Modelling Alignment of Information Systems †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Modelling Alignment of Information Systems. Answer: Introduction Each organizations are currently facing wide range of issues with their managerial aspects those are frequently affecting their business environment. In order to resolve the issues of different enterprise proper ICT collaboration with structural and cultural changes are needed to be adopted by different business organization. For this particular design ambiance, common dominators, traditional and hierarchical formalized characteristics are needed to be adopted by the management companies. In order to develop this particular report the name of the nominated company is Bazaar Ceramics Studio. A strategic direction, plan with accurate objectives and ICT plan changing including change management plan after considering the change procedures and conventions are elaborated in this report. In addition to this, it has also been assumed that, the existing organizational design is very ineffective from the organizational perspectives and thus those issues are soon needed to be mitigated by developing according changes. It has been determined that, the proposed change management approach must have all the additional features. The ICT system plan change, new performance benchmarks, stakeholders agreement and training requirements are also elaborated in this report. The eventually growing numbers of competitors are the mostly highlighted issues for the ceramic company thus, a change management schedule, plan and resources are also illustrated in this report to reduce the work burden from the working members associated to the project. After analyzing the internal and external environment of Bazaar Ceramics it has been defined that, Strategic plans must be developed according to the strategic direction. For analyzing the current status of the company a SWOT analysis has been conducted. The company uses manual process while selling their products. The product ordering system is done with phone, fax and emails therefore it was quite time taking from the business perspectives. If an organization does not have proper strategies and plan then it would be very much difficult to focus on the strategic goal of the business organization. With the help of proper leadership strategies the function al and operational goals could be reached by the management authority. Strategic plan is not an one year operational plan but it indicates the desired continuity plan for improving the current organizational program, services and programs accordingly. With the help of strategic plan the company would be able to answer different questions: Currently what the company is doing and what the necessary changes those should be adopted for future sustainable success? For future sustainability what are the necessary successes factors those company currently not having but for needed to be adopted by the company for future success? The strategic direction and strategic plan that assists the company to lead the company to lead towards two different domains are as follows: It helps the company to define those particular domain or area that the company desires to reach in the upcoming future. With the key factors a very limited number of outcomes could be focused hat helps to bring leadership on the business organization. The higher management authority or the leadership team helps the company to make tough as well as beneficial choice for proper decision making. Therefore, it can be said that, strategic plan is a set of guideline rather than project objective. For developing insurance of the company broad time is needed to be spend by the management to achieve the objectives. Critical issues and strategic objectives It has been determined that Bazaar Ceramic company has many weaknesses for which the company is facing many threats. However, based on the critical issues a set of strategic objectives are also developed by the company. The critical issues associated to it are as follows: Gallery cost: Due to the extremely high running cost of the gallery for the maintenance of international marketing campaigning the rate of Return on Investment (ROI). From the gallery sales the main sources of revenue keep on continue. Over the past five years the price of the products enhanced and again the showroom of the company is increased dramatically. Manual processing: The orders processed manually for the cost selling products. Most of the times the staffs make mistakes while transcribing information from the server to the forms. Again, there was a chance of data redundancy due to the usage of multiple forms. Product handling: The remote workers handle the products in a double manner. Due to the presence of number of workers the project objectives are destructed. Issues with the company profit: The fix cost of the business gets increased due huge number of employees. The fix cost for the showroom has been enhanced dramatically. From the last three years the fixed cost of the showroom will increase. The Highly advertising cost and exchange rate reduced the product mark up. Due to negative Return on