Question

Jan rents cars and small vans to individual and business customers. The company has twelve branches located in large towns spread across Jan’s home country.

Each of Jan’s branches has its own computer network which stores details of all vehicles located at the branch, advanced bookings and current rentals. The only paper records held at branches are the signed rental agreements. Everything else is held electronically. Each branch has several PCs that are linked to a branch server where all of the files are stored. The files on each branch server are backed up to the head office computer system after the close of business every evening.

Customers can book rentals in advance by telephoning their local branch or by logging onto the branch web page. Customers details are initially collected on the branch network but all details including verification of identity and driver’s licence are checked when the customer collects the car. Details of the vehicle, including any dents or scrapes on the bodywork or minor mechanical defects, are printed on the rental agreement form and the member of staff and the customer check the vehicle together before the customer signs the agreement.

The branch network keeps track of all vehicles that are supposed to be returned each day. If a vehicle is overdue without good reason then the police are informed that the vehicle has been stolen.

All returned vehicles are checked for damage that was not listed on the rental agreement. Customers have to pay for any damage that occurred while the vehicle was in their possession.

The manager in charge of Jan’s information systems (IS) at the company’s head office has been asked to investigate two potential problems that occurred at the South town branch. A member of the IS team visited the branch in order to carry out some routine maintenance and discovered the following:

• The Branch Manager had a notebook computer plugged into the branch network. The manager explained that the notebook computer was his own personal property. 3 He found it useful to copy branch files so that he could work on writing his monthly management reports at home.

• One of the PCs in the branch was not the standard model used throughout Jan’s. The branch manager explained that there were never sufficient PCs in the branch and so he had used part of the branch equipment budget to purchase an inexpensive PC from a local computer store. The inexpensive PC came equipped with the latest version of a standard operating system. The PCs communicate with the branch network using a specially written program. The branch staff loaded a copy of that program from a CD that had been left behind by a member of the head office IS team during an earlier visit.

Jan’s system uses an older version of the standard operating system and the branch network software installed on the PC was not the latest version, although the Branch Manager insisted that the PC worked perfectly. It has also been useful because the other PCs in the branch were not fitted with optical drives (i.e. they cannot read CDs or DVDs) and he has found it useful to be able to use this machine to install software to other machines over the branch network in order to enhance efficiency.

Required (Please note that the answer should be detailed)

(a) Advise the branch manager on the importance of adequate information systems (IS) for Jan’s.

Your answer to part (a) should NOT discuss the specific matters identified by the member of the IS team during the branch visit.

(b) Evaluate the control implications of each of the matters discovered by the member of the IS team.

Answer 1

Answer a= Information system is very important for any organization as it helps the management and the managers to make informed and timely decisions that can be quite important. With the help of the information systems, the different types of models, processes m data can be evaluated and the right decision can be made. By using the information facilitated by the information system, the uncertainty in the decision-making process can be reduced significantly. This will also ensure that all the decisions are made under the light of all the relevant facts and data. The information system is also helpful in presenting the different data in the required format and in various configurations that make the data interpretation and data analysis quite easy.

Answer b=Connecting personal notebook with the organizational network increases the risk of theft of valuable data of the organization. In order to overcome this issue, only authorized devices and users must access the organizational network.

The use of non-standard PC also makes the entire network of the organization quite vulnerable as it may lead to many issues. In order to prevent this issue, only specified and standard models of PC must be used in the organizational network.

As the PC of the branch was of an older version of the standard operating system and the branch network software installed on the PC was not the latest version, also the PC did not have h optical drives. So all these issues can be resolved by having the latest version with all the required protocol drives so that the proper functioning of the PC can be ensured.