1 understanding the current situation. 2 now you have a good understanding of the business and...

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Understanding the Current Situation

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Now you have a good understanding of the business and where it is heading in the future.

You can now turn your attention to information systems or the current IS situation.

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It is very helpful to have one-by-one interviews with each member of ISU.

* They work with business departments on a daily basis and usually have a good understanding of IS issues and potential corrective actions.

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Why Needs Understanding the Current Situation?

Why Needs Understanding the Current Situation?

If management is not familiar with the curr ent situation, they will not be able to appr

eciate or approve the steps needed to get to the vision (future)

The reason management does not understan d the situation is often because ISU failed to c

ommunicate to management in a language th at they can understand.

You (ISU) need to ask yourself “how would I d escribe our IS environment to someone who i

s not from IS background?”

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Phase 3 : Conceptual IS Plan

Phase 3 : Conceptual IS Plan

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IS EnvironmentIS Environment

Major basic building blocks or components * Business applications* Desktop computing* Network

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Business ApplicationsBusiness Applications

Answer the following example of questions: * What business applications do we have ?* On what hardware do your applications operate ?* How many users utilize the applications by functional department ?* Are the applications tightly integrated or interfaced ?* Are the applications vendor-supplied packages ?

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Business ApplicationsBusiness Applications

* What is the size of the applications in terms of lines of code ?* What is the average response time for online transactions ?* How many workstations, terminals, printers are connected ?

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by functional department

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Desktop ComputingDesktop Computing Answer the following example of questions, rega

rding the PC (including workstations) and LAN (in cluding servers) environment:

* How many PCs does the company have? How m any PCs by location and functional department?

*What is the breakdown by class of PCs? (For e 486 386xample, Pentium, , , Mac, etc.) Wh

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Desktop ComputingDesktop Computing

* What is the breakdown by brand of PCs? (For example, Compaq, IBM, Gateway, etc.)* How much has the PC environment grown over the past five years?

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* What business applications have business departments developed using the PCs?

* How many PCs is connected to the network and how many PCs is standalone?* How many servers are there? Where are they located?

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* How many printers are there?* What standard PC software does the company use? (For example, Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Database, CAD/CAM, Desktop Publishing, etc.)* How many dial-up users are there? What dial-up system and capabilities does the company provide?

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* Are you connected to the Internet? How do esthecompanyusetheI nt er net ? Do you have a home page? Howf r iiiiiiiii iiiiii iii iiiiiiiii iiiiiiiii iiiiiiiii?(on)

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Desktop Computing Details

Desktop Computing Details

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A Summary of PC Environment

A Summary of PC Environment

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A Summary of Growth of PC Environment

A Summary of Growth of PC Environment

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NetworkNetwork Answer the following questions related to

the network environment:

* What is the current network operating s ystem? (For example, Novell Netware

version XX.)* How many servers are there? On what hardware do the servers run?* What is the network topology? (For example, XX Mbps Token Ring, Ethernet.)

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NetworkNetwork* What type of cabling does the company use? (For example, Type X, category X.)* What is the network backbone? (For example, Fiber optic)* Do you have routers or switches? And how many?* Are there any known concerns or growth areas relative to the network? (like a higher bandwidth requirement)* What is the reliability of the network?* Obtain several levels of network diagrams.

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High-Level Network Diagram

High-Level Network Diagram

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ISU StructureISU Structure

Answer the following questions:* What are the general responsibilities? How is the group organized? What are the responsibilities of each group? On what activities do the individuals spend their time?* Include an organization chart with names and titles.

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ISU StructureISU Structure

* How many people are there in the ISU? Ho wdoes t hi s compar e t o i ndust r y st andar ds?iiiiii iiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiii iiii iiiiiii iiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiii (for example, Gartner Group, Giga, AMR, etc.).

* What breakdown by function (for example, Administration, PC support, Operations, Maintenance and Development, Communications) compares to the industry? Can you draw any conclusions from the similarities or dissimilarities to the industry information?

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What Does the IS Group Do?

What Does the IS Group Do?

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What Does the PC Support Group Do?What Does the PC Support Group Do?

