General and Application Controls in Information Technology

Information Technology has answered our many problems. It has made the life of individuals, groups and organization very easy compared to the former years where technology was something in dreams or on paper. Information Technology is referred to the various sophisticated and state of the art technology like computers that help us to manage our businesses (Senn, 2003).

The most important part of the business for example is their huge amounts of data, the problem of storing them and then retrieving them for a useful purpose. Companies realize that data should never be treated as a useless collection of numbers, no matter how old they are. They also came to an appreciation that data can be used to give the companies the competitive edge they need, especially after they became conscious about the “marketing paradigm”.

The Information Technology helps these companies to create, process, store, protect, transmit and retrieve data (Senft & Gallegos, 2008). Besides these, Information technology has helped give impetus to the globalization process. It has reduced the world to a global village where the communication problem is no more an issue, especially after the advent of the internet. Now you can even make calls using the internet. All you need is a microphone and speakers to talk to anyone, at any time sitting anywhere in the world.

The companies also realize that there processes (that take place within their organization to come up with their products) have become more cost effective (Senn, 2003). This has allowed business to efficiently utilize their resources and probably the most important one (which is usually saved at the end of the process) is the time. Through technology, companies are able to enhance the quality of their products and processes.

BACKGROUND

General Control of the Information Technology aids to guarantee the consistency of the data. This means that the data being produced is showing the performance of the system that you have installed, and that it is producing the desired results. It ensures that the machine is working perfectly fine. You can then check upon your business process if there is an anomaly or inconsistency in your data. You can be sure of the right data for the wrong processes.

Thus you can improve upon your business processes to correct your data. General Control of Information Technology usually encompasses the environmental control (Senft & Gallegos, 2008). This means that you understand the extent of the outside environment or the system beyond the boundary of your system and clearly out of your hands does shape your business in a certain way. But in what way does it affect you depends on the various environmental control you have at hand.

USES AND IMPLICATIONS

The General Control also focuses on the different management changes that are brought within the business system or environment. Changes are a verily a very stressful task with in the organization.

Information Technology helps to make sure that the changes brought therein is acceptable with the norms, organizational culture and the rules and regulations of the business itself (Senft & Gallegos, 2008). During the life of the business, many programs (complex or simples) are written to help businesses achieve their desired results.

For example a company may find itself in the need of a Data Base Management Systems or a Data Warehouse. They may either purchase it or they may build it themselves. In both the cases, the company needs to mould the coding to suit their business requirements. It helps the source code’s reliability within the program.

Businesses work on projects. For advanced business and for businesses that care to expand in the long run, find themselves in the need of developing software or systems. On the other hand, software houses whose main business is to develop and sell customer’s customized softwares goes through a complex life cycle to design, develop, test, implement and maintain the software.

General Control helps to achieve that too. It helps to simplify the whole cycle which may extend to a number of years depending on the size and complexity of the software (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2007).