Strategic Information System Market Success to Succession

Questions: 1. Identify the importance of wetware costs? 2. Identify an organisation implementing an Accounting Information System? 3. Discuss the relevance of wetware costs to the implementation in the organisation you have identified? 4. Draw some conclusions? Answers: Introduction The rapid growth of information and communication technology has significantly transformed the world. This period is referred as Information Age. The entire world has significantly focused on the progress and success of the information technology. According to Wright and Dawood (2009), the success of the IT organizations is dependent upon their operational activities and adaptability to the dynamic environment. In this paper, information has been segmented into major three periods. It has been argued that, during the initial period of the Information age, computer hardware was the point of focus. Over the time, hardware became cost effective as well as portable (Sussman, 1994). The second phase of the Information age is referred to the software micro-age. In the previous phase, inferior programs were put into the CPU. In the software micro age users were enabled to use software and have n access to different activities including calculation, indexing, analysis and communication. Soft ware cost started to decline in the late 1990s. Therefore in 2002, Wetware Micro age emerged. During this period, a new factor was identified apart from hardware and software. Wetware refers to the human association in the information technology. Significant cost is associated with wetware and it has been found the cost of wetware is highest in the ownership of the computer system (Quarta, 2009). The companies which failed to identify the relevant wetware cost have not been able to continue with their success in the present structure. This paper will focus on discussing the importance of wetware cost along with an example. 1. Importance of Wetware Costs Initially, wetware refers to the developers, programmers, cloud and IT architects, system administrators and other employees who are able to influence the functions of thee servers, application software, network and other IT tasks. In a simplified manner, wetware can be used as a synonym for the human capital associated with the Information Technology sector. Additionally, wetware may refer to the user of the information technology system. The users need proper training in order to use the information technology system. The wetware costs refer to the indirect cost associated with the training of the users for enabling them to use the information technology software and hardware (Wright and Dawood, 2009). It also includes the cost of using the system such the time spent for providing input, cost if interpreting the output of the operation. In the era of information technology, the cost is assumed to be very low and often ignored. It has been found that leading information technology s uppliers used to ignore the indirect cost earlier (Wright and Dawood, 2009). But, now, if the IT companies continue to do so, they will expose to major risk. Presently the demands of the users of information technology systems are increasing and they expect the IT systems will solve more problems than they develop. With the advancement of information and communication technology, too much information is available to the users leading to issues regarding e-mail spam, information overload etc. It has been estimated that in 21st century, wetware cost significantly dominates the cost of computer system ownership. Earlier, problems related to software could be resolved with the aid of hardware solution. Presently the growing awareness regarding the significance of wetware cost indicates that the solutions will be identified through making changes in the software or hardware (Hurley, 2002). Wetware solutions have minimized the complexities of the installation and setup activities of a new hardware by introducing the plug and play approach. The wetware costs are increasing rapidly which needs to be addressed for resolving the hurdle of wetware cost. 2. Example of an Organization Implementing Accounting Information System WorldCom was a major telecommunication company of United Stated. Later t has merged with MCI Communications and known as MCI WorldCom. The company uses accounting information system. Accounting information system is found to be helpful in collecting data as well as it assists in processing some courses of action which create relevant information for the internal as well as external users. In 2002, the internal auditors utilized the accounting information system for uncovering the fraudulent expenditure allocation and indentified some anomalies in some accounting entries (Van Zwanenberg, 2012). 3. Relevance of Wetware Costs in the Organization In WorldCom, accounting information system as implemented in order to ensure accounting efficiency of the organization for achieving the business goal. The accounting information system significantly focuses on the different transaction and other financial functions such as budgeting, inventory control, taxation, allocation of resources, recording revenue etc. As the organization has implemented accounting information system in order to achieve operational efficiency, it must focus on identification of the relevant costs. Recognizing all the costs is significantly important for the organization (Norton and Porter, 2011). It has been found that wetware cost is significantly important in this organization. Innovation as well as implementation of the new technologies is associated with high level of wetware cost. Additionally, maintenance and resolving the issues in providing service related to communication technology attributes to the wetware cost (Abeles, 2009). In order to identify the information technology costs appropriately, the organization has considered cot related to hardware, software and wetware. 4. Conclusion This paper has provided an insight to the concept of wetware cost. From this paper, it can be concluded that the cost related to wetware is significant in ownership of a computer system. The cost of wetware is constantly rising and the companies need to address this issue in order to ensure further success. Initially, the hardware was the most important focus for the computer power. Therefore, software had helped in creation of the favorable environment which provided access to the user for manipulating, analyzing as well as communicating. Software and hardware have developed a strong and cost effective IT system. Therefore, it has been identified that some indirect cost which is referred as the wetware cost is enhancing and presently it is the dominant cost in the IT system. References Abeles, T. (2009). Hardware, software, and wetware.On the Horizon, 17(4), pp.280-284. Hurley, M. (2002). Wetware Problem, Not a Software Problem.Science, 297(5583), pp.936b-936. Norton, C. and Porter, G. (2011).Introduction to financial accounting. Australia ; United Kingdom: South-Western Cengage Learning. Quarta, M. (2009). Wetware Concepts.New Biotechnology, 25(4), pp.193-194. Riskin, J. (2003). Eighteenth-Century Wetware.Representations, 83(1), pp.97-125. Scu.edu, (2015).WorldCom Case Study Update 2006. [online] Available at: https://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/worldcom-update.html [Accessed 10 Jan. 2015]. Sussman, H. (1994). Let's get down to the wetware and look at evolutionarily motivated mechanisms.Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17(01), p.182. Van Zwanenberg, P. (2012).Current trends in technology and society. Brisbane, Qld.: Primrose Hall. Wright, C. and Dawood, I. (2009). Information Technology: Market Success To Succession.Review of Business Information Systems, 13(4), pp.7-20.