Risks Associated with business and IS/IT change

In every business, there is an IS/IT change. Changing the IS/IT of an organization is also important especially that technology today is evolving so that the company can also have the competence with the other companies and that they can suffice the needs of the users. But in changing the IS/IT of an organization, there are benefits and risks involved.

Information systems (IS) change initiatives often represent the single largest investment (and therefore risk) for large corporations, yet there exist few management frameworks in the literature to help decision makers measure organizational risk in a balanced manner during this organization-wide change process. Management consultants have methodologies to implement information systems. The information system implementation objective prevents the needed benefit from business change.

Enterprises make large investments to implement all kinds of resource planning, human resource, accounting, customer, logistics, manufacturing, and other information systems. The objective of many of our business change projects is information system implementation that converts existing business operations and data.

In our adopted company Concentrix, the supervisor said that the company, like other BPO Company, is constantly evolving. According also to him, before modifying their system, a feasibility study will be made regarding the proposed changes of the system. Before approving the changes, they make sure that the changes are necessary or that it could truly enhance their system. The management must first approve the proposed changes. Before approving, the management looks first for the risks and the benefits of the changes.

So what are the risks of IS/IT change?

Hardware Failure
The risk of hardware failure is the most commonly talked-about reason to perform backups. Indeed, nothing will jolt someone into realizing the importance of backups more than an unrecoverable hard disk failure. Since the hard disk stores your main programs and data, it is the hardware whose failure hurts the most. It is also what gets the most attention, and rightly so.
However, there are other hardware problems that can cause permanent data loss, and some of these can be rather hard to figure out, since they don't seem like they should be responsible for the problem. Here are just a few:
• Memory Errors: With so many systems today running without error detection or correction on their system memory, there is a chance of a memory error corrupting the data on the hard disk. It is rare for it to happen, but it does happen.
• System Timing Problems: Setting the timing for memory or cache access too aggressively, or using a hard disk interface transfer mode that is too fast for the system or device, can cause data loss. This is often not something that will generally be realized until after some amount of damage has been done.
• Resource Conflicts: Conflicts resulting from peripherals that try to use the same interrupt requests, DMA channels or I/O addresses, can cause data to become corrupted.
• Power Loss: Losing power at the wrong time, such as when you are doing sensitive work on your hard disk, can easily result in the loss of many files.

Cost

Considering cost is very important in changing the IS/IT of an organization. The cost of IT has plunged since the 1960s resulting in enormous investments in IT applications that have stimulated increasingly complex organizational change.

Logical IS Security

Logical IS Security is also a main concern, especially when the company changes from insourcing to outsourcing. Logical IS security deals with unauthorized access to the organization's information system. When an organization's IT functions are outsourced to a third party, the number of users with access to the system increases; in turn, this increases the likelihood of the system being breached. Furthermore, the organization loses control over its system security administration, which is the process through which the information system is protected against unauthorized access.3 Unauthorized access to an organization's information system can lead to the destruction or alteration of the firm's IT function. In addition, logical IS security includes the risks associated with losing confidentiality and privacy.

http://www.pcguide.com/care/bu/risksHardware-c.html
http://www.kmbook.com/change/overview.htm
http://www.itgi.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=22050&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
http://businesschangeforum.com/cat/topics/information-system-implementation/