Read and analyze the attached case. You must discuss the case and how Information Technology is used or misused. Discuss the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of its application if appropriate, or discuss your opinion of the case and how IT could have been more effectively used. Each analysis must be at least 1-2 pages in length and no more than 3 pages. It should include a section summarizing the case (1-2 paragraphs), and then an analysis of how IT was used or misused. The analysis portion must be the bulk of the feedback. I am looking for your observations of the case, what you think!! http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/674906.pdf Solution Computer crime is a very vast topic. It includes many mal functions by computer users. It is all about making bad use of information technology for personal interest or in order to create troublesome situation for others. Plagiarism is one aspect. It is passing off the work of other people as your own without giving any credit to them. Piracy is another topic worth thinking about because people make a lot of effort and spend lot of money to create or make something where other just make a copy of them instant of buying the original one. Crackers are basically attention who break into computer system and make illegitimate use of them. With the rapid evolution in Information Technology, the numbers of crackers are also growing. It is very difficult to get hold of all these issues that is why we have some association running, aiming to reduce and stop these concerns. nformation technology and its systems have become so important that large organization can no longer operate without them, not to mention operate efficiently. Each organization has its unique purpose, use of information technology is now becomes one of most important means to achieve the goals as claimed by Hawkins (2004). Technology could increase an organization’s effectiveness by refine its operations, business process and internal collaboration. In the context of education, technology could break down communication barriers between students and faculties and among students themselves. For example, email system could enable lecturers and students have effective communication when both of them are remote from campus and located at different time zone of the world. Technology could also help students have better access to the learning information, experts and learning communities. In most universities’ library system, students could now access, view and finding citations of thousands of academic journals which are integral part of student’s academic study from its online database and database’s associated subscriptions. Technology could also enable active new learning modes, such as multi-media teaching, computer lab and virtual learning environment that could connect students from different parts of the world in one virtual environment simultaneously. However, technology by itself could not delivery the outcomes desired and pursued by the organiza.

1. Read and analyze the attached case. You must discuss the case and how Information Technology
is used or misused. Discuss the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of its application if appropriate,
or discuss your opinion of the case and how IT could have been more effectively used.
Each analysis must be at least 1-2 pages in length and no more than 3 pages. It should include a
section summarizing the case (1-2 paragraphs), and then an analysis of how IT was used or
misused. The analysis portion must be the bulk of the feedback. I am looking for your
observations of the case, what you think!!
http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/674906.pdf
Solution
Computer crime is a very vast topic. It includes many mal functions by computer users. It is all
about making bad use of information technology for personal interest or in order to create
troublesome situation for others.
Plagiarism is one aspect. It is passing off the work of other people as your own without giving
any credit to them. Piracy is another topic worth thinking about because people make a lot of
effort and spend lot of money to create or make something where other just make a copy of them
instant of buying the original one. Crackers are basically attention who break into computer
system and make illegitimate use of them. With the rapid evolution in Information Technology,
the numbers of crackers are also growing. It is very difficult to get hold of all these issues that is
why we have some association running, aiming to reduce and stop these concerns.
nformation technology and its systems have become so important that large organization can no
longer operate without them, not to mention operate efficiently. Each organization has its unique
purpose, use of information technology is now becomes one of most important means to achieve
the goals as claimed by Hawkins (2004). Technology could increase an organization’s
effectiveness by refine its operations, business process and internal collaboration. In the context
of education, technology could break down communication barriers between students and
faculties and among students themselves. For example, email system could enable lecturers and
students have effective communication when both of them are remote from campus and located
at different time zone of the world. Technology could also help students have better access to the
learning information, experts and learning communities. In most universities’ library system,
students could now access, view and finding citations of thousands of academic journals which
are integral part of student’s academic study from its online database and database’s associated

