Final Project: Milestone Three: IT Consultation for Swagger Distribution

6-2 Final Project Milestone Three: IT Consultation for Swagger Distribution

IT-200 – Fundamentals of Information Technology

Southern New Hampshire University

Web Technologies

It is important for Swagger Distribution to have a current and updated website because the website contains information that may change such as Blogs, Company News, Products and Services, and the Staff Directory (Ledbetter, 2013). Leaving this information incorrect on the website can possibly cause sales to plummet or incorrect information to be reported to the public. Updating the company website regularly will also ensure that it is easily accessible to the general public.

Listed below are up to date functionalities that would assist Swagger Distribution (15 Core Web Functionalities, 2012,):

Monster.com is a highly rated employment posting search engine, this webpage uses some of the same functionalities, two of which are:

1. Security (Secure Socket Layer) – Consumer’s information will be entered into the webpage, customers like to know that their data is safe. Secure Socket Layer encrypts the information that is exchanged between the customer and the website.
2. Form Validation – Each field that requires information may need a specific type of data, without explicit instructions, this may be difficult for some users, this function will highlight the contents needed for each field providing an easier experience for the visitor.
3. Organized Forms – time is valuable and most customers prefer not to search and search for items that are needs. Having all forms organized and only requesting the required information will speed up the process and appeal more to the public.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – when using a search engine to find a website having your webpage be the first one to show up is a benefit. A web developer can use tools such as alt tags, metatags, or meta descriptions so that search engines can better locate the intended webpage.
5. Domain Name – this name should be representative of the company and stand out and be easy to remember to the visitor.
6. Format – The content and layout of the webpage should be well organized and appealing to the visitor. The text should be easy to read and use less words and bullet points to keep the readers engaged.
7. Search Functionality – as the company grows, the website will inevitably grow as a result. Having the ability to search and filter the results assists the visitor in finding the information correctly and quickly.
8. Simple Navigation – most everyone would rather a search for information to be simple and not time consuming. If you have a complicated webpage it is possible for a user to find another webpage that they can better navigate.
9. Mobility and Responsive Design – this function will save money due to having one page instead of requiring two platforms, one for mobile and one full site this function will bind these capabilities and require only one platform.
10. Social Media Integration – because social media has a big effect on life today, as a marketing tool this will benefit the company because users will be able to easily find links to incorporate different services.
11. Speed of Load Time – this is important because if a website takes too long to load, a user will more than likely find another webpage. Load times can take longer due to incorrect programming or even too many users accessing the same resource at one time.

For Example:

1. Domain Name. “Monster.com” is an easy to remember name that is short and to the point, making it easier for users to find the webpage that they intended to find.
2. Monster uses a space on their home page to provide quick links to their social media profiles providing a “one click” task to find more information about their company and this makes for easier transition to their profiles.



Security

Information security is one of the most important requirements of a company because information is an asset to the company and the company is responsible for the security of the information provided by the consumers. Because of this high level of importance, there is little room for error due to the consequences of having unsecure networks and information (Brown, 2006). Having a lack of information security can be detrimental to the consumer and costly to the company. Most information that consumers provide companies contain personally identifiable information which could include social security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses which can result in identity theft. Companies found guilty of having unsecured systems and information spillages have to pay hefty fines and in turn potential customers shy away from these companies.

Two Security recommendations that Swagger Distribution would benefit from are:

In November of 2013, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield dealt with a security breach. Two laptops were found to be stolen from one of its offices in Newark containing unsecured and unencrypted information pertaining to at least 690,000 of its policy holders. The information that was compromised contained birthdates, identification numbers, social security numbers, and some medical information. Due to the severity of this breach, Blue Cross Blue Shield was ordered to pay $1.1 Million in fines for not protecting consumer information (Dhir, 2017).

1. Using Corporate security standards and frameworks such as the International Standard ISO 1799. This provides a baseline for maintaining, implementing and updating information security management in an organization (ISO/IEC 17799, 2005).
2. Provide training to all employees on the importance of information security as well as best practices. Keeping employees trained will lower the liability of other types of cyber-attacks such as phishing, zero-day attacks via email attachments, and social engineering.

References

Ledbetter, Marcus (2013, August 13) Website Maintenance: How Often Should I Update my Website? From http://www.idtinteractive.com

(2016, February 22) 15 Core Web Functionalities

Brown, Richard (2006, October) Information Security Means Better Business From: http://www.computerweekly.com

(2005) Information Technology – Security Techniques – Code of Practice for Information Security Management From: http://www.iso.org

Dhir, Rajeev (2017, February 24) 13 Recent Data Breaches, Hacks That You Should Know About From: http://www.nj.com