Use of IT in Business Silver Chain Group

Question: Discuss about the Use of IT in Business for Silver Chain Group. Answer: Introduction Silver Chain Group is an organization that has been set up in Australia and it works as a non-profit organization. It serves the people by arranging for and providing them with health and care services and has been working in the field since over 110 years in West Australia and over 120 years in South Australia. There are several regions in West and South Australia wherein the services of the organization are expanded (Silverchain, 2016). There are many other services that are also provided by the group for serving the people better. Requirement of IT for Silver Chain Group The staff and the volunteer base of Silver Chain Group are huge due to its presence and existence since so long. Currently, there are around 3000 members of staff and over 400 volunteers that are engaged with the organization and it serves close to 90,000 people on an yearly basis. The customers and people are associated with a lot of information and their respective records are still paper based in many regions. It leads to a lot of unnecessary effort for the members of staff for gathering of information and its storage is also an issue. Information storage and management is therefore one of the prime requirements from IT for the group. There are medical staff and team members that feel the need to communicate to the experts in certain situations and the overall communication architecture is also currently weak. It is therefore required by Silver Chain Group to include these components in their architecture (LeMay, 2014). Importance of IT for Business Survival As it has been highlighted earlier that there are many human resources engaged with the group along with a huge customer base and massive information clusters as well, it is required that IT tools are used and deployed in the Silver Chain Group. These tools will be important for the group as they will allow the staff members and volunteers to have the information available at their hands to serve the customers better. Also, the information that will be related with the community members will be required to be stored so that it may be accessed and reviewed later. IT tools such as Enterprise Data Management and Database Systems will make it easy to store and manage the information. The communication system will also improve with the use of web and mobile based applications for communication and information sharing. IT will therefore lead to integration of all the units engaged with the group to collectively work together to achieve the purpose. Application of IT in Silver Chain Group IT shall be applied in Silver Chain Group in the form of a mobile and web application synced with a database to be made available on the cloud (Delimiter, 2016). There will be many components and phases that will be involved in the application of IT. Planning This is the phase in which the scope of the applications and database shall be defined and the communication strategies shall be decided. It will also include the planning regarding the cost and budget. Requirement Analysis Silver Chain Group is an established entity and there are many stakeholders, business entities and customers that are related with the group. The application will therefore have a varied target audience and it will be necessary to cater the needs and requirements of every entity. Analysis of the requirements will therefore be important to understand the functional and non-functional aspects. This phase will ascertain that there are no ambiguities present in the advanced project stages. Design and Development The design of the application will be essential to be kept simple and to the point so that the end users do not feel any difficulty in the usage of the application. There shall be certain design principles that shall be used and the same shall be adhered to at all times. These principles shall include the principle of consistency, simple layout, responsive design and smooth navigation. The similar methodology shall be followed during the writing of the source code as well. Implementation The application development shall be closely reviewed and monitored by the entities at the end of Silver Chain Group. They shall make sure that the development work is progressing as per their expectations so that there are no modifications required to be made. There will also be many changes that the inclusion of the application, database and communication system installed within the application that will come up which shall be treated and handled with a defined approach. Testing Testing will be required to apply the IT elements in the form of the web and mobile application in Silver Chain Group. It will be required because there may be many bugs or defects that may be present in the developed application code. It will therefore be necessary to carry out a procedure in which evaluations and validations are done so that there are faults and errors left. Absence of this step will lead to the occurrence of the defects while in use by the customers that will be difficult to rectify on an immediate basis and there will be performance issues that will come up (Softwaretestinghelp, 2016). Deployment and Maintenance The application code that will be tested and ensured of no bugs and defects shall be released and deployed to be used by the end users at Silver Chain Group. The application will require constant monitoring so that there are no security attacks that take place and there are no performance issues as well (Ghahrai, 2015). Training The application that will be designed will be based upon the technical elements and it will be essential that the trainings on the features and functionalities are provided to the end users at the Silver Chain Group. These training sessions shall include the explanation about the common query areas and steps of action. Measures to Use IT The application that will be designed for the Silver Chain Group shall have the login functionality for three types of users as employees, customers and admin. The functionalities implemented for employees shall include access to database, extraction of reports, scheduling of activities, information sharing etc. Customers shall have the abilities to provide information, look at the various events and steps being taken by the organization, contacting with the organization etc. The administrator shall be able to modify the user accounts and set up their privileges. Benefits of IT There will be many benefits to the Silver Chain Group with the inclusion and use of IT. These benefits will include reduction in the efforts that are currently being put in by the employees in the activities that are not essential. This effort may then be utilized in other important activities. Enhanced communication system will allow the medical staff members to be in touch with the medical experts that will improve the quality of service provided by the organization. Customers will also benefit as their information will remain safe and protected and will be analyzed and processed in a better manner. Risks Involved with IT There will be a lot of customer data that will be related and will be associated with the organization and the application that will be set up and developed for it. The information will come in various categories such as sensitive, public, confidential, private, critical etc. The information categories will have many security attacks that may take place and there may be several risks that may come up. These risks have been summarized below. Virus Virus is a malware that includes the code or a program that is written with a malicious intent and may cause damage to the application and the information present within the application. Spyware The attackers may launch and install spyware codes in the application to track the activities being performed through the same and may cause breaching of the information associated with it (Spychecker, 2016) Trojan It is also a category of malware that may attack the application which will be triggered by the occurrence of a particular activity and it is in this manner that the information sets present in the application will get affected by it. Man-in-the-middle This is the attack that may be executed using the network through which the application will be deployed. This attack will involve the attacker present between the end points and the activities taking place will be tracked. DoS Denial of service (DoS) attacks may occur by introduction of a lot of traffic on the network channels and these network channels will be jammed because of the traffic (Digitalattackmap, 2016). Spoofing The user may be tricked by impersonating as the authorized entity and it is in this manner that the information may be collected from the users (Ttu, 2016). Phishing There may be fake emails that may be sent on behalf of the application entities and the users may share the information through these mails. Monitoring and Maintenance Effective monitoring and maintenance will be essential to avoid and prevent the risks that have been listed above. There shall be access control installed at every possible entry and access point related with the application developed for the Silver Chain Group. Encryption of the information shall be done and the same shall be installed to be performed automatically within the application. Management shall carry out audits and reviews for tracking the progress and activities Passwords that are used by the users for logging in to the application shall be strong and use of default and common passwords shall be avoided. Automated tools shall be used for the detection of the network security attacks and other intruders attempting to gain access to the application. Recommendations Conclusion Silver Chain Group is an organization that is working for the betterment of the people and the communities in Australia. It shall therefore make sure that it involves use of latest tools and practices so that the people are served in a better manner. IT is an effective and mandatory element that shall be included in the operations and activities that are carried out by the group. It shall be ensured that there is adequate planning that is involved in the selection of the IT tools and processes to be used and applied. With the lack of adequate planning, there will be many errors and mistakes that will take place and these errors and mistakes will lead to the occurrence of many risks and attacks as well. It shall therefore be made sure that the web and mobile application that is being developed for the group is designed and deployed as per the requirements and there are also adequate security and protection measures that are used and are present within the application. In such a manner , the application will be usable for the organization. References Delimiter. (2016). [online] Available at: https://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NBX-Case-Study_Silver-Chain_Mobility.pdf [Accessed 29 May 2017]. Digitalattackmap. (2016). 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