Mann assignment
- 1. Assessment 1 Assessment value 15% Due date 29th August 2014 The assessment is based on two blog entries, Blog 1 and Blog 4 which are copied below. These two blog entries come from a blog based on your text and posted earlier last year. You are required to answer one question from each blog entry produced here. It may also be helpful to read the overview that was developed for the blogs and it can be found at: http://romneyaccounting.wordpress.com/category/overview/ Blog 1: Cloud computing Posted on February 27, 2013 by Joseph M. Mula What is cloud computing? Cloud computing is a new technology that has all the constructs of our systems framework— input, process, storage and output—but may not be used for all of these activities by all organisations. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA) defines cloud computing as: a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. <http://pre-developer.att.com/home/learn/enablingtechnologies/ The_NIST_Definition_of_Cloud_Computing.pdf> Cloud computing uses hardware, software and communications (via the internet) to provide computing services to an organisation. If a firm decides to undertake all its information systems
- 2. activities in the cloud, it would not own and have on its premises—other than terminals (either ‘dumb’ or PCs) —any hardware, software, servers or stored data. The company pays a monthly fee to a cloud service provider for managing the infrastructure. For more, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms. An example you may be familiar with is Dropbox <www.dropbox.com>. If not, watch the video on this site and read the blog <https://blog.dropbox.com/>. Google Drive is another free cloud service <https://drive.google.com/>. For AIS, there are a number of cloud providers, including MYOB <http://myob.com.au/products/small-business/accounting-finance/liveaccounts1257828367166>, QuickBooks <http://www.intuit.com.au/quickbooks-online/smallbusiness-accounting-software. jsp?gclid=COvQz822r7MCFcZfpgodZkAAeg>, Xero <http://www.xero.com/partners/> and Saasu <http://www.saasu.com/pricing/> (see a review of cloud providers at <http://www.batescosgrave.com.au/files/docs/2011-SoftwareGuideDetailed.pdf>. There are references to cloud computing in Chapters 6, 14, 15 and 16 of the textbook. Are there any new risks that may arise as a result of cloud computing? Data privacy is by far the greatest concern. Data might be stored on servers located in a different country from a firm, and the firm may not know in which country the servers are located, let alone whether other organisations have access to those servers, even with strong access controls. What if the cloud service provider goes out of business? What if a hurricane hits the area where the service’s hardware is located and it loses power, as happened with hurricane Sandy? Will cloud computing be the catalyst for any organisational and/or structural adaptations to change? Cloud computing enables the development of a virtual organisation structure of separate companies that may or may not be legally related. Cloud computing is like grid computing, which uses a distributed computing infrastructure that spans across multiple virtual organisations (VO). Cloud computing goes beyond grid’s focus of applications and infrastructure, to one of providing services backed by infrastructure. Each VO can consist of either physically distributed or logically related organisations. The goal of such a structure is to enable combined use or sharing of resources in dynamic and distributed environments. <http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0901/0901.0131.pdf>. However, even in a physical distributed organisation, cloud computing allows for economical sharing of information at the output end to inputting transactions for anywhere in the world.