Investment (ROI) the printing cost also get enhanced eventually. Lack of IT support: The Ceramic Company failed to hire technical experts for implementing their operational and functional activities. Due to this reason the company does not have nay technical advancement and support as well. Lack of space in the showroom: The size of the showroom is quite small thus the owners failed to display all the desired according to the requirement. Insufficient information regarding sales: The Company failed to store information of the unusable products those are served by the company. Again data about the popular products were also not available in the company storage. Non-advanced advertising approach: The advertising approach or market campaigning approach used by the company is very weak. Due to unique features of each of the products the advertising brochures of the company has become obsolete. Again for the presence of online website application the rates of competition among the companies are increasing rapidly. Due to this reason, the bargaining power of the consumers and suppliers are also affected negatively. Strategic objectives To discover alternative gallery sales To develop an auto generated process for the employees To develop direct shopping process for the clients from the remote workers To diminish the fixed cost To employ technical staffs for the company To implement alternative gallery display To improve the existing feedback mechanism for the consumers To develop different alternative advertising method The ceramic company has traditional manual information transfer approach which is time consuming and costly as well. Again on the other hand, due to manual data processing it was quite difficult for the company to access information easily from the hand written server. Therefore, it is very much necessary for the company to produce proper change management plan for the company considering each relevant approaches. The change management plan developed for the company is as follows: The development team should develop request for the desired changes after analyzing the cost benefit chart of the company. They must gain professional business change acceptance The development project must be initiated according the requirement The change management gate must be passed properly Implementation of changes Result must be generated upon the changes A link must be established between the problems and the necessary changes Periodic audit must be brought in the change management plan The Bazaar Ceramics Studio is serving their operation from last 20 years. Though, the company started their business as a small one but currently they have grown their business to a large one. Based on the requirement of the consumers the functional and operational activities of the company were also changed in terms of transformation. In order to bring the company in a large plot of success the producing quality and individual development categories are also changed. It is expected that with these changes the company would be able to meet the requirement of the consumers. The major goal of the company is to produce unique hand crafted pieces for each of the both individual as well as collectors. It will help the company to showcase he best even design and art of the showcase. An extensive range of well crafted and designed domestic ware could be designed with the help of the ceramic technology. Therefore, professional ceramic technology and technical excellence will help the company to design art based showcase. The role of the project sponsor is to investment as per the feasibility study and based on the computing infrastructure the project manager should hire the sponsors of the project. It is expected that in order to develop the structure of LAN infrastructure, WAN structure, server and PCs (considering Celeron 2.4 GHz, 256MB RAM) is needed high capital investment for the successful implementation of the project. For successful project implementation capital is required for server software specified with MS windows 2000 server, MS IIS and Exchange also. To improve the existing business process by producing unique as well as hand crafted pieces for the consumers To make the selling and buying approach completely digitized for showcasing the Australian ceramic art and design To provide an extensive range of well crafted designed domestic are for the consumers To implement ceramic technology and by exploring the technical skills of the consumers By installing the Information System for the Ceramic Company it would be able to share the information securely. It means that without proper authentication none of the users would be able to access any information from the server. Rather it can be said that the employees would be able o insert and access information from the server accordingly. The change processes those will adopt in this project include the consumers engagements and information sharing accordingly. The principles those underpin the change plan include inclusiveness and timeliness as well. With the help of proper timeliness all the members who are associated to the project team would be able to implement the