interviewed I can say that the risks are the same as the the article told us about the five major risk are the growth risk, technology risk, marketing risk, financial risk and the last the team and management risk.

As mentioned above “Risk is inevitable, avoiding risk impossible. Risk management is the key, always tilting the venture in favor of reward and away from risk.” For me it is true because in an organization you cannot avoid the problems. All the organization or companies always have the problems that they really encounter in their journey. Some of those company failed and some, we can say that they survived but they continue facing another sets of problems.

Looking those five major risks that companies encounter, the first was the growth risk. I can say that the company we interviewed have this risk because they have also another branch of malls and they are looking forward always for the expansion of their business. As the information we got they have 2 branches and the main company was located in Tagum City. The second was the technology risk. Also I can say that this kind of risk was present in the company we visited because they have the information system. As mentioned above the IS it includes the people the physical parts or the hardware and the software. As the information we got they have poor system but they were looking forward to it. Another risk was the marketing risk. It’s obvious that they have really this kind of risk because malls have it. In fact, example of that was the marketing sale report of their company where they can find if they have a good sales or now well. Another was the financial risk. Even in our self we can say that we also have that risk because it deals with money. Working without money in a business is impossible because one of its primary goals of business is to earn profit. The last one was the team and management risk. Workers are part of a company to provide the needs of the customers.

I therefore conclude that all this five major risk that was mentioned above was present in the company we interviewed.

Another question was that is that the IT/IS change?? For me IT/IS was the part a technology that was created to make life easier. But we cannot tell that these technologies will not improve because as of now technology was very main part of world and it’s growing rapidly. Even as humans we can’t say that we will live in this world forever, the same as the technology they do not stay longer it means they will really evolve as the time goes by.

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(^_^)..cocoi™