Certified Information Systems Professional

By Dr. Zulk Shamsuddin

Information systems professional does a number of different tasks relating to information technology. Information Systems Professional does a number of different tasks relating to IT. They design and maintain the computing infrastructure, secure data from intruders, perform periodic risk assessments, adhere to organizational standards, compliance with internal controls and regulatory requirements.
The Certified Information Systems Professional ™ (CISP) is an ISO-standard skills certification for individuals with technical knowledge, skills and experience in information systems strategic planning, project management, risk management, IT governance, cybersecurity management, executive communication, and leadership management.
It forms the basis of the assessment that applicants must pass to gain the Certified Information Systems Professional status and inclusion in the Directory of Certified Professionals of The GAFM Academy of Finance and Management ®.
Stand out from the crowd with the Certified Information Systems Professional ™ certification.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387537501

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Information systems professional does a number of different tasks relating to information technology. Information Systems Professional does a number of different tasks relating to IT. They design and maintain the computing infrastructure, secure data from intruders, perform periodic risk assessments, adhere to organizational standards, compliance with internal controls and regulatory requirements.

The Certified Information Systems Professional ™ (CISP) is an ISO-standard skills certification for individuals with technical knowledge, skills and experience in information systems strategic planning, project management, risk management, IT governance, cybersecurity management, executive communication, and leadership management.

It forms the basis of the assessment that applicants must pass to gain the Certified Information Systems Professional status and inclusion in the Directory of Certified Professionals of The GAFM Academy of Finance and Management ®.

Stand out from the crowd with the Certified Information Systems Professional ™ certification.

The Certified Information Systems Professional (CISP)

Get this exclusive CISP certification and enjoy these benefits:

This CISP credential is senior level credential that will boost your career toward IT management positions. 

International recognition.

Assurance for clients of high standards and ethical practice.

Use of the post-nominal CISP or Certified Information Systems Professional after your name on business cards, CVs.

Introduce yourself with this exclusive certification card during networking, business events, conference, training, and anywhere. Certification has its privileges.

Importance of Certification

Certificates and certifications, the names for these credentials sound confusingly similar. But there are important differences. Here’s what you need to know about these resume-enhancing options and how they might advance your career.

What is a Certificate?

Earning a certificate is about education. Certificates are academic credentials awarded by colleges, universities or other educational institutions. Students in certificate programs learn new knowledge in a specific subject or discipline and earn a certificate by successfully completing the coursework. An ideal student for a certificate program is someone who is willing to go through the experience of growing their own skillset, being real about what they want to learn, and working with others, says Jennifer Diamond, an instructor for the GAFM Academy Certified Information Systems Professional. Many certificate programs have few, if any, admission requirements, making them an excellent option if you want to move forward in your career. The programs are usually noncredit and take less time to complete than a degree. Certificates are commonly listed on resumes as education, and some meet education requirements for first-time or renewed certifications.

What is a Certification?

When you have the professional knowledge you need, a certification allows you to prove it.  Certifications indicate mastery of skills or standards. Professional certifications are granted by industry groups or career-related organizations. These groups assess your qualifications, usually through an exam or application process. Many certifications include the privilege to use a related designation following your professional title. A certification differs from a license, which permits you to work in a certain profession and is usually issued by government or regulatory agencies.

Benefits of Certification

Certification helps in learning the new technologies, skills, and abilities for a specific promotion. Earning a new certification or an advanced certification in a particular area of expertise can help in advancing your career.

Professional certification shows consumers and potential employers that you are committed to your profession and are well-trained. It gives them confidence in your abilities and knowledge. Certification makes you more valuable to employers, so you can expect to earn more than someone without certification.

Certifications can give you the chance to learn needed skills, and be a quick way to show employers you have those skills. On the other hand, certifications can require studying or coursework, and cost up to several hundred dollars to take.

Information Systems Professional Responsibilities

An information system (IS) professional does a number of different tasks relating to IT. They are people who test, build, repair, install and maintain the hardware and the software that’s running from one or multiple locations. The IS professional will then be responsible for acquiring new IS skills and training in order to help build the company or institution that they’re placed in. IS in business is having to always find a way of improving and developing, so it’s important to have the right information systems professional in place.

research and install new systems and networks

implement technology, directing the work of systems and business analysts, developers, support specialists and other computer-related workers

evaluate user needs and system functionality, ensuring that IT facilities meet these needs

plan, develop and implement the IT budget and obtain competitive prices from suppliers to ensure cost-effectiveness

organize the purchase of hardware and software

schedule upgrades and security backups of hardware and software systems

guarantee the smooth running of all IT systems, including anti-virus software, print services and email provision

ensure that users adhere to software licensing laws

provide secure access to the network for remote users

secure data from internal and external attack

offer users appropriate support and advice

manage crisis situations, which may involve complex technical hardware or software problems

mentor and train new IT support staff

keep up to date with the latest technologies

contribute to organizational policy regarding quality standards and strategic planning.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SKILLS STAND OUT

Add Relevant Skills to Your Resume

Emphasize the required job skills in your resume, especially in the description of your work history.