- 3. This could have inter- and intra-organisational structural implication to take advantage of cloud computing. Are there any external changes and pressures an organisation may face as a result of cloud computing? Globalisation is the main driver of cloud computing. As companies become more global in their vision and markets, they need systems that can be accessed from anywhere. Access to suppliers and customers along with providing access to catalogues and ordering systems through traditional EDI and FEDI has created problems of compatibility of systems and flexibility. In a cloud environment, flexible virtual organisations can be created, even for a particular transaction or project, giving access no matter where the parties are located. The use of cloud computing can provide a quick system, cutting development time for minimal cost. Organisations can pay for what they need when they need it. Pressures from competitors require that costs are lowered for support services and cloud computing can help. However, as we indicated earlier cloud has the same risks. Are there any ethical issues and/or social impacts from implementing cloud computing? In our opinion (you may have a different view), the only ethical issues are those created when the cloud provider is located in a country where labour laws and working conditions are not consistent with those in the country where a firm is based. Exploitation of workers is an ethical issue as well as a social one. If your firm is using a Triple Bottom Line approach (see an example of Toyota’s TBL at <http://www.toyota.com.au/toyota/sustainability/externalreporting/our-triple-bottom-line-scorecard> or reporting under GRI <www.globalreporting.org>, these matters need to be considered. It is all very well to gain a reduction in costs and consequent increase in profits and dividends distributed, but these should not be at the cost of pain and mistreatment of people. Just because the workers are in another country, it does not mean that due diligence can be ignored. Assignment Question 1 (7.5%) Create a PowerPoint Presentation to provide a succinct explanation of how the implementation of cloud computing relates to an organisations
- 4. strategy and how it could affect a company’s value chain. Use a recent announcement by a company to illustrate your explanation. Your presentation should be a maximum of 10 slides. Please include any accompanying notes (in the note section of your presentation) you would use for a 10 minute presentation. Alternatively you can use Voice over PowerPoint to provide a 10 minute presentation. Ensure you refer to the marking criteria specified in the subject outline. Blog 4: ERP floats to a mobile cloud Posted on March 25, 2013 by Joseph M. Mula What is ERP? ERP, or enterprise resource planning, is a system that integrates all aspects of an organistation’s activities into one accounting information system. A number of ERP suppliers have recently announced plans to become a player in cloud computing, moving from being a software as a service (SaaS) provider to a platform as a service (PaaS) provider. They are embracing mobile platforms such as iPads and smartphones to deliver users access to applications and on-demand financial information on the go. Wanting to get close to customers is driving suppliers such as SAP, who has developed a new application, Social Customer Engagement OnDemand, which enables SAP to communicate with its customers over sites such as Facebook. <http://news.techworld.com/virtualisation/3357928/sap-lays-out-cloud-strategy-sinceacquiring-successfactors/> Organisations such as IBM believe large organisations are hesitating to use public cloud computing resources because of the self-service model provided by various suppliers. IBM has added a new PaaS, named Smart Cloud Enterprise+, which includes software life-cycle support for updating patches and identity management. <http://news.techworld.com/applications/3423617/ibm-targets-aws-with-enterprise-cloudoffer/> References to ERP can be found in the text in Chapters 2 and 8 with SaaS covered in Chapter 6.
- 5. Are there any new risks that may arise as a result of a mobile ERP in a public cloud? As ERP is an integrated system, this could cause problems for organisations as they have all their data in ‘one basket.’ Should there be a technology, system or network failure, the organisation could come to a standstill, without appropriate disaster recovery strategies and plans. Building in redundancy could mitigate the risks of system failures. As we have discussed in an earlier blog, systems and data in a cloud has its own risks of privacy and continuity of service provider. Mobile technologies can create gaps in a firm’s security. Will mobile ERPs in the cloud be the catalyst for any organisational and/or structural adaptations to change? Besides the cloud being able to support a virtual organisation, an ERP supports such an organisation as the whole information system is integrated and distributable, even by using mobile devices. These changes in traditional information systems design will have significant impacts on organisation design and process. Are there any external changes and pressures an organisation may face as a result of an ERP? The pressures of competition and globalisation are pushing large organisations towards distributed mobility. An ERP system with its holistic design philosophy on information provides the ideal application to support a globalised multinational. Are there any ethical issues and/or social impacts from implementing cloud computing? Two aspects of the issues and impacts should be considered. The first relates to staff and what training they need to effectively use a mobile ERP cloud. The second is the need for organisations to recognise the social implications of leaks of private data should a cloud-base system be accessed by unauthorised or scrupulous intruders. Assignment Question 2 (7.5%) Your manager has requested a report explaining how ERP can value add. Include in your report any potential risks that should be avoided when implementing a cloud based ERP solution in an organisation. Use the blog post above as a starting point. Your report, including executive summary should be maximum length 1200 words.
- 6. Rationale This assignment is designed to enable you to demonstrate your ability to: • understand and apply foundation principles relating to computerised information systems in contemporary organisations • explain the role of data analysis tools and data mining; • to illustrate typical network configurations and identify the components of a network, particularly identifying the role that cloud computing has in a network; • evaluate accounting information system architecture, particularly identifying the role that cloud computing and ERP have as the basis for an accounting information system; • identify organisational risk and the impact that cloud computing and ERP systems have on that risk