Case TUfs

TUFS Case Study

Nirup Naidu Sama

Wilmington University

Running head: TUFS CASE STUDY 1

TUFS Case Study

Executive Summary

After a thorough analysis of the case study, it is clear that northern Insurance have invested in TUFS and it was their biggest IT investment so far. The project was expected to be a success enough to pay off itself within two years of its implementation. However, the company has still been spending even after three years of its implementation and reasons for this many. This paper discusses the possible reasons for the project to become a failure and the possible measures that the organization can take to prevent such scenarios in the future (McKeen & Smith, 2012).

Discussion Questions

Should Northern have invested in TUFS?

TUFS at Northern Insurance was decided to implement to change the underwriting process and make it much simpler and easier to handle. Implementing TUFS will provide the organization an advantage of increasing its business by exploring the e business options. TUFS will streamline the underwriting process, thereby reducing its cost of operations. The application also allows the organization to automating its functions, thereby reducing the errors in its processes and increasing the competitive advantage for the organization. Along with reducing the time to complete its processes of completing the documents, the application also increases the efficiency and productivity of the organization by ensuring better results through the better utilization of its resources. The application also increases the efficiency of data storage by reducing data redundancy and helps it taking better decision towards achieving the goals of the organization. Hence considering all the advantages that the application provides to the organization, investment in TUFS is definitely a good decision for the organization (McKeen & Smith, 2012).

What went wrong with the TUFS investment and what can be done to prevent these problems in the future?

TUFS investment was the biggest investments for the organization in IT. The project if succeeded as planned would have brought huge ROI for the organization but some serious flaws during the project have stood the organization in its current position. Some of those are as follows.

Scope of the project: The scope of the project was poorly defined by the organization. This can be overcome by properly taking into consideration all the requirements of the organization including both current and future and documenting them. In addition to this, the roles and responsibilities of the individuals should also be properly defined (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).

Support from underwriting team: The underwriting team mentioned their requirements to the technical team during the implementation phase rather than planning phase and this caused some serious issues in the application. This issue can be resolved by improving the communication strategies in the organization such that each team can communicate their requirements and issues to the other team in the initial stages of the project (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).

Lack of Training: The application was built. However, the end users were not given any kind of training regarding the application or its usage. This prevented the employees from making the maximum utilization of available resources. Also, the senior managers still used their old ways to retrieve some of the reports which are available through TUFS. This can be overcome by implementing a strong software usage policy and providing necessary training to the end users after the completion of the project, as it plays an important role in the successful functioning of any organization (Queensland Government, n.d.).

What does Northern need to do to realize the benefits that were projected for TUFS?

The organization can realize the benefits of TUFS by comparing different sections of the organization processing after the implementation of TUFS to that of prior to its implementation. Some of the factors that the organization can consider to realize them are as follows.

Operating Costs: The organization can always refer to the operating costs and compare them to the costs after the implementation of the product to realize the benefits of the product (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013).

Customer Satisfaction: The organization can consider the rate of customer satisfaction and the increase in the business to realize the benefits of the organization (Peppard, Ward and Daniel, 2007).

Surveys and feedbacks: The organization can conduct surveys from its end users to realize the benefits of the new application and based on the results the organization can conclude the benefits obtained after the implementation of the application (Peppard, Ward & Daniel, 2007).

How can they measure these benefits?

The organization should always keep track of the costs of operations and the costs being saved after the implementation of a new product to measure the benefits of the organization. The organization can also identify the key performance indicators, set them a target and monitor the KPIs in reaching the target. The organization can also keep track of the errors in the documents processes and compare them with earlier times to measure the benefits of the application (McKeen & Smith, 2012).

There are also many other financial performances to measure the benefits of an application such as the return of investments, decreased time to market, the capability that the application provides the organization to expand its business, reduced working costs, cost improvement activities, etc. (McKeen & Smith, 2012).

.

References

Aguinis, H., & Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual review of psychology, 60, 451-474.

Jehanzeb, K., & Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(2).

McKeen, J. D. & Smith, H. (2012). IT strategy: Issues and practices. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Peppard, J., Ward, J., & Daniel, E. (2007). Managing the Realization of Business Benefits from IT Investments. MIS Quarterly Executive, 6(1).