Modelling Alignment Of Information Systems – Bazaar Ceramics Studio

Critical issues and strategic objectives

Discuss about the Modelling Alignment of Information Systems.

Each organizations are currently facing wide range of issues with their managerial aspects those are frequently affecting their business environment. In order to resolve the issues of different enterprise proper ICT collaboration with structural and cultural changes are needed to be adopted by different business organization. For this particular design ambiance, common dominators, traditional and hierarchical formalized characteristics are needed to be adopted by the management companies. In order to develop this particular report the name of the nominated company is Bazaar Ceramics Studio. A strategic direction, plan with accurate objectives and ICT plan changing   including change management plan after considering the change procedures and conventions are elaborated in this report.

In addition to this, it has also been assumed that, the existing organizational design is very ineffective from the organizational perspectives and thus those issues are soon needed to be mitigated by developing according changes. It has been determined that, the proposed change management approach must have all the additional features. The ICT system plan change, new performance benchmarks, stakeholder’s agreement and training requirements are also elaborated in this report. The eventually growing numbers of competitors are the mostly highlighted issues for the ceramic company thus, a change management schedule, plan and resources are also illustrated in this report to reduce the work burden from the working members associated to the project.

After analyzing the internal and external environment of Bazaar Ceramics it has been defined that, Strategic plans must be developed according to the strategic direction. For analyzing the current status of the company a SWOT analysis has been conducted. The company uses manual process while selling their products. The product ordering system is done with phone, fax and emails therefore it was quite time taking from the business perspectives.

If an organization does not have proper strategies and plan then it would be very much difficult to focus on the strategic goal of the business organization. With the help of proper leadership strategies the function al and operational goals could be reached by the management authority. Strategic plan is not an one year operational plan but it indicates the desired continuity plan for improving the current organizational program, services and programs accordingly. With the help of strategic plan the company would be able to answer different questions:

• Currently what the company is doing and what the necessary changes those should be adopted for future sustainable success?
• For future sustainability what are the necessary successes factors those company currently not having but for needed to be adopted by the company for future success?

The strategic direction and strategic plan that assists the company to lead the company to lead towards two different domains are as follows:

1. It helps the company to define those particular domain or area that the company desires to reach in the upcoming future. With the key factors a very limited number of outcomes could be focused hat helps to bring leadership on the business organization. The higher management authority or the leadership team helps the company to make tough as well as beneficial choice for proper decision making. Therefore, it can be said that, strategic plan is a set of guideline rather than project objective.
2. For developing insurance of the company broad time is needed to be spend by the management to achieve the objectives.

Strategic objectives

It has been determined that Bazaar Ceramic company has many weaknesses for which the company is facing many threats. However, based on the critical issues a set of strategic objectives are also developed by the company. The critical issues associated to it are as follows:

Gallery cost: Due to the extremely high running cost of the gallery for the maintenance of international marketing campaigning the rate of Return on Investment (ROI). From the gallery sales the main sources of revenue keep on continue. Over the past five years the price of the products enhanced and again the showroom of the company is increased dramatically.

Manual processing: The orders processed manually for the cost selling products. Most of the times the staffs make mistakes while transcribing information from the server to the forms. Again, there was a chance of data redundancy due to the usage of multiple forms.

Product handling: The remote workers handle the products in a double manner. Due to the presence of number of workers the project objectives are destructed.

Issues with the company profit: The fix cost of the business gets increased due huge number of employees. The fix cost for the showroom has been enhanced dramatically. From the last three years the fixed cost of the showroom will increase. The Highly advertising cost and exchange rate reduced the product mark up. Due to negative Return on Investment (ROI) the printing cost also get enhanced eventually.

Lack of IT support: The Ceramic Company failed to hire technical experts for implementing their operational and functional activities. Due to this reason the company does not have nay technical advancement and support as well.

Lack of space in the showroom: The size of the showroom is quite small thus the owners failed to display all the desired according to the requirement.

Insufficient information regarding sales: The Company failed to store information of the unusable products those are served by the company.  Again data about the popular products were also not available in the company storage.

Non-advanced advertising approach: The advertising approach or market campaigning approach used by the company is very weak. Due to unique features of each of the products the advertising brochures of the company has become obsolete. Again for the presence of online website application the rates of competition among the companies are increasing rapidly. Due to this reason, the bargaining power of the consumers and suppliers are also affected negatively.  

