IFSM 301 - Strategic Plan Report Part 2

Running head: GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 1

GG Freightways IT Strategic Plan Part 1

Kyami Clarke

University of Maryland Global Campus

Professor Sean Sullivan

Spring 2021

IFSM 301 6383 Foundations of Information Systems Management

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 2

GG Freightways IT Strategic Plan Part 1

Business Statement

GG Freightways, with a headquarter in Los Angeles, CA, has been in business for about

30 years as a transportation and logistics firm in local areas. In the southwestern portion of the

US, the firm represents major cities. Eight of its warehouses are situated in different regions like

Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, CA, Tucson, AZ, Las Vegas NV, Phoenix

AZ, and Scottsdale. And they have two maintenance facilities situated in San Bernardino and

Scottsdale. Their management staff includes CEO Marissa Schmidt and about 750 employees in

which about 40 sales personnel distributed equally on each terminal, including truck or trolley

drivers working 24/7 efficiently and effectively. Daily consultations with the executive team to

discuss prospects and challenges and prepare for future priorities. They have approximately 400

vehicles, of which about eighty of them are semi-trailer/tractors, 160-panel vans, and 160

medium-sized box trucks. Their gross revenue is about $35 million/year, and they have a stable

industry status, an extremely dynamic market for the industry, and having a 6% annual profit.

The company's significant challenges are fleet maintenance scheduling and freight tracking

system, on which the organization is working to improve. Their goals are to increase their annual

profit from 6% to 8% with an 8% decrease in operations costs to save additional costs. In this

assignment, a new strategic plan is proposed, composed of the company's objectives and

strategic IT system planning, to increase their process or execution terminologies and improve

them.

Business Strategic Objective

The executive committee agreed at a meeting held to change the business strategy for the

organization to meet development and expense expectations. To improve profitability and

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 3

develop the company, they outlined three new objectives they want to implement and add a new

strategic objective that will help the organization increase its profit and further expand its

business chain.

Business Strategic Objective (BSO) (enter number 1, 2, 3, 4 only)

Fully State the Objective (from the case study); it should not discuss IT for the new objective.

Explanation (in your own words for each BSO; for the new objective only, also incorporate how the management team would use the new objective to improve the business of GGFRT. None should discuss any relationship to use of IT

1 To provide consumers with specific shipping dates and times, they want to monitor the whereabouts of freight at both the ports and the vehicles.

The organization is working on different ways for this purpose to provide their customer updates about where their parcel is at that very moment, whether it is on track or when it is started towards or reached the required destination also providing the exact time date venue of their parcel, whenever they want to know about it, which would decrease customer complaints about their luggage delay if they knew the reason behind the delay.

2 To lower costs by arranging the collection and distribution of freight in the very same geographical region, they would like to increase the percentage of filled miles in their fleet.

An important object, but there is a lot to work on its progress. Pickup and delivery at the same time will reduce delivery time, energy, fuel cost and decrease miles to cover the vehicle. This can eventually increase the fleet maintenance life, driver’s and customer’s satisfaction.

3 They would like to offer warehouse storage services to consumers who want their customers or enterprise to shorten shipping time by making goods locally available for collection in warehouses or faster local delivery.

This objective targets the benefits hidden behind it for its success and progress. They are also targeting those customers who want their shipment in their hands in less time because they might deliver the shipment further to their companies or clients. For the organization, fuel costs can be reduced, and their local delivery can speed up, which will enhance their performance efficiency.

4 (new objective)

To reduce fuel cost and ease complex maintenance scheduling for the organization, setup of more maintenance facilities at different places where the freight volume is maximum.

This objective sides with the federal statement: (“A new federal requirement to conduct a vehicle safety check every 10,000 miles”). Regarding this statement, a new objective is generated, which will help the organization and the customers by reducing delivery time, and the chances for shipment delays are reduced. The employees will be satisfied with the vehicle maintenance and fewer complaints.

IT Mission and IT Vision Statements

The following are the IT Mission and Vision Statements generated after carefully

considering the case study provided:

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 4

A. IT Mission Statement: By preserving and introducing government technologies,

the IT department advances its goals. They have worked within GGFRT for all

stakeholders to deliver excellent operation and assistance (Taiwo, Lawal, &

Agwu, 2016).