project of the ceramic company successfully. Security is the mostly highlighted ethical issues. The information set stored in the server must have proper authentication while accessing and inserting new information in the storage server. The profession and the future standard raised should have followed proper ethical aspects. It will help the project manager of the ceramic company to gain security based aspects accordingly. Proper firewall and DMZ are needed to be acquired to mitigate the ethical issues. The main elements of the change plan include system and technological changes. With the help of Information System the company would be able to focus on particular domain areas to implement the process and skills of the project team members accordingly. The list of project constraints needed for changes are as follows: Time: In order to make the necessary changes it is important to complete the project within estimated time that is within 2 years. Budget: It is expected that the project must be completed within $20,000 instead of the preliminarily estimated budget. Scope: Scope is another important component that is required for the change The risks those might rise with the changes are as follows: Resistance to change Scope creep Identification of the key stakeholders: Identification of the key stakeholders response to the change consider the style of communication required preferred media for communication Project manager The project manager is responsible to make such changes those will help to make the control and monitoring approach accurately Both downward communication and open communication Email, video conference and conferences. Finance manager For additional resources proper financial support is needed. The finance manager is responsible to complete the project within estimate finance. Downward communication and open communication Email, Frequently asking question, video conference and conferences. IS manager The IS manager will look into the ICT components for developing the cloud based information system. Downward communication and open communication Email, video conference and conferences, Frequently asking question. Operational manager The operation manager is responsible to make changes according to the requirement of the consumers. Open communication Email, video conference and conferences, Frequently asking question. Project team members In order to complete the task within estimated budget and time the project team members should work hard and sincerely. Open communication Frequently asking question The project level solution is not established directly on the other different hand the high level business strategies are developed by the project stakeholders to meet the requirement of the dissatisfied consumers by installing cloud based Information System. The elements those would support the changes include a workplace culture that might support the change and IS innovation. Yes, there is strong senior support from the finance manager and executive HR manager for making the changes. With the help of the change management the stakeholders would be able to serve the consumers a secured E-commerce based service to the consumers. Messages from the stakeholder perspective: The project manager wants to complete the project within estimated time and budget The IS manager wants to develop an Information System The operation manager wishes to implement B2B E-commerce for the consumers The main concern of the project stakeholder is to meet the requirement of the consumers. Additionally, the stakeholders are willing to deliver on time, quality and secured services to the consumers. For presenting the changes in a positive light the steps those should be followed include: Domain selection for Ecommerce website Selection of correct platform Designing the store outline Payment process setup Addition of products Showroom outlines designing Checkout process designing Detail analysis Identify Change Elements In order to make the necessary changes with structures, processes, responsibilities, a timeframes and performance measurement the project team is changed addition with professional IS experts and trained team. There is a transitional change associated to the project include development of online store besides the physical store. In order to manage the workload a change management plan according to timeframe has been developed by the project manager and project sponsors. Actions Who When Performance Measures Change for IS development Project manager During the measurement of the project success 360 degree feedback E-Commerce business strategy implementation IS manager Gathering feedback from the consumers Balance scorecard Installing security aspects including firewall, encryption and DMZ Operation manger During the collection of feedback from the existing consumers and new clients as well. Self evaluation Before the development of the change requirements it is necessary for the project manager to remove the organizational barriers like lack of social and technical support etc. In order to reinforce the changes the set of change policies and procedures those have been undertaken include the