GH Office Depot (MIS ass2)

GH Office Depot (IT/IS)
Uncertainties lie at the heart of business decision making in many different kinds of corporations. Should we take on a new product or business line? Will customers like the idea of using WAP-enabled phones to buy our products? Will the regulators allow us to take control of our biggest competitor? Should we distribute our products directly or trust an intermediary? Will ethical, regulatory or political changes blow a hole in one of our critical assumptions? These are some questions we commonly asked in building a business, but are we aware of the risks associated with business and IS/IT changes? We will try to figure things out…
The Company
GH Office Depot started at year 1995 by opening up a modest yet modern retail outfit. A supermarket-type of stationery store. The concept was overwhelming accepted by the general public. The retail outlet and network continue to grow and expand. Today, it is a big business outfit housed in a modern complex with all the convenient facilities and amenities.
The GH OFFICE DEPOT carries in its inventory more than 12,000 items of office items to serve its clients. The company keeps on updating and upgrading its list of items to cope up with the current trend in office management. And to serve its clients with the latest and most up-to-date office supplies and equipments.
We will first define the meaning of Information Technology (IT) and Information System, first Information Technology 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. On the other hand, 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.
An information system is a collection of hardware, software, data, people, communications, and procedures that work together to produce quality information. The goal of an information system is to provide users with high-quality information so they can make effective decisions. An information system supports daily, short-term, and long-range activities of users. Some examples of users include store clerks, sales representatives, accountants, supervisors, managers, executives, and customers. The kinds and types of information that users need often change over time. As a system user in a business, you someday may participate in the modification of an existing system or the development of a new system. Thus, it is important that you understand the system development in business. Systems development is the activity of creating a new business system or modifying an existing business system. It refers to all aspects of the process -- from identifying problems to be solved or opportunities to be exploited to the implementation and refinement of the chosen solution. Whatever its scope and objectives, a new information system is an outgrowth of a process of organizational problem solving. A new information system is developed as a solution to some type of problem or set of problems the organization perceives it is facing. The problem may be one where managers and employees realize that the organization is not performing as well as expected, or it may come from the realization that the organization should take advantage of new opportunities to perform more successfully.

Changes occur for many reasons, but typically arise out of an operational or business need. For example, growth could require that additional or new infrastructure components be acquired and implemented, or regulatory changes can trigger modifications to operational and/or financial applications such as billing rates and taxes.
Information technology strategies are critical to business as they can deliver not only effective business operations, but also competitively differentiated products and services for firms. Yet many business and government enterprises have found their IT organizations to be misaligned with business strategies, or even worse, so dysfunctional that business values are actually destroyed instead of added.
The company it self uses different IT/IS practices in which helps the consumers and also its employees to do their tasks in a hassle free way.
Technology affects almost every aspect of our lives. Just look around you and you'll see how wired we are. Thanks to the Internet, virtually anything you desire can be delivered to your door in a matter of days. Personal information is more accessible over the Internet as well -- you can look up everything from a long-lost cousin to the registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. You can even trade stocks or file taxes online. Parents don't need to lose sleep waiting for their teenage daughter to come home -- they can just call her cell phone, or send an unobtrusive text, to check up.
But as much as our personal lives have changed, the business world has revolutionized almost beyond recognition in the past few decades. Technology -- and we mean the advances in communication and information technology -- has changed the face and the pace of business.
During our visit in GH Office Depot we asked many questions, as a conclusion to the data we g, as a conclusion to the data we gathered, here are details. GH Office Depot’s Information Technology supervisor said that he started to work in the company since 2005, he develop the system that they are currently using in 1 year. He also told us that internet helps their company a lot, because the owner of the company is always outside the country and he can always monitor the company through the use of internet.
Reflection:
In my own opinion, the changes in Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) have a lot of advantages, some of the advantages are that we can access easily to each other through the use of internet, we can develop systems that can ease the employee’s works for example is the point of sales system which helps the cashiers to compute the sales in the easiest way. If there are advantages, I think there are also some disadvantages just like the security of the site or the computer units in that company are infected with viruses. Viruses are big threat in today’s evolution of technology most especially in the field of Information Technology and in developing systems.


Sources:
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/technology-changed-business.htm
http://ghofficedepot.com/about.htm
http://www.mossadams.com/press/documents/yardley-damon-nwppa.pdf
http://www.flint.umich.edu/~weli/courses/bus181/notes/chapter3.pdf
http://www.erisk.com/Learning/JigSaw/BusinessRisk.asp#8