CIS 599 Week10 Project Deliverable 6

Running Head: PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 1

Project Deliverable 1: Project Plan Inception

CIS 599 Graduate Information Systems Capstone

Abstract

The main goal of this Project is to integrative functions and activities within the information

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 2 system field, including the part of the CIO and technologies managed within the organization. This

project deliverable Project plan inception will have two section first section will be Project introduction

and second section will be MS Project Project plan. In this Section I will try to explain Project

introduction of Innovative internet based company established in early 2012. I will be the Chief

Information Officer (CIO) of this company and I was told to merge our company to multinational

company of equal size and you will be responsible for developing a project plan to strategically

integrate all systems, including databases and infrastructure. I will have 2-month time to expand my

company from 1 floor to 3 floors. In the First section I will explain Background information of the

company and then Details regarding the type of business activities that the company is involved in.

Later in the second part I will try to give detail about outsourcing and offshoring opportunities and in

the last section I will explain current information systems that the company has to support the business

in terms of OS, databases. Data warehousing, cloud technology, virtualization, network infrastructure

and security. The company currently consists of twenty five (25) employees but is expected to increase

to sixty five (65) employees when the merger is complete.

In the Second section. I will create a project plan summary and detailed template. It will be in

MS Project software (.MPP file). My Project will record all tasks, subtasks, resources, and time related

to the project. It will also outline the planning, analysis, design, implementation phases and Develop in

accordance with the SDLC.

Background information of the company

The company is an innovative Internet based company that offers different services in the

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 3 information and technology industry. What it concentrates more is on research to observe and provide

consumer reports on how customers react to new technology. The company started in the year 2012,

under the management of sir max cliff. At the time of the start, the company used to make gross

revenue of $10 million dollar per annum. The staffs working at the firm during its birth were ten

excluding the companies CEO.

However, since then, the company has grown rapidly as for now it has 25 staff working under

the firm. The staff is inclusive of the administrative staff, the operational personnel, middle managers

and knowledge workers, and the top managers. The gross revenue per year has grown consistently over

years currently making gross revenue of $35 million dollars per annum. Since its beginning, the

company has remained under one floor building g. Since the start of the company to date, the company

uses operational systems to process the daily transactions of the organization. Additionally, it uses

relational databases for management of data in the company. The reasons as to why it considered

relational database it is because, they are easier to understand and use. The company however is

planning g to transit from using operational systems to data ware housing, which support high volume

analytical, processing. This is because, unlike the operation system, data warehousing support historical

data because data in it cannot be altered one it has been keyed in. The operational system is only

concerned with current data, which does not give historic information data can be altered any time. The

company now is at the verge of being merged with another IT related firm and this will mean gross

revenue will grow rapidly. Additionally, the staff number is expected to grow to over sixty-five staff

because of the changes of the management systems.

Business activities of the company

As stated earlier, the firm concentrates more on research work to provide information on how

clients and business react to new technology. The firm analyses technological changes and the impacts

to consumers, businesses and the community. The products and services offered by the firm revolve

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 4 around research, data, consultancy, and community services. The clients get access of the research and

tools and roles related in their areas of expertise by websites. The Data services and products target the

business users and consumer behavior and attitudes towards the emergence of new technology. What

gets observed is inclusive of technology ownership, adaptation trends and possibilities of future

purchases. The products of this firm integrate comprehensive survey researches that get designed and

analyzed by the members of the staff from this firm.

The consultancy services that the firm play includes taking control of delivering tailor made

research to help client s in carrying out business and technology strategies. Again the firm assess on the

feasible enterprises for competitive technology gains. It offers business users with information on how

to make large technology investments. This firm offers its customers with information on effective use

of technology, innovations and new organizational designs. Additionally, clients get assisted to know

how source for IT and the demand and supply networks. For the community services, the firm offers

information that is designed to nurture effective connections between peers playing similar duties in the

field of research and analysis. For the products, the firm organizes cultivated leadership boards where

the participants attend to seminars and workshops events to learn more on research in internet based

firms. The firm additionally offers various hardware and software services. It sells set of systems that

assist in the daily running g of the businesses. For instance, it installs the enterprising g computing

systems to all firms. The software this system supports the operations of the entire company and

processed data management requirements. The aim of the software is to integrate the firm’s primary

functions to improve on efficiency and reduce cost. Managers can therefore rely on this data to make

informed decisions. The system ensures data security because it is imposed with a framework that

caters for data accessibility and storage.

Speculation on outsourcing and offshoring opportunities

The firm intends to outsource for more opportunities in social media. It will outsource from

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 5 firms that offer services on social networking and web sites. This is to enable clients create their profile

and search for colleagues in business field, academic institutions and for fun. The firm will outsource

the services from Friendster Corporation, which specializes on websites and social media

communication. Friendster will assist users create blogs and watch videos from the websites. The

services will allow users to adjust their personal profiles through various applications provided within

the platform. This firm intends to get revenue through the advertisements in the web sites and social

media. This is because; the advertisers usually target all users irrespective of their age groups or

ethnicity. This will create great revenue for this firm whilst cutting on labor costs.

The company intends to outsource other services from the frontier communications limited.

