Organisational Structures That Support Strategic Initiatives

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES

• organisational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages
• ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organisations must base their business upon

IT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• information technology is a relatively new functional area, having only been around formally for around 40 years
• recent IT-related strategic positions:
1. Chief Information Officer (CIO) is oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT business goals and objectives
2. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of an organization's information technology
3. Chief Security Officer (CSO) is responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information within an organization
4. Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) is responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the organisation's knowledge

THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PERSONNEL

• business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting and sales
• IT personnel have the technological expertise
• this typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel

IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS

• business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT
• IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business
• it is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel

ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS - ETHICS AND SECURITY

• ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organisations must base their businesses on to be successful
• in recent years, such events as the Enron and Martha Stewart, along with 9/11 have shed new light n the meaning of ethics and security

Ethics

• the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people
• privacy is a major ethical issue. the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your      own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent
• issues affected by technology advances
• intellectual property - intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form
• copyright - the legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents
• fair use doctrine - in certain situations,it is legal to use copyright material
• pirated softwarebcounterfeit software - software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such
• one of the main ingredients in trust is privacy
• primary reasons privacy issues lost trust for e-business
1. loss personal privacy is atop concern for american in the 21st century
2. among Internet user, 37 percent would be "a lot" more inclined to purchase a product on a Web site that had a privacy policy
3. privacy/security is the number one factor that would convert internet researchers into Internet buyers

Security

• organization information is intellectual capital - it must be protected
• information security - the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by person inside or outside an organization
• E-business automatically creates tremendous information security risks for organizations