B. IT Vision Statement: Incorporate new technologies to improve net profitability

and minimize the business's running costs. It offers the essential IT solutions that

help GGFRT develop and flourish.

IT Governance

A. Participants: The central bodies involved in the governance will be the CEO, Vice

President of Operations, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Sales

Manager, and Fleet Manager.

B. Roles: the CEO, Marissa Schmidt, will control and oversee the bodies involved in

the governance to enhance and improve their vision and mission. Vice President

supervises the project management methodologies and strategic objectives

designed to increase their profitability. The CIO controls the technological and

different IT systems implementation in a project or other company activities

where needed. CFO deals with the company's finance, like the cost of operations,

productions, and wages, etc., and tries to minimize them as much as possible. The

Sales Manager oversees brand partnerships and seeks to improve for

representatives of the governance. The Fleet Manager must assess it's fleet and

address fleet issues and solutions.

C. Governance Methodology: The system used to prepare, pick, manage, and

implement IT resources would be using the ITIL (Information Technology

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 5

Infrastructure Library) technique. Using the ITIL platform, IT managers will

become business support associates (Watts, 2020).

D. Responsibilities: Governance will be accountable for the business budget,

development programs, and the corporation's direction (Government

Accountability Office, 2016). To review project progress and address goals, they

will hold meetings periodically. In designing business plans, senior officers,

owners, and board members are included.

E. Prioritization: Projects will be prioritized when plans according to them are made

and used in those projects (Machavarapu, 2006). Prioritization Tools like revenue

maximization, efficiency in operations, and decrease in operating costs are used to

increase their services' productivity and speed. The top management bodies

involved in governance should discuss business goals and performance matrix.

Inventory of Current IT Systems

The table discussed below states the current IT systems used in the company with their

purpose, goals, and objectives attached to them and the benefits the company gets by using them.

Current System

Function/ Description

Strategic Goal aligned to (strategic business objective from part 2 of this assignment; if compliance noted as business goals were not used, they could still be incorporated in this table.

Business Unit/ Department

Business Benefits

IT Resources only (people, equipment supporting this system)

Freight Tracking System

Tracking all distribution status and paths for delivery.

To optimize on-time shipments, include actual freight and distribution monitoring.

Operations Department

Accelerate the delivery time by allocating deliveries locally to drivers depending on their venue.

Drivers, Operations Manager, and Dispatchers

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 6

Precise Financial Reporting System

The present manual data input system has sluggish processing speeds.

Reduce working hours to review finance and accounting records manually.

Finance Department

Higher performance speed and a drop in mistakes.

Finance Managers, CFO, and Bookkeepers.

Fleet Maintenance

The system maintains an inventory of all automobiles and plans scheduled repairs .

According to federal standards, national fleet safety monitors and helps reduce loading speed.

Operations Department

Decrease the number of mechanical failures and keep consistent with federal laws.

Fleet Manager, Drivers, and Dispatchers.

GG FREIGHTWAYS IT STRATEGIC PLAN PART 1 7

References

Government Accountability Office. (2016, November 8). Best Practices in Information

Technology Strategic Planning. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from University of Maryland

Global Campus:

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/541520/viewContent/20543007/View

Machavarapu, S. (2006, July 15). Prioritizing IT Projects Based on Business Strategy. Retrieved

January 19, 2021, from CIO: https://www.cio.com/article/2445554/prioritizing-it-

projects-based-on-business-strategy.html

National Computing Centre. (2005). IT Governance; Developing a Successful Governance

Strategy. London: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/541520/viewContent/20543038/View

Taiwo, A., Lawal, F., & Agwu, E. (2016, March). Vision and Mission in Organization: Myth or

Heuristic Device? The International Journal Of Business & Management, 4(3), 127-134.

Retrieved January 18, 2021, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312603042_Vision_and_Mission_in_Organizati

on_Myth_or_Heuristic_Device

Van Grembergen, W., & De Haes, S. (2004). IT Governance and Its Mechanisms. Information

Systems Audit and Control Association, 1-7. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/541520/viewContent/20543002/View

Watts, S. (2020, February 20). IT Project Prioritization: How to Decide What to Work on and in

What Order. Retrieved January 16, 2021, from BMC Blogs:

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/it-project-prioritization/