ENTERPRISE CRM: ETHICAL QUESTIONS AND TECHNICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Abstract

The Enterprise CRM firm produces, markets, and supports software to a wide variety of organizations and firms in the services arena. The case concerns ethical and responsibility questions faced by a contractor. The case provides an overview of Enterprise CRM, its CRM products, security, and the interaction between a contractor and a technology vendor. It reviews the information systems security concern for the industry, and the situation faced by the contractor. An overview of the security risks and sources for obtaining information about security threats and security risk data is included. The sources for these data are the firms producing software and services and the users working in the industry. The case summarizes the contractor's situation through emails exchanges, describes the threats observed by the contractor, and includes the interaction with the Enterprise CRM technical staff are presented. The case exposes the contractor’s ethical concerns, and presents the contractor with an ethical decision about his personal position and responsibility to the customers and industry that uses the Enterprise CRM product. Students explore the decisions facing the contractor and the path he may choose to pursue or use to report on the security issue.