Systems Thinking - Business Information Systems

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                                                      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY[pic 6]

This course of Business Information Systems has majorly prepared me to be able to manage effectively and spearhead the establishment of major e-business systems resources. The content learned from the assignments throughout the course is paramount since it was based on up to date research.

The content covered includes the study of traditional and contemporary approaches to information systems as well as knowledge management in the business context; PRINCE2 project management; security systems management; business agility /creativity including the management of change, e-Business systems development and deployment, research methods and consultancy skills practice (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). All these were very crucial on my part and helped me a lot acquire skills and improve my understanding relevant in business information systems tasks in my chosen organization.

However, the impact of the skills acquired on the content learned a far reaching advantage in the value of my service to the organization. I anticipate my knowledge to improve on several issues like effective communication, able to develop good internet search skills; it will also enable me to learn autonomously through a wide range of resources, enabling me to become initiative, creative and personally responsible as well as, to criticize and evaluate my learning experiences, and lastly I will develop good knowledge on and experience on PRINCE2

Project Management, which is a very desirable competence in my organization (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). The content of the assignments has totally overhaul my thinking on how to manage business information systems in that the business information systems are used to increase or broaden the profit based on my organization if carefully used and utilized. Also, the content has shaped my goals both present and future.  I have to ensure that I learn all the applications named earlier and practice them thoroughly to gain good and vast experience so that I will have the ability to combine both my technical ability with my understanding of the organizations needs to develop strategies on how to improve the functioning of all the departments in my organization. Having both understanding and technical abilities could go a long to improving the services of the organization to the clients as well as increase the profitability of the business engagements of the organization.

The management of information ethics in an organization is a major challenge, however, to improve it, I will apply the axiom of ‘values drive behavior' whereby values will influence attitudes and ultimately attitudes influence behavior. The values wisdom and knowledge that determine that others and I have the ability to get information and convert it into a useful thing. Others include self -control, courage and integrity and even love and kindness which go along with good management of information systems (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). Also from the above value and others learned from the content, I can make a difference in the organization and the community at large. By practicing every bit of the content, I realize that it makes me responsible as an individual, to the organization as well as the community by giving the services that are of good quality.  It ensures well-organized information, improved means and ways of communication and good managements of projects bring a positive difference altogether.

CREATION OF DATA AND TECHNOLOGY BACK-UP PLAN.

Data Backup is a tool that will enable me to store data in safe custody so that I can retrieve them when needed.  This ability of a back-up plan is crucial for my personal use to keep class notes safe so that in case I will require them for reference in future, I just restore and use them as per my requirement. However, my backup plan uses a removable storage feature that manage storage devices attached to my system. I, however, use Windows XP professional to integrate Backup together with Removable Storage to help me protect my data.

The backup of local hard disks is used protect data loss from a failure of a disk or a drive, disk controller errors, cases of power outages or rationing, protect from being destroyed by viruses, and other terrible hazards (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). So my careful planning of my data backup operations and use of reliable equipment will make my file recovery for my reference easier and faster (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). Using Backup, I can back up my assignments, class work or a compressed file. I will also store my backup files on a platform known as the network share. After considering the several types of back- ups available for example normal, incremental, differential, copy and daily, I choose a normal type of back-up (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). The normal backup is the widely used type of back-up because it is easy and more effective to handle it. Normal backup copies all selected files in the system and marks each of them as having been backed up. A normal backup is the easiest and the most efficient to use for restoring files since I need only the most recent backup file or tape to restore all the other backed-up files for the previous periods (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). However, the normal backup takes a lot of time for each file that has been selected backed up irrespective of whether it has changed since the last backup or not.

So to establish a normal data backup plan, I will combine with an incremental backup plan that decreases the time needed to finish the backup process by only saving files that were created or replaced from the time the last normal or incremental backups. Also; it marks files so that I will be able to know if a particular file was backed up. I will need to establish a whole normal backup of my system before I can run incremental backups (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). By using a combination of both normal and incremental backups to store my data, I will have the last normal backup set of media also since each incremental backup in chronological order from the last normal backup. However, putting all these factors combined, I will be able to store my classwork in the media safe and secure for as long as I might need to refer to them for now and in future. After storing the data, I need also to manage it, I could use simple back -ups like CDs, flash disks and store my class work for example notes in a sheet in either Microsoft word, excel or power point notes (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995). I can store my data and files in mediums like magnetic tapes and if it is audio, the hard disk of the personal computer or even remote backup, and backup service (which is backing up the data through internet), where it is available anywhere I go and hence my data is not vulnerable to calamities like fire outbreak, earthquakes, floods, and even theft that can occur to any other physical back up devices like flash disks, CDs, and even hard disks. The internet backup is also the most accessible means of storing data whereby the data can be restored within seconds when required. However, it is very expensive, and it is also vulnerable to viruses or deletion by accident. In this case, I will combine all the storage devices earlier discussed together with the internet back up so as to ensure that my data or class work is safe and secure by all means.