INFORMATION SYSTEMS 101: A Business Owner's Guide for Staying Afloat by C. Oakes Templeman

Information Systems 101:
A Business Owner’s Guide for Staying Afloat
C. Oakes Templeman
Booklocker.com, Inc.
Genre: Self Help
ISBN: 1591138698, $19.95, 132 pp, 2006

From the back cover:
"Information Systems 101: A Business Owner’s Guide for Staying Afloat put into the hands of business and organization leaders a compass for navigating the high seas of computerized information systems with the most profitable rewards.

Packed with real life cases of information system disasters, Information Systems 101 guides the reader to:

- Establish Information Systems Cultures and Communications Standards
- Create Hardware, Software, and Network Documentation
- Generate Information Systems, Business, and Records Procedures
- Develop a Disaster Preparedness Program

Templeman’s 30-year career in accounting, information systems, and document management, affords a unique perspective on the crucial role information systems play within a business or organization, and the havoc wreaked when holes spring open in the IS ship."

This is a well-organized and understandable book about protecting your information systems. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 4 - Service Providers not Gods. She wrote that there is a cancer in the information systems profession–some IS people think they are or are perceived to be gods.

When your system is down and you have a good tech who comes through for you regularly, my vote is that he is a god (and I don’t even care what time he shows up . . . as long as he does show up).

She states that this little concise book is "to complement, amplify and supplement other texts." She encourages you "to read all the available material, learn as much as possible about safeguarding information systems procedures and developing disaster recovery plans, and tailor the information to your individual needs."

So, my only constructive criticism would be to include a list of resources at the end . . . for further reading.

Reviewed by Kaye Trout - May 20, 2006 - Copyright