Fraud and Risk Factors and Enterprise Systems

“Fraud and Risk Factors and Enterprise Systems” Please respond to the following:

Review the Fraud Risk Factors on page 288 of the textbook. Choose one (1) factor which you believe is the most important. Justify your response. Next, choose one (1) factor and determine two (2) policies that a company could put in place in order to counter the risk factor in question.

On pg. 288 of the text, it explains that there are four fraud risk factors associated with fraudulent activity. The first fraud risk factor is having a high level of trust in employees without having to oversee their every move to make sure they are not stealing from the company. The second factor is relying on informal processes of control. The third is having a mindset that internal controls and fraud prevention systems are too expensive to implement. Finally, the last factor is assigning a wide range of duties for each employee giving them opportunities to commit fraud. With all of this said, I truly believe that the most important factor is the first factor which is having a high level of trust for your employees. The reason why I believe that this is the most important factor is because trustworthy employees are less likely to commit fraud. Also, it is pretty easy for employees to steal intellectual property from companies. With this said, it is important to hire trustworthy employees from the beginning so they less likely commit this fraud. Within companies there are several policies that can be put in place to help mitigate any intellectual property theft or other fraud. First, the most sensitive information should be stored in rooms where only top executives can reach them. Secondly, having a strong IT staff to implement network policy to make sure employees do not see information they do not need to.

Review the types of enterprise systems on page 305 of the textbook. Next, imagine that you are an IT organizational leader in a mid-sized company, and determine the type of enterprise system that your company would choose for an initial implementation if your company were to move away from legacy systems. Provide a rationale for your response.

The types of enterprise systems are Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment, and customer relationship management. If I was an IT organizational leader of a mid-sized company, and moving away from a legacy system I would chose to implement Enterprise Resource Planning or (ERP). According to the book, ERP software applications integrate all departments and functions across an organization onto a single information system that can serve each department’s particular needs. The reason why I would choose this option is because it is an all-inclusive approach to software integration across the board. The three other Enterprise Systems do not fully cover all resource planning for the organization.