Importance of Information System in Telstra

An information system or IS significantly refers to the set of several pieces of equipment that are involved within the information distribution. The computer systems, software and hardware are the various parts of an information system. The most common types of information systems are management information system, decision support system, operation support system, executive information system and transaction processing system (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dziuban, 2013). The basic computer system majorly refers to the system that can easily control the business operations in an organization. The data base of that particular organization is also maintained with the help of this information system. Moreover, risk management is done easily with IS.

The following essay outlines a detailed research on the information system and risk management of the popular Australian organization, Telstra Corporation Ltd. The most important aim of the essay is knowing regarding the various types of controls in information system like the application controls as well as general management controls. This essay will even provide several techniques of risk management, audit process and audit planning for this particular organization.

1. Several Types of Services Provided by Telstra with Uses

Telstra Corporation Ltd. or Telstra is the Australia’s largest and the most popular organization of telecommunications that eventually makes as well as operates the networks of telecommunication or market voice, internet access, mobile access, telephone, mobile, broadband, television and many other products or services (Telstra.com.au. 2018). Telstra is responsible for providing around 17.6 million retail mobile service, 5.1 million retail fixed voice service and 3.5 million retail broadband services in the entire Australia. Apart from Australia, this particular organization even provides their unique services and products to various other parts in the world. Telstra Corporation Ltd. has been their products and services to 20 different countries. Since, this organization is the leading information services and telecommunication services company, they had been helping their clients in improving the methods, where they are living and working through the connections (Telstra.com.au. 2018). This organization even provides several information system services to their workers and staffs and thus ending the issues related to poor Internet connectivity.

The utilization of each and every type of network or service related to communication or telecommunication is for the successful execution of functions of the organization to make the significant business extremely effective and lack of complexities or issues (Dahlstrom & Bichsel, 2014). Telstra Corporation Ltd. has implemented the information system for properly executing their business processes or operations. The first and the foremost use of this information system for executing the business processes of Telstra is that it provides high level of competitiveness. The competitive advantages are well obtained with the help of information system. Telstra has become the largest organization in the field of telecommunications and this is mainly because of their unique business processes. The better communication process is the next important and significant use of information system in Telstra (Eason, 2014). The staffs can easily communicate with the clients and hence the cultural gaps and globalization is reduced. Moreover, the organization has a customer care it is open for 24*7. This particular feature is possible for the presence of information system in business. The next advantage of this IS in the business of Telstra is that it is extremely cost effective and hence it helps to bring profit in the business and increase productivity.

General Management Controls and Application Controls in Telstra

2. General Management Controls of Telstra

The general management controls are eventually utilized regularly by the employees and managers of an organization for the purpose of accomplishing the few intended objectives of that particular organization (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). The management controls are the various operational methods, which enable or allow work in proceeding as desired. These general management controls or GMCs could be easily classified either as preventive controls or as the detective controls. The preventive controls are usually used for discouraging the irregularities or errors. On the other hand, the detective management controls are used for the identification of the irregularities or errors only after these have occurred (Holtshouse, 2013). All of these general management controls can be documented with respect to various procedures and policies.

The organization often undergoes several structural as well as functional changes that are being created or adopted to ensure that the work is proceeding as per planned. The main purpose of the MCR or management control review is simply evaluating the complete system and helping the units operate more effectively and efficiently (Bloom et al., 2014). A perfect level of assurance where the organization can protect its products or processes is termed as the part of general management controls. Telstra has adopted some of the most basic and important general management controls and they are given below:

1. i) Compliance with Law: The several operations, costs and obligations are eventually complied with proper laws or regulations (Lloyd, 2017). The duly authorized purposes are allocated perfectly.
2. ii) Integrity, Attitude and Competence: The second GMC of Telstra is the presence of integrity, attitude and competence. These three factors are responsible for providing competitive advantages to Telstra.  

iii) Assurance as well as Safeguards: The next significant GMC of Telstra Corporation Ltd. is the presence of reasonable safeguards and assurance (Schwalbe, 2015). The loss of information is thus easily prevented with these factors.

3. Different Types of Application Controls

Application control is the specific security practice, which is responsible for blocking or restricting the several unauthorized or unsanctioned applications from the proper execution of methods that could be useful for the organization to mitigate the risks related to data. The few control functions subsequently vary on the basis of business operations (Noble, 2017). The main objective of the application control is simply ensuring the security or privacy of data that is utilized by and finally transmitted within the applications. There are several application controls for any organization. The business operations of that organization are controlled on the basis of data integrity and data confidentiality.

The organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd. has some of the major application controls within their business (Jiao & Onwuegbuzie, 2017). They are given below:

1. i) Completeness Checking: The first application control is completeness checking to ensure the records processing from start to end.
2. ii) Validity Checking: Validity checking helps to ensure that only valid data is being processed in the information system.

iii) Identification: The irrefutable and unique identification of every user is ensured in the process (Tarafdar, Gupta & Turel, 2013).