• To discover alternative gallery sales
• To develop an auto generated process for the employees
• To develop direct shopping process for the clients from the remote workers
• To diminish the fixed cost
• To employ technical staffs for the company
• To implement alternative gallery display
• To improve the existing feedback mechanism for the consumers
• To develop different alternative advertising method

The ceramic company has traditional manual information transfer approach which is time consuming and costly as well. Again on the other hand, due to manual data processing it was quite difficult for the company to access information easily from the hand written server. Therefore, it is very much necessary for the company to produce proper change management plan for the company considering each relevant approaches. The change management plan developed for the company is as follows:

The development team should develop request for the desired changes after analyzing the cost benefit chart of the company.

• They must gain professional business change acceptance
• The development project must be initiated according the requirement
• The change management gate must be passed properly
• Implementation of changes
• Result must be generated upon the changes
• A link must be established between the problems and the necessary changes
• Periodic audit must be brought in the change management plan

The Bazaar Ceramics Studio is serving their operation from last 20 years. Though, the company started their business as a small one but currently they have grown their business to a large one. Based on the requirement of the consumers the functional and operational activities of the company were also changed in terms of transformation. In order to bring the company in a large plot of success the producing quality and individual development categories are also changed.

It is expected that with these changes the company would be able to meet the requirement of the consumers. The major goal of the company is to produce unique hand crafted pieces for each of the both individual as well as collectors. It will help the company to showcase he best even design and art of the showcase. An extensive range of well crafted and designed domestic ware could be designed with the help of the ceramic technology. Therefore, professional ceramic technology and technical excellence will help the company to design art based showcase.

The role of the project sponsor is to investment as per the feasibility study and based on the computing infrastructure the project manager should hire the sponsors of the project. It is expected that in order to develop the structure of LAN infrastructure, WAN structure, server and PC’s (considering Celeron 2.4 GHz, 256MB RAM) is needed high capital investment for the successful implementation of the project. For successful project implementation capital is required for server software specified with MS windows 2000 server, MS IIS and Exchange also.

• To improve the existing business process by producing unique as well as hand crafted pieces for the consumers
• To make the selling and buying approach completely digitized for showcasing the Australian ceramic art and design
• To provide an extensive range of well crafted designed domestic are for the consumers
• To implement ceramic technology and by exploring the technical skills of the consumers

By installing the Information System for the Ceramic Company it would be able to share the information securely. It means that without proper authentication none of the users would be able to access any information from the server. Rather it can be said that the employees would be able o insert and access information from the server accordingly. 

The change processes those will adopt in this project include the consumer’s engagements and information sharing accordingly.

The principles those underpin the change plan include inclusiveness and timeliness as well. With the help of proper timeliness all the members who are associated to the project team would be able to implement the project of the ceramic company successfully.

Security is the mostly highlighted ethical issues. The information set stored in the server must have proper authentication while accessing and inserting new information in the storage server. The profession and the future standard raised should have followed proper ethical aspects. It will help the project manager of the ceramic company to gain security based aspects accordingly. Proper firewall and DMZ are needed to be acquired to mitigate the ethical issues.

The main elements of the change plan include system and technological changes. With the help of Information System the company would be able to focus on particular domain areas to implement the process and skills of the project team members accordingly.

The list of project constraints needed for changes are as follows:

Time: In order to make the necessary changes it is important to complete the project within estimated time that is within 2 years.

Budget: It is expected that the project must be completed within $20,000 instead of the preliminarily estimated budget.

Scope: Scope is another important component that is required for the change

The risks those might rise with the changes are as follows:

• Resistance to change
• Scope creep

Identification of the key stakeholders	response to the change	consider the style of communication required	preferred media for communication
Project manager	The project manager is responsible to make such changes those will help to make the control and monitoring approach accurately	Both downward communication and open communication	Email, video conference and conferences.
Finance manager	For additional resources proper financial support is needed. The finance manager is responsible to complete the project within estimate finance.	Downward communication and open communication	Email, Frequently asking question, video conference and conferences.
IS manager	The IS manager will look into the ICT components for developing the cloud based information system.	Downward communication and open communication	Email, video conference and conferences, Frequently asking question.
Operational manager	The operation manager is responsible to make changes according to the requirement of the consumers.	Open communication	Email, video conference and conferences, Frequently asking question.
Project team members	In order to complete the task within estimated budget and time the project team members should work hard and sincerely.	Open communication	Frequently asking question

The project level solution is not established directly on the other different hand the high level business strategies are developed by the project stakeholders to meet the requirement of the dissatisfied consumers by installing cloud based Information System.