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What Does the Network Group Do?

What Does the Network Group Do?

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What Does the Programming/Operation

s Group Do?

What Does the Programming/Operation

s Group Do?

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What Does the Business Analyst Group Do?

What Does the Business Analyst Group Do?

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Additional Support Charts

Additional Support Charts

When talking about each group, some additional support charts might be helpful.* For example, when talking about the Help Desk, show a chart of how many calls the Help Desk gets.

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How Many Calls Does the Help Desk Get?

How Many Calls Does the Help Desk Get?

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What Are the Calls for?What Are the Calls for?

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Who Calls the Help Desk?

Who Calls the Help Desk?

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ExpendituresExpenditures

Answer the following questions: * What is the total IS expenditure?

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as: labor, nonlabor, outside services, equipment re

pairs and maintenance, telecommunications, de preciation, and amortization.

* Howdo t he expenses by cat egor y compa re to the past three years?

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ExpendituresExpenditures

* How much capital money did the company spend each year on total information systems purchases? How much money did the company spend for the past three years acquiring PCs throughout the organization?* What are the IS expenditures as a percentage of sales? How does it compare with the industry?

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Growth of IS Spending by Category

Growth of IS Spending by Category

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Spending Percent by Category

Spending Percent by Category

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BacklogBacklog

Document the entire backlog of projects requested by the various functional areas of the business.

Basically there are 2 kinds of projects:* User-requested projects* Infrastructure projects, e.g., converting systems for the year 2000, improving the network, and PC software license management

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Types of User RequestsTypes of User RequestsDetermine Type of Request

DefinitionsSupport Projects (Major & Minor)Problem Identification New ServiceProblem Resolution Expanded ServiceConsulting (General Q&A) Improved ServiceRoutine Operations Activities: Purchasing Hardware/Software Installation Add Users Facilities Move Upgrades Report Changes Maintenance Back-upAd Hoc Reporting

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Minor and Major Projects

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Project DocumentationProject Documentation

1. Project name2. Project description. The is an

understandable description including why the project needs to be completed.

3. Priority. Prioritizing projects will be discussed further in Chapter 5. Priority assigned can be a simple High, Medium, and Low, based on your understanding of the project or the urgency of the requesting user.

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Project DocumentationProject Documentation4. Status. Is the project in progress, on hold, in

test, etc.?5 What are the total estimated hours to complete

the project?6. How many hours have been completed to date?7. What is the estimated completion date or

elapsed time?8. Who is assigned to the project from ISU?9. What business objectives does the project

support? An infrastructure project does not support a particular business objective and can just be noted as infrastructure.

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10. What are the total cost savings anticipated as a result of the

project?11. Who is the person or functional area requesting

the project? An infrastructure project would not be requested

by other departments, except ISU and can be noted as

“Information Systems”.12. Who is the ISSC member sponsoring the project?

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13. What expenses are required for the project?

14. On what platform would the project operate?

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Project Resource Hours Available

Project Resource Hours Available

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The Meanings of Each Column


Number of resources for each functional area of Information Systems (for example, PC, network, operations, programming).

The total hours available (number of resources times 2080 for a 40-hour week)

The number of non-worked hours (number of resources times total sick and vacation time,etc.)

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The number of administration hours (number of resources times the number of hours typically spent in meetings and administrative duties)

The number of support and maintenance hours (number of resources times the number of hours typically spent answering user questions, ad hoc queries, completing maintenance requests, etc.).

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The number of project hours available per year (total hours available minus non-worked minus administration minus support and maintenance).

Project hours per week (project hours per year divided by 52).

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A Summary of Current Backlog

A Summary of Current Backlog

1 2 3Note that col +col +col =4col , and col4/col5 = col6

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Other LocationsOther Locations

Answer the following questions:* Are there other domestic or international locations, sister organizations, or divisions that have some impact on your organization?* Does your organization have or manage business on a global basis?

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Information about Other Locations


I f so, assembl e t he f ol l owi ng i nf or mat i on f r om t he ot her l ocat i ons:

1. Whatisthesi ze of t hei r I nf or mat i on Syst ems or gani za tion? How are the resources organized? Are any fun

ctions outsourced?

