Abstract
Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company (WW) is a transport and distribution company that aims at increasing current revenue through incorporation of the IT organization. This paper discusses part one of ITSP development that involves description of the business, current economic climate, and financial goals. In addition, the paper discusses the business strategic objectives, and inventory of the current IT projects.
Business Statement
Wobbly Wheels (WW) is a transportation and distribution company in which its headquarters are based in Wilmington, Delaware. The company has six branches located in Mid-Atlantic region (Wobbly Wheels, 2014). The current initiative of introducing a chief information officer (CIO) in the management team, aims at increasing the current revenue to a profitable level (Lane, 2011). The increase of revenue will emerge from the development of an information technology strategic plan (ITSP).
Business Strategic Objectives
The first strategic objective is to provide warehousing services for their customers in order to reduce the delivery time and also avail the products locally (Davenport & Short, 2003). The second goal is to advance the proportion of loaded miles in the convoy. The approach will lessen the cost of transport and will smooth the progress of picking up at the same area. Third, the WW Company wants to integrate tracking system on freights at the terminal and on the trucks (Lane, 2011). The strategy will improve the reliability and accuracy of delivery dates and times of freights. Additionally, the management will want to provide financial audit and reports to all the members of the management team in order to align the estimated financial cost of running the business (Davenport & Short, 2003).
IT Vision and Mission Statement
Vision: WW Company aims at providing affordable warehousing facilities to the customers and development of mobile-enabled applications that will give access on up to date information on the company services.
Mission: Wobbly Wheels distribution Company is a celebrated transportation and distribution company extremely committed to providing appropriate freights to the clients in the Mid-Atlantic area. The customers can access real-time fleet information and track the goods during transportation (Wobbly Wheels, 2014).
Governance
The IT governance process will be presided by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The major stakeholders in the IT governance process are the president, vice president of operations, chief financial officer (CFO), Sales Manager and Fleet Manager (Lane, 2011). The president of the company will be the overseer of the company and will be assisted by the vice president (Wobbly Wheels, 2014).
The CFO has the mandate of keeping all the financial records (Davenport & Short, 2003). The sales manager presents the breakdown of different sales within the financial year (Davenport & Short, 2003). The IT project prioritizes the recent technology and balances on the available funds (Lane, 2011).
Inventory of Current IT Projects
WW Company is developing the following projects: Advanced mobile applications for marketing, accurate financial reports, and advanced management reporting system (Wobbly Wheels, 2014).
IT Strategies
In the current global technological developments, IT Strategies are required in order for a company to be able to compete fairly. The integration of IT in a company is a process that requires a carful approach. The processes that can be used by IT professionals to guide their organisations are called IT Strategies. There are several internal IT strategies but in this paper only two will be discussed.
Internal IT strategies
They include Enterprise Resource Planning and the Customer Relationship Management Systems (Davenport, 2013). ERP systems allow the business to manage its operational function more efficiently. It helps in the management of finances, monitoring supplies, and also managing the human resource base. ERP systems have in the past been mostly used by big organisation, however, in the recent past even small companies are adapting this system into their businesses.
WW Company’s projects will be more secure with an IT integrated management tool. On the other hand, the company needs to protect its data against cyber threats. Apart from protection of company’s data, WW Company needs a reliable system that can analyse vital information from every department. Business Intelligence is another internal IT strategy that can be very useful in the management of the company’s projects. Business intelligences systems record sales data and they also keep historical, current, and predictive progress of the company’s operations.
Business enabling IT strategies
IT has undeniably changed the way businesses are managed. Organisational functions have taken a technological turn from the retrogressive manual approach. Some of the strategies that integrate IT in an origination making it a business-enabling tool include internet integration and networking. The internet is a very essential factor in the development of a business (Galliers, & Leidner, 2014). The WW Company can enhance its productivity through internet integration.
Through this strategy, the organisation gains access to the global market hence improving its distribution niche. On the other hands, the customers are also advantaged because through the internet a lot of transactions can e done. This includes window shopping as well as enquiring for product information. Networking within the organisation allows for an easy management of resources as well as easy ways of monitoring them.
IT portfolios
IT management portfolios are systematic management to invest, manage projects and activities for an organisation’s information technology department. This will include aspects such as cloud computing, networking and cyber security which are the main pillars of IT management (Schwalbe, 2013). Networking enhances communications between the servers while cloud computing enhances secure data storage. Cyber security is on the other hand measures to ensure an organisation’s data is secure.
Risk Management
This is a case based on IT integration in an organisation. With IT and the internet, cyber threats are the major issues that an organization should be concerned about. IT management systems are always facing with the threat of external access from unauthorized personnel. This can greatly expose the company and compromise its functions and business secretes.
Business Continuity Planning
In the BCP in this case, IT project managers and professionals should be in charge of the project. The three most important systems at WW that should incorporate a BPD are the accounts/finance, sales/marketing, and HR departments. These three areas are the major pillars of any organization and their success is paramount for the ultimate success of the entire company.
References
Davenport, T. H. (2013). Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. New York, NY: Harvard Business Press.
Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. New York, NY: Routledge.
Schwalbe, K. (2013). Information technology project management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.