This firm concentrates on offering communication services to the people in rural areas. Their services

facilitate easier communications between business people and at homes. Outsourcing their services for

the rural dwellers will assist users access both local and urban data on internet directories. Television

and wireless services will be provided as well. The wireless services will be inclusive of the WIFI data

networks for businesses, colleges and university users. This will require the frontier company to liaise

with Gmail services providers to offer mail services to the clients. The company intends to make profits

using WIFI data. Forty percent of the revenue generated through use of WIFI will be transferred

directly to this firm. This is because; use WIFI data will be highly utilized by college and university

students in the rural areas. This firm will be exposed to lenient environmental regulations,

Description of the current information systems

From the beginning, the company has been using the operational system to support the

transactions of this firm. The operational system is designed to support processing of transactions with

minimal back end reports. The firm has been using the operational system for registration of new

clients, billing and payments dome by our clients. The reason why the firm retained the use of the

software was its support of current data.

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 6

Data warehousing

The firm intends to adopt the use of this system because it supports analytical processing of the

data. This means that the system will be in a position to elaborate on report generation. The system

arranges data in a subject-oriented manner, which makes it easy for user to retrieve information with

ease. It supports historic data and this will enable this firm to trace all its transactions. The system

prevents data redundancy, as the integrated layer is usually above the information layer thus making it

easy for data analysis.

Relational database

This firm makes use of relational databases in the management of its data. A relational database

provides data in tables, rows and columns. The objects of the same type get collected together under

the same table. In this firm, related data included client’s profiles, their requests, billing and payments.

The relational database allows the staff to retrieve related data. The advantage of the relational database

is that it is compatible with the Data warehousing system.

Cloud technology and virtualization

The firm will adopt cloud computing and virtualization for the storage of Data. Cloud

computing will ensure that data is secure from damage, loss and viral attack. Cloud technology and

virtualization will enable this firm to sell the hosted services and share resources with other firms. As

the technology improves and devices continue to be connected to each other, cloud computing will

increasingly merge with virtualized storage. As cloud computing has emerged as a basic networking

practice, more and more content is stored in virtualized, interconnected storage devices. Not only does

this make it possible to access massive files online in an instant, it also makes storage more affordable,

efficient and easier to manage. Cloud storage can solve some of the problems associated with big data,

particularly in the areas of resource planning and infrastructure growth costs. Currently this company

uses Intact cloud based accounting software for financials modules like Accounts Payable, Accounts

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 7 Receivable, General Ledger & Inventory modules and Salesforce.com cloud based software for

Marketing and Sales teams. Whereas other uses NetSuite cloud based software for both Financial and

Sales and Marketing teams. NetSuite is SaaS based cloud computing software which has Customer

Operations, Financial Modules and Sales Force automation modules combined together to provide 360

degrees view of Customer’s account information. The combined company is planning to consolidate

Intact & Salesforce.com into NetSuite and use only NetSuite as single Cloud based ЕRP system.

Network infrastructure

The Company adopts both open and closed architecture of the network. This will ensure that

internet can be easily shared within the firm. Additionally, it will prohibit accession from unauthorized

users. The firm will install inbuilt firewalls for network security. This will in turn enhance user access

control and data packet monitoring. The Local Area Network (LAN) is typically where you will place

your workstations. This should be the most secure area of your network as this is where your company

needs to protect its data as well as the workstations on the network. Typically the LAN is on a private

network. LAN (Local Area Network) would use star topology [Tanenbaum, 4th ed]. Ethernet allows

many computers to connect to a central switch or router via a network card. Ethernet is essentially what

connects everything together. Ethernet can be used to include VPN, VoIP, audio and video

teleconferencing, multimedia content sharing, and virtual remote storage. Ethernet can be easily

extended to WAN which makes it quite simple for IT managers to incorporate high-end features in the

organization’s LAN. This Software Inc. can benefit from using VLANs by using of separate broadcast

domains. This is like having different switches that allow you to divide up departments in the company.

WAN

A wide area network (WAN) is a computer network that interconnects Wireless Software Inc. and Sky

guard Software Inc. using a communications channel that combines many types of media such as

telephone lines, cables, and airwaves. WAN technology includes Integrated Services Digital Network

PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 8

(ISDN) with T1 link [Tanenbaum, 4th].

Security

To protect data from unauthorized access and destructive forces, the firm has applied several

data security technologies. This includes data encryption, data masking, data erasing, use of backups

and now adopting the cloud computing, this will ensure that data is secure and only gets accessed by

the authorized members.

Wireless Technology

This company is spread out across the states and span into other countries. Еach individual

LAN will be connected via wireless WAN using point to multi point Wi-Max technology [James, 2008]

will be used to connect each LAN to the company headquarters.

Network Security

There are numerous ways to provide security to the network. The most popular is the internet

firewall. The technology protects the organization computers and network from unwanted traffic. The

Internet firewall is placed between the organization and the Internet so that all incoming and outgoing

traffic pass through it. The Internet firewall location must be secure from tampering. The Internet

firewall must implement the security policies. Cryptography is a main tool of security in that

encryption provides data privacy, message authenticity, data integrity, and can prevent replay attack.

References

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PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION-PROJECT INTRODUCTION 9

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Project Manager. (2017). How to Create a Project Plan. Retrieved from

https://www.projectmanager.com/academy/how-to-make-a-project-plan

Shirky, C. (2002). Planning for Web services: Obstacles & opportunities. Sebastopol (CA:

O'Reilly.

Lamoreaux, Naomi R. “The great merger movement in American business, 1895-1904.” Cambridge

University Press, 1985.

Topolewski, Tanya M., 1969 Outsourcing, off shoring and the US office market.

William Inmon 2005. Building the Data Warehouse John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-8-1265-0645-3.

James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross: Computer Networking: A Top-down Approach (4th ed.), Addison-

Wesley, 2008.

Tanenbaum, A. Computer Networks, 4th ed, Prentice Hall, 2003.ISBN: 0-13-066102-3.