Highlight Skills in Your Cover Letter

You can incorporate soft skills into your cover letter. Include one or two of the skills mentioned in this article and give specific examples of instances when you demonstrated these traits at work.

Use Skill Words During Job Interviews

Keep the top skills listed here in mind during your interview, and be prepared to give examples of how you've used each skill.

This book focuses at six cornerstones of Information Systems management skills:

Strategic Planning

Project Management

Risk Management

IT Governance

Cybersecurity Strategy

Executive Communication

In a global marketplace, information has emerged as an agent and enabler of new competitiveness for today’s enterprise. However, the paradigm of strategic planning changes sufficiently to support the new role of information and technology. The question is, how these changes can support the new role of information and technology and what is the relationship between strategic information system planning with the development database in an organization. Therefore, the development of strategic information system planning is importance in an organization.

Strategic information systems planning (SISP) is the process of creating a portfolio based on the use of information system in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Within SISP, organization can clearly define their organizational goals, the critical success factors (CSF) and the problem areas within the organization activity.

The purpose of SISP is to ensure that the IT organization align with the strategic goals of the organization. Alignment of IT organization and business goals has been used to ensure that business goals will be achieved and all the operations included the IT and IS that are being used in running the organization will be tracked.  SISP alignment will also help in identifying strategic applications, identifying new and high-value applications, and developing an information systems architecture. Organizations also use the SISP to help in forecasting and allocating IT resources. 

The importance of SISP in an organization has been well documented within the IS literature. Within SISP, the integration of IS function within an organization can be realized. Besides, SISP supports the identification of opportunities to use information systems for strategic purpose. SISP also ensures that adequate resources or the use of scarce resources are allocated to critical application and the use of resources in properly manner. With SISP, can ensures that the IS function support the organizational goals and objectives and also the activities at every level.

Having a good strategic information system planning in organization, will determine whether the organization will success or failure. The reason why organization needs good strategic information system planning is that it can help organization to avoid misused of scarce resources. By planning, only projects that can generate good returns will get investors from the firm. A good planning is very important to avoid problem such as the misuse and wasted resources in form of system that nobody likes and used the system effectively. 

The case study below will provide a clear example of the development of strategic information systems plan for an ABC Company.

Abstract

The new paradigm of the knowledge based global economy requires ABC Company to optimize and integrate the value chained in the extended enterprise in China, Mexico, Italy, Japan, and Indonesia. ABC Company’s business plants need to be responsive and adaptive to the customer’s rapidly changing demands locally and globally. A new IS strategy that spans across procurement buy-side and customer interface sell-side generate a paradigm shift in operation of optimizing business process and propels organizational transformation. The use of information systems to support various organizational value chain’s stages can be characterized by the information intensity of value chain. This paper is to propose an effective IS strategy for ABC Company that support the global expansion with evaluating the benefits and the risk of the proposed strategic planning

ABC Company Manufacturing Background

ABC Company Manufacturing was founded in 1991 by Dr. ABC Company. The company was initially focused on development and research. However, in 1992, ABC Company has purchased a fan manufacturing plant in US and changed the name to ABC Company manufacturing, Inc. The company has expanded to produce plastic beverage containers by adding another manufacturing plant in Georgia. Today, ABC Company Manufacturing is one of the global plastic manufacturers that earn $46 million annually with 550 employees (University of Phoenix, 2011). Today, ABC Company has expanded by adding manufacturing plant in Mexico, Italy, China, Japan, and Indonesia.

ABC Company’s Mission

ABC Company is focusing in using polymer materials to provide the customers with solution to their challenges. Six Sigma, exceeding the ISO 9000 standards and leading-edge R&D define ABC Company abilities and attitude towards the industry trends. As a success factor, ABC Company is focused in achieving and maintaining reasonable profits to assure sustained growth. In addition, ABC Company focuses on supporting and well inform employees to maintain an innovative work environment.

ABC Company IS Vision Statement

For ABC Company Manufacturing to successfully expand from local organization to global organization, the architecture of the enterprise IT has to provide fixable implementation country by country and business plant by business plant. As ABC Company grows through industrial action and acquisition and mergers, a focus on generating value for local customer and local growth can surpass the efficiencies of the business process as the organization adapts and learn. As ABC Company’s business plants in China, Mexico, Italy, Japan, and Indonesia are delivering customer value through the products, the organization center tends to support local business flexibility over cost-efficiencies and standardization. In encouraging and supporting the decentralized business plants in each country, the information management practices and the architecture of enterprise IT foster centered information capabilities on exploiting local opportunities.

ABC Company IS Value Statement

The new paradigm of the knowledge based global economy requires ABC Company to optimize and integrate the value chained in the extended enterprise in