The elements those would support the changes include a workplace culture that might support the change and IS innovation.

Yes, there is strong senior support from the finance manager and executive HR manager for making the changes.

With the help of the change management the stakeholders would be able to serve the consumers a secured E-commerce based service to the consumers.

Messages from the stakeholder perspective:

• The project manager wants to complete the project within estimated time and budget
• The IS manager wants to develop an Information System
• The operation manager wishes to implement B2B E-commerce for the consumers

 The main concern of the project stakeholder is to meet the requirement of the consumers. Additionally, the stakeholders are willing to deliver on time, quality and secured services to the consumers.  

For presenting the changes in a positive light the steps those should be followed include: 

• Domain selection for Ecommerce website
• Selection of correct platform
• Designing the store outline
• Payment process setup
• Addition of products
• Showroom outlines designing
• Checkout process designing
• Detail analysis

In order to make the necessary changes with structures, processes, responsibilities, a timeframes and performance measurement the project team is changed addition with professional IS experts and trained team. There is a transitional change associated to the project include development of online store besides the physical store. In order to manage the workload a change management plan according to timeframe has been developed by the project manager and project sponsors.

Actions	Who	When	Performance Measures
Change for IS development	Project manager	During the measurement of the project success	360 degree feedback
E-Commerce business strategy implementation	IS manager	Gathering feedback from the consumers	Balance scorecard
Installing security aspects including firewall, encryption and DMZ	Operation manger	During the collection of feedback from the existing consumers and new clients as well.	Self evaluation

Before the development of the change requirements it is necessary for the project manager to remove the organizational barriers like lack of social and technical support etc. In order to reinforce the changes the set of change policies and procedures those have been undertaken include the following:

• Wages of the staffs
• Workload of the project team members
• Induction of the staffs
• Health safety of the consumers
• Ergonomic presentation of the presentation
• Research study on IS management

For evaluating the changes according to the project requirements it is necessary for the project manager to understand the improvements those are required. Before the final implementation unit testing and integrated testing of the IS should be done. Again security of the online site is also required for gaining measurable outcome.    

WBS	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
0	Change management schedule	137 days	Fri 11/3/17	Mon 5/14/18
1	Project initiation	29 days	Fri 11/3/17	Wed 12/13/17
1.1	Understanding the background of Bazaar Ceramic Corporate	5 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 11/9/17
1.2	Understanding the products details served by the company	6 days	Fri 11/10/17	Fri 11/17/17	2
1.3	Details job profile analysis	7 days	Wed 11/29/17	Thu 12/7/17	7,11
1.4	Developing mission statement	2 days	Mon 11/20/17	Tue 11/21/17	3
1.5	Vision statement	4 days	Fri 12/8/17	Wed 12/13/17	4
1.6	Developing project objective	5 days	Wed 11/22/17	Tue 11/28/17	5
2	Project planning	50 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 1/11/18
2.1	Feasibility study	8 days	Thu 12/14/17	Mon 12/25/17	6,7
2.2	Critical issue analysis	5 days	Tue 12/26/17	Mon 1/1/18	9
2.3	Goal development	5 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 11/9/17
2.4	Strategic plan development	7 days	Fri 11/10/17	Mon 11/20/17	11
2.5	SWOT analysis	6 days	Tue 11/21/17	Tue 11/28/17	12
2.6	Strategic objective development	9 days	Wed 11/29/17	Mon 12/11/17	13
2.7	Change in infrastructure	8 days	Tue 1/2/18	Thu 1/11/18	10,11
3	Project execution	72 days	Fri 1/12/18	Mon 4/23/18
3.1	ICT online service development	6 days	Fri 1/12/18	Fri 1/19/18	15
3.2	Performance management	4 days	Mon 1/22/18	Thu 1/25/18	17
3.3	Executing computer intranet	2 days	Fri 1/26/18	Mon 1/29/18	18
3.4	LAN infrastructure	7 days	Tue 1/30/18	Wed 2/7/18	19
3.5	WAN infrastructure	5 days	Thu 2/8/18	Wed 2/14/18	20
3.6	Server	8 days	Thu 2/15/18	Mon 2/26/18	21
3.7	Adoption of PC’s	3 days	Tue 2/27/18	Thu 3/1/18	22
3.8	Specification of server software item	15 days	Fri 3/2/18	Thu 3/22/18
3.8.1	Operating system adoption	5 days	Fri 3/2/18	Thu 3/8/18	23
3.8.2	Web server implementation	7 days	Fri 3/9/18	Mon 3/19/18	25
3.8.3	Email adoption	3 days	Tue 3/20/18	Thu 3/22/18	26,15
3.9	Specification of PC software item	22 days	Fri 3/23/18	Mon 4/23/18
3.9.1	Operating system based on (2000 MS windows professional )	6 days	Fri 3/23/18	Fri 3/30/18	27
3.9.2	Web browser on MS IE6.0	4 days	Mon 4/2/18	Thu 4/5/18	29
3.9.3	MS outlook based email	7 days	Fri 4/6/18	Mon 4/16/18	30
3.9.4	Virus checking software adoption	5 days	Tue 4/17/18	Mon 4/23/18	31
4	Project closure	15 days	Tue 4/24/18	Mon 5/14/18
4.1	Post project evaluation	5 days	Tue 4/24/18	Mon 4/30/18	32
4.2	Long term success	7 days	Tue 5/1/18	Wed 5/9/18	34
4.3	Stakeholder’s signoff	3 days	Thu 5/10/18	Mon 5/14/18	35

