IFSM 301 6381 Foundations of Information System Management
IT STRATEGIC PLAN FOR GGFRT
The current technological dispensation has taken many business institutions by surprise. Currently, business organizations heavily rely on artificial intelligence to make informed decisions that keep them relevant in the cut-throat business competition. To achieve this, institutions have increasingly developed IT Strategic plans to harness the use of ICT in management and customer. According to Rouse (2016), creating an elaborate IT Strategic plan (ITSP) provides an organization with detailed technology-enabled business management procedures that guide its operations. In a word, ITSP is a technological textbook that acts as a reference to the use of artificial intelligence in an organization. Based on this need, GG Freightways (GGFRT) Company decided to build an IT system to replace older technologies in their branches. The company needed the newer technical capacity to manage financing, accounting, fleet maintenance, and route optimization. This report seeks to establish the strategies GGFRT intended to apply in designing an effective ITSP.
- Business Statement
GG Freightways (GGFRT) is a transportation company operating in the southwestern part of the United States serving major cities. The company has been in operation for more than 30 years making them well known transportation firm. The company’s headquarters is situated in Los Angeles, California. It has several warehouses or rather 8 terminals in different cities namely; San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Tucson, Las Vegas, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Scottsdale, San Diego and Phoenix. Regarding its workforce, the company has a staff of around 750 employees. Among these employees are truck drivers who operate 400 delivery cars; 160 panel vans, 80 semi-trailer units and 160 box trucks. The market under which the company operates is very competitive which is mainly as a result of the presence of a stable economic environment. According to the firm’s C.E.O, they are anticipating to amass 8% growth profit and a reduction of 8% in the company’s expenses.
- Business Strategic Objectives (BSO)
The management meeting devised objectives they believed would lay the foundation for the impending adoption of an ITSP. These objectives, along with a new objective, are explained in table 1. The new objective was added to help management view the federal laws as a parameter to initiate innovative practices.
- IT Portfolio Roadmap
GG Freightways IT portfolio map has three key milestones. These milestones are;
- Establishing an efficient financial system for reporting
- Establishing an efficient management reporting system for the company
- Coming up with a mobile marketing application that will help ease and enhance the company’s marketing programs
The portfolio map be low is a further illustration of the systems that are currently in the development stage and the ones that are planned to start. It provides a summary of the projects that are in progress to support the proposed strategy. The systems that are currently in place will be repressed by grey color, the ones that are in process will be marked by a blue color while the ones that are proposed will be marked in green.
- Proposed Project:
GG Freightways’s strategic plan success relies upon development of a project that will foster the implementation process and actualization of the proposed strategies. Therefore, there is need of restructuring the information technology department. Therefore, the company management team will come up with a project that will restructure the information technology department. A review of the IT department will be conducted and a subsequent feasibility evaluation will follow. This will help the company identify the different necessities required for improvement to be attained and the necessary divisions that require amendments. Moreover, the project will ascertain if there is a need to add more workers in the information technology department.
- Risk Management
- Ineffective software quality
According to the IBM Institute of systems sciences, the costs incurred for fixing an error noted following product release has been recorded to be averagely four times more compared to when errors are identified during the design phase. Additionally, the cost is even higher approximately 100 times more compared to when errors are identified during the maintenance stage (Tavares, da Silva & de Souza 2019). For GG Freightways, the proposed mobile marketing application is crucial in the course of winning customers. Therefore, it is essential that the company pays attention during the developmental stage of the mobile application. Appropriate development process will lead to low chances of the project failure. Since the system is standalone, therefore, risk is acceptable as it will not affect the company functionality and other systems that are in place.
- Conflicts between the project team and the customers
Appropriate communication and healthy collaboration is crucial for any project and business. Attaining an accurate financial system is a complex endeavor, however, it is necessary for GG Freightways to ensure that they get the best financial system that will not only enhance the company’s financial audit but also enssure that financial reporting is in compliance. There is a high possibility of experiencing project failure since there are multiple entities which have to work together. Therefore, there is need for active and good communication that will ensure that a successful implementation is attained. Additionally, misuse of system which is a common event can lead to adverse effects in relation to the accuracy of financial audit (Wolf & Floyd 2017). As a result, it is important that appropriate mitigation strategies are put in place to ensure that there is effective representation that ascertain federal regulations are met.
- Cost increment
Usually, when systems are upgraded, cost increases are common. Therefore, it is imperative that an accurate feasibility assessment is conducted to ensure that sufficient budget is allocated for the system upgrade and ascertain that the system upgrade and its maintenance is feasible (Tavares, da Silva & de Souza 2019).
- Resistance to adapt to change
Adapting to change is a common challenge for many businesses since many people like to do things the usual way and are always afraid of change. It is thus imperative that effective awareness progress is put in place to ascertain that all the staff is informed regarding the anticipated changes. Workers should be told the need and importance of introducing the change (Wolf & Floyd 2017). Therefore, the employees should receive enough training early enough before the implementation process kicks off.
- Business Continuity Planning
The term Business Continuity Planning is used to refer to the development of strategies through the identification of risks and threats that a business is facing with a aim to make it certain that the personnel and resources are well taken care off and ensure that they are in a position of operating effectively in the scenario whereby business encounters a disastrous moment. Some of the key areas involved in business continuity planning comprise of appropriate classification of risks, ascertaining how the risks will impact the functionality of the business, putting into practice measures that will protect the systems and process that will help in mitigating identified risks (Tavares, da Silva & de Souza 2019). Also, testing and reviewing the processes to ascertain their efficiency and currency is imperative. Below are the key steps that should be incorporated when developing a business continuity plan.
- Implementation and management of the program.
There is need of coming up with an effective policy that will adhere by the regulatory authorities that offers the required guidance on the mechanisms that will be used for implementing that plan. All the parties and individuals involved in the business continuity plan committee should be identified and informed of their roles.
- Assess the critical assets in relation to the business continuity plan
The three most crucial systems that are being used at GGFRT are the freight tracking system, the finance and accounting system and fleet maintenance system. Freight tracking system and route optimization are crucial for the company since they play a critical role in revenue generation thus having an ineffective system will lead to profit loses for the company. The finance and accounting system is critical as it ensures that proper auditing and financial reporting is attained thus fosters adherence to the legal and regulatory body. Fleet maintenance is also critical as it ascertains customer satisfaction.
- Training program
For the above systems to continue functioning even in the midst of a catastrophe, it is important that Lance provides a training program that will inform the staff on how to use the system even amidst challenges. This will heighten the level of flexibility among employees.
- Business continuity plan audit
It is also important to incorporate an audit process to ascertain that the implemented plan is efficient. In this way, the systems currently being used can be sustained even amidst a catastrophe.
References
Gunawardena, L & Ramesh .L ( 2014 ).Understanding IT Governance and Why It Often Fails. Architecture and Governance. Retrieved from: https://www.architectureandgovernance.com/it-governance/understanding- governance-often-fails/ (accessed on September, 1st 2020).
Orhan, G., Erdoğan, D., & Durmaz, V. (2014). Adopting mission and vision statements by employees: The case of TAV Airports. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 251-262.
Tavares, B. G., da Silva, C. E. S., & de Souza, A. D. (2019). Practices to improve risk management in agile projects. International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 29(03), 381-399.
Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788.
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