Question

List and briefly discuss the types of total ownership costs (TCO) associated with creating and supporting an organization’s information systems.

Answer 1

Answer:

Creating and supporting an organization's ifnormation system can inccur a various types of costs. At the initial level the basic costs that should be considered are purchasing, configuration and licensing the software packeages. Then the costs include designing and documentation. Other costs involved are testing costs wherein the softwares and progames are tested on all the different hardware devices being used in the organization. These are the costs which are incurred in the begining when a new software is introduced in an organization. The costs do not end here. After these come the costs to support the system constantly. The types of costs that are beared for supporting the information systems can be training the user and giving end user support to them, auditing and compling systems according to the firm's legal limitiations. It also provides backup for critical data and the cost for it is included in the supporting costs of the systems. it manages the issues that arise in the security issues of the information systems.

The items addressed by the TCO in the information system of an organisation can be as follows:

- Hardware and software netwroking

- Hardware and software server

- Installation and integration of hardware and software

- Obtaining licenses and warranties for the softwares

- Infrastructure at the workplace

- facilitating backup and recovery of data

- Training of the technology to the employees of the organization.