2. subscriptions. Technology could also enable active new learning modes, such as multi-media
teaching, computer lab and virtual learning environment that could connect students from
different parts of the world in one virtual environment simultaneously.
However, technology by itself could not delivery the outcomes desired and pursued by the
organization. The current use of technology in education setting involves developing of new
teaching and learning models and refining administrative operation process chains and today’s
available information technology solutions have an array of capabilities and the potential to both
improve the learning environments and widen teaching methods options.
If use of technology has such substantial impact on the operation of organization, what are the
responsibilities of senior IT post or its Chief Information Officer (CIO) and what characteristics
making an effective or ineffective CIO? Armstrong, Simer, & Spaniol (2011) has identified
following duties that are usually fall into CIO’s domains. First, CIO is responsible for developing
a technology plan for the schools including the budget. Secondly, he is responsible for IT
governance and provisioning IT system/services within the organization. Thirdly, part of CIO’s
provisioning IT system services, which is also one of most significant but often been neglected,
is to introduce new technology systems and make them functional. Fourthly, provide IT training
to staff members who manage and use the IT system both within and outside his department. In
another words, CIO is responsible for matching the needs of education institutions and new or
available technology teaching and learning options. The duties require substantial leadership
from senior IT post who could assembly various technology solutions; implement them in a way
which could better serve the goals of organizations and maintain technology system to operate in
a safe and stable manner.
The implementation of information technology has impact across all areas of organizations; CIO
cannot manage the technology system without concerning and communicating the needs of all
other departments and the overall goals of organization. Thus in Hawkins (2004), it is provided
that an effective CIO must have strong managerial ability. He is able to coordinate all important
units within the organization, allowing them to express each of their unique technology needs
and “harmonize” the differences or conflicts among them. An actual application of CIO’s
managerial skill is given by Grand (1997) which provides senior IT post often encounters
“incompatibility among networks, data structures, software packages etc...” Those incompatible
technology components however may met specific needs of each department, therefore, CIO
must able to pursue each departments to combine each of their “disparate systems” into a new
comprehensive framework that inevitability involve compromises from the users.

3. However, CIO’s ability of coordinating needs from units of organization is not an end itself; he
exercises his managerial skill for the purpose of achieving the goals of business, most
importantly, its continuous growth. Therefore, CIO must have insight of what is successful
business operation pertain to the organization he is working, for example, in the context of
schools, it means better education quality, growth and sustainable revenues. This CIO
characteristic is confirmed with my experiences with Mr. Mu. (n.d.) from Tai Shang Consultancy
(“Tai Sha”). Tai Sha is a leading education consultancy services company in China. Mr. Mu,
who is the chief IT officer of the company, has been required to participate senior business
operation meetings and been consulted of business operation strategies on a regular basis. But it
should be noted online marketing channel is one of the major marketing tools used by Tai Sha
which may result requiring Mr. Mu (n.d.) to have particular strong business operation
understanding.
The third characteristic ability that a technology manager should have is the sensitivity to new
technology from strategic planner perspective of an organization. For example, it is provided in
Armstrong et al., (2011) IT manager is responsible for selecting and introduce new systems for
the organization. For example, he may decide to make arrangements for introducing and using
"hosted, cloud-based, or even outsourced systems and services" since these newly emerged
technologies can reduce the cost of hardware and installation, or make the costs associated with
maintaining the system more transparent. But whether or not adopting them depends on CIO’s
judgment and careful analysis of organization’s strategic goals, value of the services, and the
budget. For example, in school setting, instead of knowing how the new technologies work and
its technology advantages, CIO is responsible for making decisions based on its degree of
alignment with students learning improvements.
An associated ability that CIO should grip is that he should be skilled in negotiation and
contracts with external service providers. The trend of adopting cloud technology is more
obvious than ever and its applications could be wide spread on all areas of an organization. CIO
may understand the technology itself very well, but procure good bargain from the service
providers would also fall into their duty territories. Person with limited exposure to technologies
may not even able to fully understand the functions of a new system and its implications that
brought by external service providers. On the other hand, CIO with strong technology
background would not be easily misled by external contractors.
An ineffective IT manager lacks the personality and influences that enable him to change

4. organization’s internal operation culture. Introducing new technologies inevitably involve
change of an organization’s existing practices, such as teaching methods if it is a school or
marketing strategies if it is commercial organization. The change of practices requires extensive
training on the staff members and sometime turn the proficient users of old practice into new
learners. The introduction of new technologies may thus meet resistance from staff members and
spread of rumors of its ineffectiveness. Armstrong et al., (2011) suggests this challenge could be
dealt with through process of lunching pilot program. These pilot users typically go on to
become the proponents of the system and provide the groundwork for developing systemic
training programs.
Another characteristic of ineffective IT manager is provided by Bjelland (2005), CIO's inability
to understand and explain the technologies from layman's perspective. An innovative
technology program may require collaborations from all departments of an organization. The
new IT platform may exert substantial impact on organization's position on the market. But the
creation of the system calls for a "clear, simple vision" to enable people with different
technology backgrounds to coordinate their efforts. The technology questions raised by people
also needs answers that are clear and simple. Mr. Mu. (n.d.) based on personal experiences
unfortunately sometime during the business technology explanation conversation fall into jargon
and implicitly telling non-technical people that a problem is too complex for people to
understand possibly due to his strong technology background. The good technology manager
should able to understand the technology strategy from layman’s perspective first place, so he
could naturally explain the strategy to a non-technical superior in a real and simple way.