Applying Critical Thinking for IAS situation Hot Security Products, Inc. is a gl

Question

Applying Critical Thinking for IAS situation Hot Security Products, Inc. is a global company that is a reseller of firewalls, intrusion detectors, and other network security devices sold to major technology retail stores worldwide. The company has offices in China, India, England, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States and resells products from 300 different vendors worldwide. The company headquarters are located in the United States. Some infrastructure functions, specifically the data center and network operations, are outsourced. Enterprise application development and maintenance are handled by an offshore vendor partnership with the U.S.-based internal technology group. The U.S.-based internal information security group is responsible for creating policy and managing security for business-specific applications development, enterprise technology planning, and technology architecture. The Chief Security Officer (CSO) has asked your internal security team to prepare a presentation to the business leaders on a security plan that will be implemented to support a new procedure that enables suppliers to access and update inventory information in the organization's PeopleSoft enterprise resource planning system. The proposal meets objectives of reducing out-of-stock situations and of cost shifting the work of maintaining inventory onto the vendor rather than Hot Security Products staff. Apply the SWOC critical thinking tool found in your Course Resources file and the critical thinking approach you have selected to create this presentation for the business leader audience to convey how this new idea can benefit the business stakeholder without compromising the internal security of the organization. The CSO and business leaders will be on a fictitious Web conference call for your presentation, so you will need to prepare a PowerPoint file. The presentation is to be no more than five slides that introduce the security approach to support the idea, promote the different aspects of how this approach supports the idea through SWOC, and generate action to take this from a proposal to an infrastructure that supports the idea.

Explanation / Answer

1) Security plan for the new system

a) A secured network will be used for the new system.
b) A fire wall will be installed so that unauthorized entry is restricted.
c) The network will not be exposed to the public network, so as to deter hackers.
d) The new system can only be accessed via the secured network.
e) Only a limited number of employees of the suppliers will be given access to the new system.
f) The suppliers can see the inventory of only their products.

2) The SWOC analysis of the new system which allows suppliers to access and update inventory information is as below.

Strength
a) A synergy will be developed between the supplier and the organisation. Thus reducing the time and effort taken to fulfill a order.
b) The supplier will become aware if the stock has reached critical low and will replenish the stock real-time.
c) The time taken for placing orders will be drastically reduced ,because now the supplier will not depend on the organisation to place order and process the same.The supplier can directly fulfill the order.
d) Products can be delivered more quickly to Customers because the inventory is replenished realtime.
e) Cost cutting in terms of reduced infrastructure and work time, in purchase department.
f) The organisation can concentrate on it's core strength to expand business, because of time and resource gained due to new process.
g) Since it is a secured network, the risk of hacking is minimized.

Weakness
a) The organisation will no longer have control over purchase decisions.
b) The supplier will have access to the inventory data of the organisation.
c) The supplier may start playing a upper hand,because now he is a critical point for the organisation.

Oppurtunity
a) The suppliers can be made a partner with the organisation, thus entrusting him with greater responsbilities.
b) The new found responsiblity will make the supplier also work for the growth of the organisation and self.
c) The suppliers best practice will be obsorbed into the organisation, without any additional cost.
d) Inventory can be kept upto date.
e) Inventory cost can be drastically reduced because of maintaining precise inventory.

Challenge
a) Convincing the supplier to take care of the inventory, because it is additional work and expense on suppliers part.
b) convincing the supplier to a be a crucial part of the organisation.
c) Inventory is a very vital business resource and making such a system hack proof, is a important challenge.
d) Taking onboard the existing purchase department staff of the organisation, so that they will not perceive the new arrangement as a threat.
e) Developing a fool proof system ,which is scalable,bug free,secured and safe for both the organisation and the supplier to use.

3) Action to be taken to establish a infrastructure for the new system.

a) The internal staff should be made aware of the new system, and taken on board.
b) sufficient training should be provided for the staff to install and take care of the new system.
c) New rules and procedures should be made for smooth implementation.
d) All the suppliers should be briefed about the new system.
e) The IT requirement in terms of Software, hardware and human resource needs to be listed down.
f) The exisiting system should be scaled down over a period of time to make way for the new system
g) Support should be provided to vendors in terms of software, hard ware etc.
h) Onsite support should be provided for suppliers to install the new system.
i) Training should be provided for the suppliers to use the new system.
j) project should be implemented in phases. After every phase a joint review with the supplier should be done to monitor the progress.

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