Developing A New Information System For ABC Timber And Hardware

Planning and Training for the New Information System

Question:

Discuss about the System Analysis of ABC Timber and Hardware.

ABC Timber and Hardware is a small-scale firm of hardware stores. Currently, the firm has 12 different branches and there is a sales representative deployed in each branch. The sales activities and reporting are managed by the Sales Manager and the administrative department. The performance of the company is also good; however, there are certain issues that have been identified with the current system in terms of information management and retrieval. The report analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the current system and also provides suggestions on the new system that will be developed.

• One of the biggest strengths of the current system is the security and privacy of the information. It is because of the reason that the access to the office filing system is available to the Sales Manager only which eliminates the probability of any access related issues.
• The performance of the current system is also good as the set of sales activities and reporting is streamlined with no lags (Antonov, 2013).
• The database capabilities of the current system are in accordance with the large data sets that need to be stored and processed.
• The monitoring and control that is present in the current system is adequate as the Sales Manager reviews the reports diligently.

• Knowledge management is one of the major issues with the current system. The knowledge remains confined to the sales representative and manager only and does not get transferred to the other members of the organization (Gresty, 2013).
• Accessibility is also an issue as the reports become available to access after two to three weeks which leads to loss of their significance and relevance.
• The use of latest technological tools, such as, data analysis, data mining and warehousing and absent from the current system.
• Integration of the system with other departments in the organization is also an issue which may have an adverse impact on the business continuity.

• What are the technical tools that are used or can be comprised in the current information system in terms of Big Data and Business Intelligence tools along with cloud computing services?
• Can the current system be accessed on the mobile platforms? (Jeansson, 2014)
• What is the database management system being used in the current system? Will it be compatible with NoSQL and cloud databases?
• What are the cloud delivery and deployment models that are suitable and applicable for the current system?

Stakeholder Name	Use in the Current System Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper
CEO and Board of Directors of ABC Timber & Hardware	Acquiring of the sales reports at monthly basis
Sales Manager	Manual analysis of sales reports and addition of the comments, generation of the reports
Administrative Department	System monitoring and extraction of sales report (Rajablu, 2015)
Accounts team	Access to accounts database and execution of accounting activities
Customers/End-Users	Feedback and preferences
Suppliers and Vendors	Supplying of the equipment required for the functioning of the system with profits/revenues in return

There are many weaknesses present in the current system and it is necessary to overcome these weaknesses by developing a new information system. There is a lot of planning that will be required for this purpose and some of these essential activities have been listed below.

• The methodology and approach for project management and system development shall be determined after analyzing the project specifications and requirements along with the other project factors.
• The project estimates must be planned and determined covering the project budget, project schedule, project scope, project risks and resources (Kanwar, 2013).
• The communication plan shall be in place with the set of communication guidelines along with the allocation of roles and responsibilities to the resources.

It would be necessary to provide trainings on the new information system to the end-users. The analysis of the training needs will be essential part of the set of project activities.

• Training needs shall be identified to understand the training requirement and the type of training that shall be provided to the end users in terms of the training schedule, web based/classroom training and likewise.
• The employees of ABC Timber and Hardware will be the prime users of the system and the training schedule shall be designed in such a way that the professional commitments and responsibilities of the employees do not get impacted.
• It would also be required to identify and deploy a trainer from within or outside of the organization well before the execution and conduction of the training sessions.

Human Resources

There will be human resources required for the implementation and use of the new information system in the organization. It will comprise of an Implementation Engineer, Trainer, Technical Associate and Support Staff Member. These resources will make sure that the implementation of the system is successful in the company and the queries are also resolved in a timely manner.

There will be funds necessary for the completion of the project tasks and activities. Implementation of the system will require certain tools and equipment and there will be funds necessary for the same. There will be infrastructural, operational, training and resource costs that will also be involved.

Computer systems, mobile devices and networking tools and equipment will be some of the physical resources that will be required for the new information system to be implemented and used with ease.

Brainstorming and discussion sessions shall be organized by the senior management of the company along with a technical assistant to explain the employees about the changes and improvements in the information system that will be done. This will create interest and awareness among the employees and will encourage them to use the new information system.

Social media platforms and internal communication channels must also be used to inform the end-users about the new information system and its features. This will be an easy medium to reach out to more number of users.

System & Security Logs

Human Resources and Funds Required for Implementation

It would be possible to monitor the system behavior and performance by making use of automated tools for capturing the system and security logs associated with the new information system. The system logs in terms of the activities that will be performed by the system will be maintained and will be available for review. Similarly, the security logs will be maintained and provided to the management. In this manner, the system behavior and the security status will be known at all times (Marthandan and Tang, 2010).

The number of users that access the system at the same time or in a particular timeframe will be available by using the user data analysis and traffic analytics tools. There are technical tools that have been developed for this purpose which can be easily installed to get these details.

The new information system shall be developed by using the development methodology as agile SCRUM framework. This methodology and its set of procedures will make sure that the information system that will be developed for ABC Timber and Hardware is scalable and flexible. The maintenance will be easy and the changes will also be easily made in future without having any impact on the current system and its behavior (Baghdadi, 2014).

The project management methodology that shall be used for the new information system shall be Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This methodology will describe the procedures that will allow easier management of the project resources, project requirements and risk areas. The guidelines will be available and present for the management to take the necessary steps of action as and when required. Change management would also be easy with this methodology (Sippings, 2012).

There will be certain legal and regulatory requirements that will be necessary to be adhered to in this case. The adherence to the Intellectual Property and Privacy laws shall also be maintained. Also, the professional codes of conduct must be followed and the compliance to the internal organizational policies must also be maintained (Bratcher, 2015).

There may be certain ethical issues that may come up in the form of misuse of the sales data and information available to be accessed in the system. Insider threats and attacks may also take place as a result impacting information security and privacy. Such ethical issues shall be avoided by providing ethical trainings to the users along with explanation of the legal obligations that may result.

Conclusion

The new information system that would be developed for ABC Timer and Hardware must cover the functional aspects and shall also focus upon the system qualities like reliability, availability, adaptability, supportability and performance. Security of the system and information must also be maintained at all times so that the occurrence of the security risks and attacks are avoided. There must be adequate planning and estimations that must be done so that the project goals and objectives are met.

References

Antonov, A. (2013). New business-oriented global/regional information network. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 12(3), p.321.

Baghdadi, Y. (2014). Modelling business process with services: towards agile enterprises. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 15(4), p.410.

Bratcher, R. (2015). Ethical and Legal Issues. [online] Available at: https://samples.jbpub.com/9781449634476/80593_ch25_5806.pdf [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].

Gresty, M. (2013). What role do information systems play in the knowledge management activities of SMEs?. Business Information Review, 30(3), pp.144-151.

Jeansson, J. (2014). Information systems valuescape. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 17(1), p.49.

Kanwar, A. (2013). An Overview of Project Planning. [online] Available at: https://www.ijecs.in/issue/v2-i10/17%20ijecs.pdf [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].

Marthandan, G. and Tang, C. (2010). Information systems evaluation: an ongoing measure. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 6(3), p.336.

Rajablu, M. (2015). Managing for Stakeholders: The Role of Stakeholder-Based Management in Project Success. [online] Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=A7A5F8A099C22A63CCA8494C8B24036C?doi=10.1.1.665.5661&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].

Sippings, G. (2012). Managing changes to information services in large and complex organizations. Business Information Review, 29(1), pp.34-38.