following: Wages of the staffs Workload of the project team members Induction of the staffs Health safety of the consumers Ergonomic presentation of the presentation Research study on IS management For evaluating the changes according to the project requirements it is necessary for the project manager to understand the improvements those are required. Before the final implementation unit testing and integrated testing of the IS should be done. Again security of the online site is also required for gaining measurable outcome. Change management plan WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors 0 Change management schedule 137 days Fri 11/3/17 Mon 5/14/18 1 Project initiation 29 days Fri 11/3/17 Wed 12/13/17 1.1 Understanding the background of Bazaar Ceramic Corporate 5 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 11/9/17 1.2 Understanding the products details served by the company 6 days Fri 11/10/17 Fri 11/17/17 2 1.3 Details job profile analysis 7 days Wed 11/29/17 Thu 12/7/17 7,11 1.4 Developing mission statement 2 days Mon 11/20/17 Tue 11/21/17 3 1.5 Vision statement 4 days Fri 12/8/17 Wed 12/13/17 4 1.6 Developing project objective 5 days Wed 11/22/17 Tue 11/28/17 5 2 Project planning 50 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 1/11/18 2.1 Feasibility study 8 days Thu 12/14/17 Mon 12/25/17 6,7 2.2 Critical issue analysis 5 days Tue 12/26/17 Mon 1/1/18 9 2.3 Goal development 5 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 11/9/17 2.4 Strategic plan development 7 days Fri 11/10/17 Mon 11/20/17 11 2.5 SWOT analysis 6 days Tue 11/21/17 Tue 11/28/17 12 2.6 Strategic objective development 9 days Wed 11/29/17 Mon 12/11/17 13 2.7 Change in infrastructure 8 days Tue 1/2/18 Thu 1/11/18 10,11 3 Project execution 72 days Fri 1/12/18 Mon 4/23/18 3.1 ICT online service development 6 days Fri 1/12/18 Fri 1/19/18 15 3.2 Performance management 4 days Mon 1/22/18 Thu 1/25/18 17 3.3 Executing computer intranet 2 days Fri 1/26/18 Mon 1/29/18 18 3.4 LAN infrastructure 7 days Tue 1/30/18 Wed 2/7/18 19 3.5 WAN infrastructure 5 days Thu 2/8/18 Wed 2/14/18 20 3.6 Server 8 days Thu 2/15/18 Mon 2/26/18 21 3.7 Adoption of PCs 3 days Tue 2/27/18 Thu 3/1/18 22 3.8 Specification of server software item 15 days Fri 3/2/18 Thu 3/22/18 3.8.1 Operating system adoption 5 days Fri 3/2/18 Thu 3/8/18 23 3.8.2 Web server implementation 7 days Fri 3/9/18 Mon 3/19/18 25 3.8.3 Email adoption 3 days Tue 3/20/18 Thu 3/22/18 26,15 3.9 Specification of PC software item 22 days Fri 3/23/18 Mon 4/23/18 3.9.1 Operating system based on (2000 MS windows professional ) 6 days Fri 3/23/18 Fri 3/30/18 27 3.9.2 Web browser on MS IE6.0 4 days Mon 4/2/18 Thu 4/5/18 29 3.9.3 MS outlook based email 7 days Fri 4/6/18 Mon 4/16/18 30 3.9.4 Virus checking software adoption 5 days Tue 4/17/18 Mon 4/23/18 31 4 Project closure 15 days Tue 4/24/18 Mon 5/14/18 4.1 Post project evaluation 5 days Tue 4/24/18 Mon 4/30/18 32 4.2 Long term success 7 days Tue 5/1/18 Wed 5/9/18 34 4.3 Stakeholders signoff 3 days Thu 5/10/18 Mon 5/14/18 35 Policy and procedure for change management Wages of the staffs Workload of the project team members Induction of the staffs Health safety of the consumers Ergonomic presentation of the presentation Research study on IS management The business functionalities must be supported Information required supporting the described functions IT represents different information accordingly For supporting the business functions and data infrastructure needs support Technical objectives Support ICT benchmarks Quality programs Cost reduction and budget processing Improvement efforts for the business operation Managerial changes By implementing project changes in the business functions and operations it is expected that the company would be able to deliver quality, affordable products to the consumers through using both the offline and online selling approaches. Change management plan WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors 0 Change management schedule 137 days Fri 11/3/17 Mon 5/14/18 1 Project initiation 29 days Fri 11/3/17 Wed 12/13/17 1.1 Understanding the background of Bazaar Ceramic Corporate 5 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 11/9/17 1.2 Understanding the products details served by the company 6 days Fri 11/10/17 Fri 11/17/17 2 1.3 Details job profile analysis 7 days Wed 11/29/17 Thu 12/7/17 7,11 1.4 Developing mission statement 2 days Mon 11/20/17 Tue 11/21/17 3 1.5 Vision statement 4 days Fri 12/8/17 Wed 12/13/17 4 1.6 Developing project objective 5 days Wed 11/22/17 Tue 11/28/17 5 2 Project planning 50 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 1/11/18 2.1 Feasibility study 8 days Thu 12/14/17 Mon 12/25/17 6,7 2.2 Critical issue analysis 5 days Tue 12/26/17 Mon 1/1/18 9 2.3 Goal development 5 days Fri 11/3/17 Thu 11/9/17 2.4 Strategic plan development 7 days Fri 11/10/17 Mon 11/20/17 11 2.5 SWOT analysis 6 days Tue 11/21/17 Tue 11/28/17 12 2.6 Strategic objective development 9 days Wed 11/29/17 Mon 12/11/17 13 2.7 Change in infrastructure 8 days Tue 1/2/18 Thu 1/11/18 10,11 3 Project execution 72 days Fri 1/12/18 Mon 4/23/18 3.1 ICT online service development 