2. Whatbusi ness appl i cat i on syst ems does t he compa ny utilize?

3. Whatcomput er har dwar e does t he company ut i l i ze?

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4. Does the company have any major initiatives or projects in progress in the next few years?5. How much does the company spend on information systems a year?6. How many PCs does the company have?7. What interfaces are there between systems?

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Document Current IS Situation - External

Document Current IS Situation - External

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Industry TrendsIndustry Trends

You need to expose management to the growth of technology and IS industry.

* Provide them with an understandable overview of where technology has been so far and where it is heading in the future.

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Phases of Information System Growth

Phases of Information System Growth

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Technology EvolutionTechnology Evolution

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Summarize the ImpactSummarize the Impact

You can summar i ze f or managem ent what impact the industry tre nds have on the direction of you

r organization.

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Technology Trend Impact


It will be critical in the future to have a strong internal and external network and connectivity ability. The industry and competition is demanding that organizations be faster than in the past. The network and connectivity are enabling technologies that will allow us to meet the speed expectations in the marketplace.

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We will need to focus our developments and efforts externally (for example, customers, electronic commerce, suppliers). This assumes we have our back office systems in good shape. Technology is available to offer our customers improved service at reduced cost and time.

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Information Systems, as an organization, needs to partner and integrate with the business. As technology changes, so do business requirements and industry trends. We need to integrate the technology and business advances.

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We need to minimize the cost of nondiff erentiating applications, perhaps by pro

curement (for example, business applic ations that everyone has, such as Gener

al Ledger, Accounts Payable, Payroll, et c.), so we can focus on the differentiatin

g or unique areas. This is possible becau se industry advances have made applic

ation packages more available and mor e flexible than in the past.

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Technologies are available on the market that will allow us to reduce our costs and provide us with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As we see competitive advantages, we need to have a flexible and open architecture in place to add the technologies to our environment.

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We need to focus our business applications environment on the new generation technology (client/sever, object oriented) as well as the new generation manufacturing concepts (Enterprise Requirements Planning, Supply Chain Integration) to remain competitive in the market.

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Competitor ProfilesCompetitor Profiles

Following are various methods to obtain profile information:

* Ask them.* Talk to employees within your

organization who came from a competitor.* Review magazines, books, and

journals.* Talk to vendors. Ask vendors to

provide a list of clients utilizing their products.

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Competitor ProfilesCompetitor Profiles

* Look on the Internet.* Talk to the competitor’s

customers. Why did they choose the competitor?

* Hire a consultant.

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Useful Information to Know about Competitors


1. How many employees does the company have in ISU? How many employees are there in the whole company?

2. What business application software is utilized? When did the company implement it? Is there a project in progress to replace it?

3. Do their various divisions or locations operate on a central or common Information System?

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4. What is the status of their PC environment and network?

5. Can you obtain any information regarding information systems expenditures?

6. What functions does the company offer to their customers? (For example, EDI, credit card, direct order entry, inventory tracking.)

7. What particular technologies does the company utilize? (For example, video teleconferencing, bar coding, point of sale, Internet, etc.)

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Other Useful Information

Other Useful Information

Do you feel your IS environment is ahead of or behind your competitors?

* List the reasons you are ahead or behind.

What specific capabilities do you have or not have in comparison with your competitors?

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Plan ContentsPlan Contents

You can now complete the following sections of the IS strategic plan document:V. Current Information System Situation -- Internal

A. Information System EnvironmentB. Organizational StructureC. ExpendituresD. BacklogE. Other Locations

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Plan ContentsPlan Contents

VI. Current Information System Situation -- External

A. Information System Industry TrendsB. Competitor Profiles

X. AppendixE. Roles and ResponsibilitiesF. Information System BacklogG. Information System Industry

TechnologiesH. Competitor Profiles

1 understanding the current situation. 2 now you have a good understanding of the business and...

Documents

business applications

current situation slide

network slide

functional department

desktop computing

business departments

class of pcs

brand of pcs