Internet and networking technology has thrown another challenge to enlarge the scope of organisation where customers and vendors become part of the organisation. This technology offers a solution to communicate, co-ordinate, and collaborate with customers, vendors and business partners. This is just not a technical change in business operations but a cultural change in the mindset of managers and workers to look beyond the conventional organisation. It means changing the organisation behaviour to take competitive advantage of the E-business technology.
The last but not the least important is the challenge to organise and implement information architecture and information technology platforms, considering multiple locations and multiple information needs arising due to global operations of the business into a comprehensive MIS.
Q5. What do you understand by service level Agreements (SLAs)? Why are they needed? What is the role of CIO in drafting these? Explain the various security hazards faced by an IS? Ans. A service level agreement (frequently abbreviated as SLA) is a part of a service contractw here the level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery time (of the service) or performance. As an example, internet service providers will commonly include service level agreements within the terms of their contracts with customers to define the level(s) of service being sold in plain language terms (typically the (SLA) will in this case have a technical definition in terms ofM TTF,M TT R, various data rates, etc.)
A service level agreement (SLA) is a negotiated agreement between two parties where one is the customer and the other is the service provider. This can be a legally binding formal or informal ―contract‖ (see internal department relationships).Contracts between the service provider and other third parties are often (incorrectly) called SLAs as the level of service has been set by the (principal) customer, there can be no ―agreement‖ between third parties (these agreements are simply a ―contract‖). Operating LevelAgreements or OLA(s), however, may be used by internal groups to support SLA(s).
Role of CIO in drafting SLAS One of the major responsibilities of the CIO is to establish the credibility of the systems organization. The systems department should not only focus on providing better service to the various lines of business but also help businesses operate better. If the CIO wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do what other executives do and have his own business metrics and performance measurements, so that he can effectively measure his internal business
performance. Other business departments have them, but CIOs generally do not because IT has always been viewed as a cost center. Measurements in IT tend to be vague and lacking in context. For example, ‗I had 14