Management in IT
Corporate Creativity & Communications ( C3) should seek to recruit suitably qualified candidates with the following types of IT skills set in order to achieve their strategic aims:
Help desk/Technician support in this role, the IT specialist will be monitoring and maintaining the computer systems and networks within C3 in a technical capacity (CW Jobs, 2016). The duties of the job include:
Installing and configuring new computer software, trouble shooting hardware or software failures (CW Jobs, 2016).
Training users on use of various applications
Purchasing and renewing software licenses
Testing and repairing faulty equipment
Web developer in this role, the It specialist will develop websites and carry out all the support work to keep the website running. At the moment, C3 does not have any website and its interaction with the customers, employees, and suppliers is primarily through email. An interactive website will increase C3 online presence and give its customers, employees, and suppliers with an interactive platform to engage with C3. The main duties of the job will include:
Developing and building interactive websites, in particular, developing e-commerce website to enable C3 customers to make their bookings and payments online
Finding suitable host partners and working with them to eliminate website downtime
Identifying any possible security threat to the website and taking necessary action to safeguard the integrity of the website.
Business analyst in this role, the IT specialist will work with customers, managers, and end-users to identify opportunities of improving processes and business operations using IT (Target Postgrad, 2015). C3 will require a business analyst to help them streamline their business processes and make them more efficient. The duties of the job will include:
Reviewing the booking and customer payment process and recommend ways of improving the processes.
Reviewing the payments process to suppliers and making recommendations on how to improve the process
Reviewing the staff application for annual and sick leave and making recommendations on how to improve the processes
Reviewing the processes of preparing payroll and making recommendations on how to improve the process
Conducting ad hoc reviews of proposed processes and making recommendations on how to improve them
Networking specialist in this role, the IT specialist will set up and maintain communication networks. C3 organization is structured as a distributed hub model with their headquarters in London and having several other sites spread across the country and the world. Therefore, it is important to for C3 to develop a network that can allow the transmission of files from one location to another safely and conveniently. The main duties for this job will include:
Setting up and maintaining, and whenever required upgrading the communications networks, local area networks (LAN), and wide area network (WAN) (Target Postgrad, 2016)
Ensuring the integrity and the security of the communication network
Designing storage and data recovery systems
Hiring the top talent is expensive, and most employers tend to look on the cost side rather than focusing on the contribution such employees can make (Adler, 2015). Adler (2015) argues that the contribution of an A-team player to the organization is between 10-100 times of their annual salary. An A-team player is one who exceeds expectations and their costs is about 25% more than the costs of the regular employees whose performance is satisfactory (Adler, 2015). C3 should hire A-team players to drive the new roles. In order for C3 to hire top performing individuals, Adler (2015) recommends:
C3 should write job descriptions that detail exceptional performance and not one that is seeking for an exceptional individual (Adler, 2015). Clarifying the expectations of the role before hiring help to match the right candidate to the job, reduces the costs of hiring, and improves the performance on the job after hiring (Adler, 2015)
Since A-players do not find jobs the way regular employees do, it is important for C3 to reallocate the sourcing budget from the traditional recruitment approaches and instead reallocate the money to other strategies such as networking and other passive recruitment strategies (Adler, 2015).
Negotiate on career growth prospects not salary on high salaries. While hiring A-team player may mean that C3 will have to pay them slightly better than the market rates, C3 can woo the A-team player by offering them exciting opportunities for career growth allowing C3 to hire the A-team players at a modest budget (Adler, 2015). C3 can convince the IT specialists that they are the pioneers in the company and stand to enjoy substantial opportunities to grow their careers as the business expands and the roles gain traction. It is important that C3 identify and nurtures leaders for the sake of succession planning.
Sourcing top IT talent can prove difficult and especially because A-team players do not look for jobs like the regular people. However, C3 can be able to spot talented IT candidates from employee referrals, people aggregation sites, or from online communities.
Employee referrals provide an inexpensive way of finding highly talented people. You can encourage employees to be actively on the lookout for top notch IT professionals and encourage them apply for open positions with C3. People aggregation sites such as Talentbin and Entelo that aggregate data from other websites about potential job candidates and can be useful resources in finding a suitable candidate. Online communities such as StackOverflow, Quora, MeetUps, and Github can also be great places of evaluating the skills of potential candidates (RecruitLoop, 2013).
