CIO Organizational Paper

09/13/2014

Part 2

Information Technology (IT) Strategies

Information technology strategy of a company refers to the tactics and objectives which relate to the use of technology in an organization. When carol joined the company she came up with three business strategies that would enable growth of the firm and increase the profits while at the same time increase service delivery quality to the customers (Heathcote, 2002).

ICT strategy for the first business strategy (desire to provide warehousing services) would involve the development of a proper freight management system i.e. a freight management tool that would control effectively the inbound and the outbound freight. Another strategy in warehouse management would involve the receiving practice and cross docking- this reduces handling costs while improving customer service and shipping costs (Heathcote, 2002).

In tracking of freight should develop an internet based software such as strategy Live Trucking Software. This software provides trucking dispatch, fuel tax, billing, payroll, driver logs and other fleet related records and as such makes freight management easy and more efficient. This also reduces cost and working hours wasted in the manual tracking.

IT project proposal

In line with the day-to-day activities of the company the new IT project to be proposed would be Industrial packaging. This would be important as the company would be able to package their goods according to their own discretion before storing them in their fully developed and well organized warehouses.

Through industrial packaging the company would also be able to customize their packaging materials such that they would fit correctly into the trucks for transportation. This would also lead to proper utilization of the available spaces.

Industrial packaging would also increase the network and customer base of the company. This would lead to an increase. Materials can also be recycled and then used in packaging sector of the company. This leads to a reduction in expenses incurred in the business operations of the company.

Risks facing IT projects

Information Technology (IT) projects are usually faced with a lot of problems and require a lot of effort and dynamism for them to succeed. Discussed below are some of the risks that face IT projects:

Obsolescence is a major issue in the technological world. Due to the dynamic nature of the business environment, a lot of projects are time barred and considered outdated before they are given fully implemented (Pather, 2011). This leads to huge losses on the part of such companies since they cannot recoup the capital invested in the project implementation.

In most cases there have been budget constraint issues. This is whereby a company’s budget cannot fund IT projects because of the initial investment requirement. Similarly IT projects require expertise management. Therefore information is key to this sector (Pather, 2011). When not properly managed with the experts the system may fail to produce results and will thereby add no value. Hiring of such experts I most cases usually increases the wage budget of the responsible company.

IT projects require team work. This is because of the complexity of the IT projects developed whereby it becomes even difficult for the developer to remember all the concepts involved in the functionality of such a system. This calls for team among those involved to ensure the success of such IT projects (Pather, 2011).

Steps to develop business continuity plan

The first step involves identifying threats or risks that may face a potential IT system. Such threats may be historical, geographical or organizational based factors.

The next step involves conducting business impact analysis. This refers to evaluation of people, places or programs that are critical to the survival of the IT system. Also consider what is absolutely necessary to restore critical problems.

The third step involves adopting controls for prevention and mitigation. This is meant to prevent the severity of an unfortunate occurrence. This involves emergency response, resource management and systems security.

The final step in developing a business continuity plan involves testing, exercising and improving the plan routinely. This is to ensure that appropriate changes are made to the system due to the ever changing needs of the company’s business environment.

References

Fernando, A. C. (2011). Business environment. New Delhi: Pearson.

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Heathcote, P. M., Heathcote, P. M., & Ngowi, B. (2002). Successful ICT projects in Access. Ipswich: Payne-Gallway.

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Kelly, A., Kelly, A., & Kelly, A. (2006). Strategic maintenance planning. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Pather, S., Remenyi, B., & Remenyi, D. (2011). Managing risks of ICT projects. Kidmore End: Academic Publishing.

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