• Wages of the staffs
• Workload of the project team members
• Induction of the staffs
• Health safety of the consumers
• Ergonomic presentation of the presentation
• Research study on IS management
• The business functionalities must be supported

• Information required supporting the described functions
• IT represents different information accordingly
• For supporting the business functions and data infrastructure needs support

• Technical objectives
• Support

• Quality programs
• Cost reduction and budget processing
• Improvement efforts for the business operation
• Managerial changes

By implementing project changes in the business functions and operations it is expected that the company would be able to deliver quality, affordable products to the consumers through using both the offline and online selling approaches.    

WBS	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
0	Change management schedule	137 days	Fri 11/3/17	Mon 5/14/18
1	Project initiation	29 days	Fri 11/3/17	Wed 12/13/17
1.1	Understanding the background of Bazaar Ceramic Corporate	5 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 11/9/17
1.2	Understanding the products details served by the company	6 days	Fri 11/10/17	Fri 11/17/17	2
1.3	Details job profile analysis	7 days	Wed 11/29/17	Thu 12/7/17	7,11
1.4	Developing mission statement	2 days	Mon 11/20/17	Tue 11/21/17	3
1.5	Vision statement	4 days	Fri 12/8/17	Wed 12/13/17	4
1.6	Developing project objective	5 days	Wed 11/22/17	Tue 11/28/17	5
2	Project planning	50 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 1/11/18
2.1	Feasibility study	8 days	Thu 12/14/17	Mon 12/25/17	6,7
2.2	Critical issue analysis	5 days	Tue 12/26/17	Mon 1/1/18	9
2.3	Goal development	5 days	Fri 11/3/17	Thu 11/9/17
2.4	Strategic plan development	7 days	Fri 11/10/17	Mon 11/20/17	11
2.5	SWOT analysis	6 days	Tue 11/21/17	Tue 11/28/17	12
2.6	Strategic objective development	9 days	Wed 11/29/17	Mon 12/11/17	13
2.7	Change in infrastructure	8 days	Tue 1/2/18	Thu 1/11/18	10,11
3	Project execution	72 days	Fri 1/12/18	Mon 4/23/18
3.1	ICT online service development	6 days	Fri 1/12/18	Fri 1/19/18	15
3.2	Performance management	4 days	Mon 1/22/18	Thu 1/25/18	17
3.3	Executing computer intranet	2 days	Fri 1/26/18	Mon 1/29/18	18
3.4	LAN infrastructure	7 days	Tue 1/30/18	Wed 2/7/18	19
3.5	WAN infrastructure	5 days	Thu 2/8/18	Wed 2/14/18	20
3.6	Server	8 days	Thu 2/15/18	Mon 2/26/18	21
3.7	Adoption of PC’s	3 days	Tue 2/27/18	Thu 3/1/18	22
3.8	Specification of server software item	15 days	Fri 3/2/18	Thu 3/22/18
3.8.1	Operating system adoption	5 days	Fri 3/2/18	Thu 3/8/18	23
3.8.2	Web server implementation	7 days	Fri 3/9/18	Mon 3/19/18	25
3.8.3	Email adoption	3 days	Tue 3/20/18	Thu 3/22/18	26,15
3.9	Specification of PC software item	22 days	Fri 3/23/18	Mon 4/23/18
3.9.1	Operating system based on (2000 MS windows professional )	6 days	Fri 3/23/18	Fri 3/30/18	27
3.9.2	Web browser on MS IE6.0	4 days	Mon 4/2/18	Thu 4/5/18	29
3.9.3	MS outlook based email	7 days	Fri 4/6/18	Mon 4/16/18	30
3.9.4	Virus checking software adoption	5 days	Tue 4/17/18	Mon 4/23/18	31
4	Project closure	15 days	Tue 4/24/18	Mon 5/14/18
4.1	Post project evaluation	5 days	Tue 4/24/18	Mon 4/30/18	32
4.2	Long term success	7 days	Tue 5/1/18	Wed 5/9/18	34
4.3	Stakeholder’s signoff	3 days	Thu 5/10/18	Mon 5/14/18	35