6 days Fri 1/12/18 Fri 1/19/18 15 3.2 Performance management 4 days Mon 1/22/18 Thu 1/25/18 17 3.3 Executing computer intranet 2 days Fri 1/26/18 Mon 1/29/18 18 3.4 LAN infrastructure 7 days Tue 1/30/18 Wed 2/7/18 19 3.5 WAN infrastructure 5 days Thu 2/8/18 Wed 2/14/18 20 3.6 Server 8 days Thu 2/15/18 Mon 2/26/18 21 3.7 Adoption of PCs 3 days Tue 2/27/18 Thu 3/1/18 22 3.8 Specification of server software item 15 days Fri 3/2/18 Thu 3/22/18 3.8.1 Operating system adoption 5 days Fri 3/2/18 Thu 3/8/18 23 3.8.2 Web server implementation 7 days Fri 3/9/18 Mon 3/19/18 25 3.8.3 Email adoption 3 days Tue 3/20/18 Thu 3/22/18 26,15 3.9 Specification of PC software item 22 days Fri 3/23/18 Mon 4/23/18 3.9.1 Operating system based on (2000 MS windows professional ) 6 days Fri 3/23/18 Fri 3/30/18 27 3.9.2 Web browser on MS IE6.0 4 days Mon 4/2/18 Thu 4/5/18 29 3.9.3 MS outlook based email 7 days Fri 4/6/18 Mon 4/16/18 30 3.9.4 Virus checking software adoption 5 days Tue 4/17/18 Mon 4/23/18 31 4 Project closure 15 days Tue 4/24/18 Mon 5/14/18 4.1 Post project evaluation 5 days Tue 4/24/18 Mon 4/30/18 32 4.2 Long term success 7 days Tue 5/1/18 Wed 5/9/18 34 4.3 Stakeholders signoff 3 days Thu 5/10/18 Mon 5/14/18 35 Implement, monitoring and review change Project/Software Change Request Form Change request number: Project number and name, or Application name: Please fill Date submitted: Please fill Change initiator contact info: Please fill Change sponsor contact info: Please fill Project manager/analyst contact info: Please fill The following section is to be completed by the customer requesting the change. For this particular project the changes those are considered include the project budget, project quality, and project schedule and software new change and software requirement changes. The other changes are implementation of E-commerce business and cloud based IS system for storing the details of the products The reasons for which the project components are needed to be changed include the dissatisfy consumers, lack of legal support, lack of expertise. Due to these reasons the project manager is needed to bring these changes. The impacts of the changes those have been brought in this ceramic company are completely critical in nature because without these changes the additional changes cannot be developed. Requested completion date: 14/5//2018 Title of change: Implementation of cloud based IS Description of business problem: Information management, manual data access, Impact of NOT implementing the change, and alternatives. If this change will not implemented then the company would keep on facing the issues Describe how the system should behave: The IS system must be handled properly by the project manager Detailed requirements for requested change: For implementing the required changes all the technical aspects must be considered The following section is to be completed by the Technical Team (In 4 days). Estimate to complete: Customer hours Analyst hours Developer hours Tester hours Total hours Planning 16 16 7 8 47 Analysis 12 15 14 10 51 Design 15 12 17 18 62 Construction 20 12 14 15 61 Testing 5 4 6 4 19 Training 10 8 8 7 33 Deployment 6 6 6 4 23 Total hours 84 73 72 66 362 Schedule impact: The schedule will reduce the work load from the project manager by distributing it among the project team members Cost impact: The estimated cost of the project is defined as beneficial Resource impact: The resources highlighted for the project are required to be modified accordingly. The following section is to be completed by the Change Evaluation Team. Review date: 2912/2017 Reviewed by: Project manager Recommendation: Approved Recommendation notes: Technical Training for the workers Priority: Critical Change management plan or change Change in productivity Quality Price Process of selling The company should hire trained workers Training program must be arranged for the IT project team members The project team members must have proper knowledge and ideas about the project requirements. The stakeholders agreement is signed by the all the stakeholders associated to the project to ensure that the required change components are completely beneficial fro the users perspective. With the help of the training and development programs the E-commerce website could be handled accurately It will make the members much familiar with the project outcome It would help to make most of the recent technologies installed Valuable manpower could be created Conclusion From the overall discussion it can be concluded that in order to improve the existing business process of Bazaar Ceramic Corporation the ICT management is needed to be developed accordingly. Based upon the current situation accurate change management plan are also required to be adopted those are also illustrated in this report. In addition to this the critical issues associated to the company are identified those are mitigated with proper project objective. For reducing the work pressure from the project team members the work burden must be segmented accordingly and a proper change management schedule is also evaluated. 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