Software
C3 should consider acquiring the following software LanteriaHR, ePly Event Registration, Paramount Decisions, and Cyberoam for their support, operational, data aggregation, and security respectively.
LanteriaHR is a web based HR system that creates a share point for managers and employees to collaborate (Capterra, 2016).According to Capterra (2016) LanteriaHR has among other features:
Attendance management
Benefits management
Employee database
Payroll management
Performance management
Leave tracking
Time sheets
Recruiting and tracking of applicant
The system is fast and easy to customize, and the vendors offer great support (Capterra, 2016). However, users may find it challenging to enter initial data and configure all competencies, charts, and descriptions (Capterra, 2016). The system will allow C3 employees to apply for their leaves online, assist in recruitment of new staff, management of payroll, as well as facilitate the collaboration between managers and employees. The cost of installing LanteriaHR is negotiated with the vendor, but C3 should budget for approximately $1,000.
ePly Event Registration is a web-based registration tool that helps event planners to sell tickets to their events (Capterra, 2016). Capterra (2016) highlights ePly Event Registration features to include:
Activity registration
Social media
Contact management
Payment processing
Refund automation
Surveys and feedback
The tool is easy to use, and the vendor provides excellent support. However, the feedback reports are a bit difficult and time consuming to pull. Owing to the way the forms are designed, it is not possible to pull the question and answers from a particular section, for instance, travel requirement reports, contact information report etc. (Capterra, 2008). The ePly Event Registration is available in two pricing models, a pay as you go that charges $4 per user, or a negotiated fixed rate.
Paramount Decisions is a cloud based decision tool that breaks the decision making process into eight logical steps (Capterra, 2008). Paramount Decisions provides strong collaborations features and would be suitable to help C3 to aggregate data throughout its network and collaborate with various managers in the satellite units in decision-making. Capterra (2016) highlights the key features of Paramount Decision tool to include:
Data analysis
Performance metrics
Sensitivity analysis
Version control
Real-time collaboration
Paramount Decision tool will help C3 to structure its decision-making process and offer real-time collaboration so that people involved in the decision to give their input on a real-time basis (Capterra, 2016). In addition, the version control, allows a decision maker to take snapshots of a particular decision version that they can reference to later, this protects decision makers from losing any information about a particular decision (Capterra, 2008). The cost of Paramount Decision tool is $30 per user (Capterra, 2016).
Cyberoam is a unified threat management (UTM) system that provides antispam, antivirus, firewall, intrusion detection and prevention (IDP), virtual private network (VPN) and assign bandwidth, web content filtering polices on per host or user basis (Sarrel, 2008). Cyberoam can also customize error messages per user (Sarrel, 2008). However, Cyberoam is not easy to install, but it provides a superior network security that beats what other competing software. Sarrel (2008) advises that before installing Cyberoam, one should conduct proper planning to decide what privileges or restriction to assign to different users. The planning is easier if one has a directory of users to which you can connect and assign security profiles to various users (Sarrel, 2008). If there is no directory of users then it will be necessary to create user accounts and passwords that will form the basis of assigning user privileges (Sarrel, 2008). The budget for the Cyberoam is approximately $800.
Strategic Planning and Monitoring
A stakeholder refers to any person, group of persons or organizations that will be affected or have an interest in the development and the implementation of an IT solution (Gupta, 2011). The stakeholders include:
Acquirers – they are in charge of the procuring the IT solutions. In the case of C3, the board of directors are the acquirers who will approve the budget for the acquisition of the system. The acquirers play a critical role in the final IT system that will be installed by providing a budget that constraints the features or functionalities that can be incorporated into the system. In addition, the board of directors are the strategic decision makers and give critical input on the features the IT system should possess in the view of the strategic objectives of the business (Gupta, 2011). A great IT solution is one that fits budget and is able to handle the requirements of the business. The acquirers are likely to make the system be as lean as possible by eliminating features they believe are unnecessary and make the system cost effective.