Project/Software Change Request Form	Change request number:
Project number and name, or Application name:	Please fill
Date submitted:	Please fill
Change initiator & contact info:	Please fill
Change sponsor & contact info:	Please fill
Project manager/analyst & contact info:	Please fill

The following section is to be completed by the customer requesting the change.

For this particular project the changes those are considered include the project budget, project quality, and project schedule and software new change and software requirement changes. The other changes are implementation of E-commerce business and cloud based IS system for storing the details of the products

The reasons for which the project components are needed to be changed include the dissatisfy consumers, lack of legal support, lack of expertise. Due to these reasons the project manager is needed to bring these changes.

The impacts of the changes those have been brought in this ceramic company are completely critical in nature because without these changes the additional changes cannot be developed.                                                

Requested completion date:	14/5//2018
Title of change:	Implementation of cloud based IS
Description of business problem:	Information management, manual data access,
Impact of NOT implementing the change, and alternatives.	If this change will not implemented then the company would keep on facing the issues
Describe how the system should behave:	The IS system must be handled properly by the project manager
Detailed requirements for requested change:	For implementing the required changes all the technical aspects must be considered

The following section is to be completed by the Technical Team (In 4 days).
Estimate to complete:	Customer hours	Analyst hours	Developer hours	Tester hours	Total hours
Planning	16	16	7	8	47
Analysis	12	15	14	10	51
Design	15	12	17	18	62
Construction	20	12	14	15	61
Testing	5	4	6	4	19
Training	10	8	8	7	33
Deployment	6	6	6	4	23
Total hours	84	73	72	66	362

Schedule impact:	The schedule will reduce the work load from the project manager by distributing it among the project team members
Cost impact:	The estimated cost of the project is  defined as beneficial
Resource impact:	The resources highlighted for the project are required to be modified accordingly.

The following section is to be completed by the Change Evaluation Team.
Review date:	2912/2017
Reviewed by:	Project manager
Recommendation:	Approved
Recommendation notes:	Technical Training for the workers
Priority:	Critical

• Change in productivity
• Quality
• Price
• Process of selling

• The company should hire trained workers
• Training program must be arranged for the IT project team members
• The project team members must have proper knowledge and ideas about the project requirements.

The stakeholders agreement is signed by the all the stakeholders associated to the project to ensure that the required change components are completely beneficial fro the users perspective.

• With the help of the training and development programs the E-commerce website could be handled accurately
• It will make the members much familiar with the project outcome
• It would help to make most of the recent technologies installed
• Valuable manpower could be created

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that in order to improve the existing business process of Bazaar Ceramic Corporation the ICT management is needed to be developed accordingly. Based upon the current situation accurate change management plan are also required to be adopted those are also illustrated in this report. In addition to this the critical issues associated to the company are identified those are mitigated with proper project objective. For reducing the work pressure from the project team members the work burden must be segmented accordingly and a proper change management schedule is also evaluated. Not only this but also, the level of competitors and the edge of competitive advantages are the other reasons to be highlighted. Initially the company has a offline services but in order to resolve the issues of offline services the company is willing to adopt online services accordingly.

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