Virtual Organization for Riordan Manufacturing

Virtual Organization for Riordan Manufacturing
Many companies today are looking to create virtual organizations for their businesses because of the innovation and organizational improvement it can provide. Creating an intranet in a virtual organization to hold shareable company data is the best form of communication between all employees. The intranet can be protected from outside interference by using the correct security measures. While reviewing the virtual organization for Riordan Manufacturing, there were some inconsistencies in the home page, accounting and finance, and human resources section that can be improved on.
Home Page The home page is the most important web page for a user because it prepares and sets the tone for navigation and functionality. A glaring omission from the Riordan home page is the purpose of the Intranet and its usefulness for employees. Currently, the home page contains the mission statement, company facts, and a brief history. While this information is important, we would recommend creating a separate page named “About”, or placing it under the current link of “Riordan Industries”, which would be a more appropriate location. Our recommendation for the home page would be to include more details about the intranet itself. What is an intranet? Why is it important? Who are the users? These questions are very important, especially for someone who is new to the company. Additionally, eight headings/links are located at the top of the page and with the exception of the “Home” link, they all have drop down menus, which is great. We recommend adding a small paragraph on the home page for the eight headings that includes a brief description of the section and its useful tools, if any. This allows users to quickly identify where they need to browse and not navigate aimlessly looking for information.
Accounting & Finance Riordan Manufacturing’s accounting and finance section on the intranet seem to be compliant to the government laws that are set in place for every business. The balance sheets show the yearly break down of cash, accounts receivable, inventories, and even the yearly break down of liabilities and stockholder’s equity. An income of the same setup for yearly total sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and non-operating expenses which is minimal, but effective to show where Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. is spending money to keep the company in business. The accounting shows the breakdown of all month to month expenses such as, wages. Items also listed include shipping, software, training, and contracts. With this financial information displayed, any employee is able to see the debts/costs that the company has as a whole as well as the inventory lists and product costs. We think that Riordan Manufacturing Inc. needs to have more security measures in place for the financial and accounting areas. Currently, I am not an employee and can view information that other companies would love to see about a competitor. With this information exposed, an attacker could steal this information and expose it to other companies and/or display it on the internet. This could become a harmful effect to the company’s performance and profit margin. I was also able to read some memos which talked about Riordan Manufacturing Inc. expanding to china where it could be cost effective on shipping purposes. The Chinese partners they are affiliated with are by a river that would make easy container shipments. Only the intended party should be able to view this memo. Software security needs to be in place with passwords and user names so that only the right company employee can have full access to everything.
Human Resources The human resources page of Riordan Manufacturing’s Employee Intranet site seems to be somewhat cluttered and disorganized. For the other links, there seems to be an overview of each page, but there is no overview for the human resources page. We discovered that the “Job Descriptions” page, the titles are listed with a one line description and the education requirements. It would be in the interest of the company to expand it so that each current position has a more thorough job description. Instead of the descriptions being just one word, it should be at least one page. There is too much information to include, such as expectations and company goals, for there to only be one sentence describing what the position needs. For the safety of our associates, the human resources page should be secured with a username and password. There is too much information that is visible for anyone to see and could lead to issues of employee dishonesty through identity theft. The employee files are visible for anyone to access. Through the employee files, we was able to discover where Lowell Bradford lives, what his phone number is, and by simple math, what age he is currently. We were also able to access information about his current position and what his previous reviews looked like. Kenneth Collins has a confidential memo in his file that is no longer confident because anyone can currently assess the system. This is one of the reasons why a secure human resources page should be developed for all associates. In the Human Resources Communication page, there is also a confidential communication sent to one employee from another employee that can be seen by anyone browsing the intranet. This type of memo contains sensitive information about associate complaints that should only be seen by upper management. This is another page that can be saved by using the right security measures in place in their website. We need to rebuild the Human Resources page to prompt for a username and a password and only allow the user to access their own private information if they needed to. This will prevent identity theft issues and an opportunist from stealing and passing out confidential company information. Overall, the success of a virtual organization depends on the functionality, usability, and security measures that are put into place. The security piece is lacking in Riordan Manufacturing’s virtual organization. There are confidential memos in almost all pages that should not be exposed to certain employees. By creating a simple username and password login at the home page, it can prevent information leaks and save the company many headaches.