Information Paper

Use Daniell Jackson CIS 207 August 1, 2012 Timothy Thacker According to (Anthony Robbins, 2010) â€Å"The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives†. It is imperative that in any organization there needs to be a detailed and efficient flow of information. Communications is the key for a business to be successful, and it provides the solid foundation needed to construct a solid business process. One other very important part of communications in a company is the flow of that information which ultimately produces the results whether good or bad.This paper will describe how information is used and how it flows at Document Logistic Agency (DLA) Document Services Jacksonville in the IT department. It will also describe any concerns with properly controlling the information flow, including keeping it safe from unauthorized use. DLA Document Services Jacksonville is a Department of Defense (DoD) command that provides a web-based solution for ordering documents. The communication flow starts from the customer level as documents such as publications, posters, retirement programs, and many more available products are ordered online.Although the Document Services Online website where most of the communications is done electronically, there is still a need for communication flow for those of us here at DLA in order to produce the customers required results. I thought it would be fitting to compare the communications that I have experienced here at DLA and my military communications experience, to show some of the differences As a 23 year retired veteran of the United States Navy, communications becomes a major part of everyday life.Military men and women are introduced to what is known as the chain of command and the structure in which it is written at each command. Communications is something that we are taught not to take for granted because it could be the difference between losing and saving a life in a give n situation. Once retired and transferred into what most military men and women call â€Å"The Civilian World,† I immediately discovered that there is a difference concerning military and civilian communications, the flow, and the concern of controlling that information.Here at DLA document services we have a variety of personnel that come together to produce products for the customer. The accountants manage and handle financial issues, machine workers print and produce the orders, information technology personnel maintain the servers, and management oversees the entire business process. Upon reporting for work here at DLA, I have been privileged to several communication issues that have caused issues, but have been addressed and changes put in place.One of the main issues I discovered was that as the network security engineer, there was no communications between the system administrators working on the servers. There was no sharing of information, which consistently resulted in changes to the system by the system administrators, but no upward communications of these changes through the IT department. The program manager was not informed of the lack of maintenance on the servers and the only concerned seem to be that the systems stay up to produce orders.This line of thinking was unfamiliar to me and I felt it would be a recipe for disaster. â€Å"Information sharing is critical to an organization’s competitiveness and requires a free flow of information among members if the organization is to remain competitive† (JP Hatala and J Lutta, 2008). Although we held a bi-weekly meeting that consisted of minutes from the last meeting and the old business to new business concept, it was clear that it served no purpose and I was determined to change that concept.I introduced the Configuration Control Board (CCB) to the Program Manager and showed her how it would make our meetings more effective by allowing communications to flow from the bottom to the top. Eventually I was able to get the SA’s to fill out a configuration change form and submit that form through the leadership, so that all parties would be aware of any major changes to our systems. We ensure that our transmission and handling of sensitive information is handled discreetly. The protection of our information is controlled on a need-to-know basis, which is the same as when I was in the military.The only concern that I had was sending and receiving emails with sensitive information such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other detailed information via e-mail without encryption. We started ensure that we encrypted our emails to add that extra layer of needed security on sensitive documents. We also started the digital signature initiative that ensures all CCB documents are genuinely signed by each responsible IT department personnel, using our Common Access Cards (CAC).The DoD CAC card allows employees to have their own unique identification, authentica tion privileges, encrypting, and crypto graphical ability to sign emails and other documents. DLA Document Services Jacksonville delivers quality products to the men and women of our military. Although there were some issues with communications, the improvements have been astounding. We realized that when companies are dealing in the information technology field there is a need for excellent communications amongst team members up, and down the organization so that the best customer service can be provided.We discussed the importance of ensuring that communications is protected and secured because it is the cornerstone of maintaining that need-to-know responsibility. References Anthony Robbins (2010), Power of Giving. Retrieved on July 30, 2012 from http://www. power-of-giving. com/tony-robbins-quotes. html JP Hatala and J Lutta (2008), Managing Information Sharing Within an Organizational Setting: A Social Network Perspective. Retrieved July 30, 2012, from https://ehis. ebscohost. c om/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=2&hid=3&sid=8a83ca4d-a18d-4679-b2e7-f631c1b0a62c%40sessionmgr11