1. iv) Authentication: A specific application system is provided for authentication purposes.
2. v) Authorization: The next application control in Telstra is ensuring the application system access by the approved users.
3. vi) Input Controls: The various controls, which ensure data integrity in any application system from the upstream sources, are termed as input controls (Wagner, Beimborn & Weitzel, 2014).

Comparison between General Management Controls and Application Controls in Telstra

vii) Forensic Controls: The several application controls help in correcting the data in respect to input or output.

4. Comparison between General Management Controls and Application Controls in IS

The application controls as well as the general management controls within the information system are present in Telstra Corporation Ltd. There is a significant comparison between the GMCs and ACs in Telstra (Han & Mithas, 2013). Following is the detailed comparison between these two types of controls.

1. i) The various application controls in the information system or IS of Telstra organization is eventually referred to those controls that have the ability in relating to the computer software applications as well as transactions. These specific application controls are being enhanced by few important factors (Brooks, 2016). The major application controls of Telstra Corporation Ltd. are completeness checking, validity checking, input controls, forensic controls, authentication, authorization and identification. The general management controls of Telstra are dependent on three important factors, which are standard setting, performance measurement and taking up appropriate actions.
2. ii) The general management controls of the organization of Telstra are substantially linked to the several applications of this particular organization. The various functions of the application controls are supported with the general management controls. A continuous information system is ensured with the GMCs (Wagner, Vollmar & Wagner, 2014). The most specific areas of application of the general management controls are servers, environments of end user and mainframes. All of these general management controls could subsequently control and manage the network operations and access of security. The breaching of data is also stopped with the GMCs. The few safeguards are present for successfully restricting the overall access to the authenticated data.

iii) The organizational application controls are not similar to the general management controls in Telstra Corporation Ltd. The systems and the several applications are controlled and checked with the help of application controls (Schwalbe, 2015). On the other hand, the overall management of the organization of Telstra is controlled and checked by the general management controls.

5. Evaluation of Risk Management Techniques

1. a) Reliability, Confidentiality, Availability, Integrity and Security

Risk management can be defined as the proper identification, evaluation and finally prioritization of various risks that are vulnerable to the confidential data or information within an organization (Bloom et al., 2014). The impact of these unfortunate events is effectively reduced with risk management and hence the probability is minimized and controlled. There are two techniques that Telstra utilizes for ensuring the confidentiality, reliability, security, availability and integrity. They are given below:

1. i) Risk Avoidance: Risk avoidance technique is responsible for avoiding the risks or threats related to data hence the information system is secured.
2. ii) Loss Prevention: Loss prevention technique of risk management helps to prevent the losses occurred due to the presence of risks or threats within the information system (Lloyd, 2017).
3. b) Risk Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control

Risk identification is responsible for identifying all the significant risks. Risk assessment helps in assessing those risks and finally risk control helps to control the several risks in Telstra Corporation Ltd (Eason, 2014). There are two techniques that Telstra utilizes for ensuring the risk identification, assessment and control and they are given below:

1. i) Loss Reduction: This technique helps in reducing the overall losses of the organization and thus maintaining a proper balance in respect to the risk assessment and control.
2. ii) Separation: the separation technique helps to ensure the types of catastrophe in the business processes.

6. Illustration of Audit Plan and Process in Telstra

The process of checking the utilization of organizational resources periodically is termed as auditing (Dahlstrom & Bichsel, 2014). The data integrity and confidentiality is checked with this information system. Telstra has implemented a proper audit plan in their business and it is given below:

1. i) Recognizing Audit Engagement.
2. ii) Defining the Report Requirements.

iii) Conflicts within the Interest Assessments.

1. iv) Appropriate Risk Assessments.
2. v) Accessing the Documents and Records.

The process of auditing in Telstra is given below:

1. i) Employee Notifications.
2. ii) Discussing Scope and Objectives.

iii) Gathering the Procedural Information.

1. iv) Evaluating the Existing Control (Noble, 2017).
2. v) Proper Execution of plan.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Therefore, from the essay, conclusion can be drawn that information system is the perfect combination of telecommunication networks, software and hardware, which are utilized by the users for the purpose of building as well as using to collect, distribute and create information or data within the organizational settings. The process of decision making is supported with the implementation of information system and thus controlling, coordination and analysis is easier in any of the organizations. The executive information system, management information system and database management system are the most basic and significant types of information system that are extremely popular for all organizations. The information system plays the most significant role in all organizations to reduce their risks or threats related to confidential data or information. The risk of human errors is almost zero with the IS. Another important advantage of the information system is that it helps the senior management level to plan properly and exclusively without facing any type of issues. This essay has provided the detailed discussion on the information system of Telstra Corporation Ltd. The several application controls as well as general management controls are provided here for Telstra. The next part of the essay has discussed about the audit plan, techniques of risk management and audit process of this organization.

An important recommendation that would be better for Telstra Corporation Ltd. is the successful implementation of the management information system for the business. This management information system is the type of information system that is utilized for decision making and for the even for the control, coordination, visualization and analysis of data. The business processes are well integrated and the information is stored in one specific system. Thus, Telstra would be benefitted from the implementation of MIS in their business.

References

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