Breakout sessions

Company Info

Company Name: The Hangover

What Company Does: Events management, social planning

Departments: Accounting / IT / HR / Marketing

Company Mission: The aim of our company is to provide quality service to clients through the provision of ‘gnarly’ social events.

Further Information: The Company is to be run solely as an e-business, operating through the social networks of myspace and facebook. Through the use of these websites, we intent to create a network of teenagers (between the ages of 18-25) in order to organise and promote various parties. The company will first organise a venue and entertainment for a night, with the event having a prescribed entrance fee. In a separate arrangement with the owners of the venue, we will negotiate a percentage of the door takings.


Business Functional Areas and IT Architecture

Within the group we have the majors of Marketing, Accounting, Management and Law.

Within the field of Marketing, IT would be used in order to create advertising campaigns, gain information about customers (CRM) and store and provide relevant internal and external information about the business through the use of databases.

Within the field of Accounting, IT would be used primarily to store the financial information of the business and prepare various accounts as required. It is also possible that IT would be used for the various calculations and mathematical processes required by accountants.

Within the field of Management, IT would be essential for the provision of information about the business as well as being used as a primary source of communication. Through the use of databases containing pertinent information about the business, managers would be able to make the required decisions to ensure the operation of the business. IT would also be essential for managers to communicate to people both internal and external to the business.

Within the field of Law, IT has become incredibly useful as the majority of legal information (cases, court documents and legislation) are now available digitally through websites such as CaseBase and Austlii.

IT Infrastructure and Hardware

In order to map out the IT infrastructure of the business, it is essential to evaluate the Hardware needs of each department.

Accounting: This department would require the use of several accounting programs and possible the transferral of information to other departments. The required computers would be desktop PC’s with accounting software. This department would also require a combined Printer/Fax machine.

IT: The IT department of the business would be required to maintain the internet links which are essential to the operation of the business. Because of this, the employees of this department would require computers (either Mac or PC) with high speed modems. Also due to the requirement of this department to oversee the IT of all other departments, employees would require mobility and should b provided with ultramobile PCs.

HR: Human Resources requires the ability to be in constant contact with employees and will b required to give staff training through presentations. It is recommended that in addition to Desk-top PCs, this department should be given mobile phones in order to have constant communication with employees. It is also recommended that this department be provided with a data projector for training presentations.

Marketing: Marketing is the creative soul of the business, and the primary source of consumer information. Because of this, it is essential that this department is provided with Mac computers in order to develop more creative files such as video streams. As Marketing employees would b required to gather information about customers and collate this info it is essential tat they have adequate and portable storage units, therefore they should be provided with USB storage devices.

Security and Ethics

Essential Points of Code of Ethics;

1) Employees shall act in a manner consistent with social ideals.
2) Employees shall not at any time use information about clients which they have obtained in any unauthorised manner.
3) Employees shall seek to ensure that the company’s activities are not inconsistent with social values.
4) Employees shall adhere to professional standards of conduct.
5) Employees shall act with honesty and integrity in all dealings related to business activities.

Security threats to The Hangover
Possible security threats and the adequate responses for our business include;
Data Loss: It is possible that our main data storage facilities may be compromised, the proper response to this is to have procedural back-ups of data and an alternative data storage plan.
SPAM: SPAM e-mails are a likely security threat considering the virtual nature of our business. To combat this, the business will require an adequate SPAM filter for our e-mail utilities.
Denial of Services: Considering the virtual nature of the business, any denial of internet access would be catastrophic. In order to prevent this, the business should have multiple network access points to ensure that we are able to access the internet whenever it is required.

Disaster Recovery Plan;

Due to the nature of our business and the virtual storage of essential information such as client contacts, it is essential that we allow for the proper back-up of all data in several locations around the country.
In the event of a natural disaster, the proper protocol is for the business to move from its base of operations in Sydney to another capital city. In order to do this, all staff would b required to shift to the new capital city and a new network of customers would have to be established via social networking sites. Also it would be necessary to begin negotiations with venues within the new city in order to continue operations.

E-Commerce

Our company will operate as a pure e-business with the only physical interaction with customers being at the events held.

On our website we will have;
Business Contact Details
Pictures of previous events held (for social marketing purposes)
A Feed-back Forum
An ‘Upcoming Events’ Blog

The form of marketing e will use is B2C.

Our Website Applications will be;
Portals
Blogs
Social Networks