An obvious issue relating to the use of information in an organisation would be the security risks to a business if anyone accessed the information system that wasn't permitted or authorised to. IT departments within a business will maintain the security of the information used in their organisation by allowing certain employees to allow the system, usually via a user name combined with a password. The public sector and banks are the two main types of business that need to keep very tight security on customers as they have private records/money on an information system. The unauthorised access onto these systems would be detrimental to the customers using them and would give these business an awful reputation, possibly ending their tenure in the public sector/financial sector.
Backups:
Backing up data is vitally important as technology can fail from time to time, but the biggest risk is having no alternative when it does. This is easily done though, by saving documents on different servers/physical memory technology. This means that information is even protected from natural accidents/disasters such as floods, storms or fires, the later being more likely with a server. Backing up data is just storing it in a different way which makes it easier to recover. A business is likely to have multiple backups as not having one could have a detrimental effect of the life of the business should their technology fail. Again the major giants in any country, the public sector and the banks would undoubtedly have multiple back ups of every single customers information so if one variable fails the information is still obtained, with similar consequences if not.
Health and Safety:
Making sure employees have the chance to be as healthy as possible at work should be somewhere near the top of a business priorities as the employees of a business are their most valuable asset. Work stations are an easy way to optimise the health and well being of an employee, this can be done by making sure the workers take regular breaks from looking at the screen and have a walk around to get the blood flowing to the bottom on their body, this will also loosen up muscles used to position themselves for a period of time. Buying specialist ergonomic equipment like keyboards, mice and desks can make the difference and avoid the workers getting repetitive strain injuries.Businesses have a responsibility to make sure employees are kept in good health, not only for the businesses benefit but because laws are in place to employees are safe when using an information system.
Organisational Policies
These are put in place to assure the business that the information supplied to employees is used correctly as information can get into the wrong hands as these policies should outline who is authorised to see the information and who is not. Information falling into the wrong hands could end up with competitors or customers who do not like being talked about as money or numbers, who might then revolt and not use you business. Information should be kept secure at all times and only those authorised should have access. Businesses can employ schemes that have access control so only people at a certain stage in the hierarchy of a business can have access to classified files. Professionals that have left a pubic sector or bank business usually sign a secrecy agreement to classify information in order for the above to never happen once they've left. Probably the most famous example of this would be the Edward Snowden vs US Government when he released the possibly the most classified details ever.
Business Contingency Plan:
This relates heavily to backing up information as the business needs to have a plan be when something goes wrong with technology. These systems are integral to modern day businesses so can't really be avoided, which can be a problem when they fail, which is why they must have a contingency plan for employees to work from when the system fails. This plan usually has the restart of the system at the top of it's priorities so everything can resume to normal as fast as possible. Businesses in the public sector simply cannot afford to have a long down time as so many are so reliant on them, this is the same case with banks as it will stop everyone that is using that bank from being able to buy or receive money which, depending on size, could have an effect on the economy.
Costs:
In terms of information systems and the departments responsible there are only really two main costs; buying equipment then getting the department up and running and the on going cost of maintenance. Buying all the machines that make up a network of information systems can be very costly, dependant on the size of the business, and has a cost attached of setting them up incognito and training staff to use them. Costs don't stop there, as it costs to hire staff to maintain the system and also can cost a monthly fee to have certain software. Large public sector businesses have a enormous amount of machines collectively and keeping these running costs millions of pounds a year.
Increasing Sophistication of Systems:
Business aim to have a low labour turnover which is why increasing the sophistication of an information system can be avoided by some businesses. Vast amounts of money is spent on training employees and this can be wasted if new, more hard to learn, systems are introduced by management. Employees will either have to learn to use the new technology or leave the business all together thus increasing labour turnover.
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