Developers – convert the system specifications into software, these will include system engineers, software engineers, and other IT specialists tasked with the responsibility of converting the specifications into an information system (Gupta, 2011). The developers will be involved in the designing, testing and implementation phases of the procured IT solution. In the implementation phase, the developers will need to train the users in the use of the system in order to avoid user problems and increase the speed and the success of implementing the new IT system. Developers have to incorporate as many features as the users may want in the system subject to the budget constraints.
Users – will make use of the IT solution. Users include customers, employees, suppliers, and other people who will interact with the system. Users provide the specifications of the functions or the process they would wish to perform on the system. Key users that need to be consulted in the case of C3 include customers, suppliers, and employees who will be interacting with the system. Customers will want a system that makes it easy for them to make bookings and process payments safely and conveniently. Employees will want a system that they can easily execute their duties as well as requests such as applying for leave days, and tracking customer transactions. Suppliers will want a system where they can be able to access tender documents, view supplier statement, and lodge invoices with the C3. User satisfaction is critical in the implementation of a new IT system. Some of the qualitative benefits that the new system may provide to users include convenience, safety, ease, decision support, or speed (Gupta, 2011).
Siau (2011) argues that the IT manager plays three roles during system development these are; consulting with the stakeholders, being a system analyst, and being a system developer. In the first role, the IT manager gathers user requirements about the proposed system and develops a conceptual model (Siau, 2011). In the second role, the IT manager through an iterative approach translates the conceptual model into formal requirements. In the third role, the IT manager provides the developer with the formal requirements and ensures that there is a clear understanding between stakeholders, analysts, and developers (Siau, 2011).
Siau (2011) notes that there are various risk s in information system development that include:
Having poorly defined goals, if the analyst is not able to articulate the needs of the users clearly at the start of the process, the system developed will be ill suited to their needs.
Wrong definition of the size of the project in terms of time, resources, scale and other parameters will cause the information system to be developed in the wrong direction
There may be problems during implementation such as loss of data, system failure, or the inability of the user to migrate to the new system. The IT manager can mitigate implementation risks by training users on the new system and implementing the new IT system methodically.
In addition, there can be external risks emanating from the political, economical, legal or technological risks that can adversely affect the development of the information system
The IT manager should be aware of these risks so that they are able to identify them and mitigate them in the development of the information system.
IT Manager & ITL
The IT manager is responsible for the development and implementation of a new information system. Sparkes (2008) observes that the IT manager will be responsible of the following activities during the implementation phase:
Schedule the implementation highlighting clear timelines for each activity
Inform the users of the implementation of the new system and make alternative plans for those who will be disrupted by the implementation
Prepare a summary of the differences between the new information system and the old information system, and the benefits the users will enjoy when they migrate to the new system
Inform the users of their responsibilities in the migration, this may include requiring users to backup their files, or any other necessary measure
Obtain support for the new system from the key stakeholders and especially the users
Transferring data from the old system to the new system. Data transfer entails two activities, input of data, and verification of data. One way the IT manager can verify the data is through a parallel implementation program where the IT manager runs both the old and the new IT systems concurrently until the new system is proven to be accurate (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). In case there are problems with the new system, users can revert to the old system as the IT manager fixes the bugs (Khosrow-Pour, 2006)
Once the IT manager is satisfied that the new system is running smoothly, they finalize the documentation from all the previous phases to align them to the deployed information system (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). Khosrow-Pour (2006) notes that the IT manger has to oversee the preparation of the final version of the following documents:
Business product
Memorandum of understanding or service level agreement
Disaster recovery plan
System security plan
Operations and maintenance manual
User manual
Training materials
Training schedule
After preparing of the final versions of the above documents, the IT manager oversees the project moving to the operations and maintenance phase (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). Before concluding that the project has entered the operations and maintenance phase the IT manager has to be satisfied of the following:
The information system is ready and able to handle the business processes
All concerns from the stakeholders have been dealt with satisfactorily
The system has been approved, and all necessary documents finalized (Khosrow-Pour, 2006).
The IT manager will also have to conduct a post implementation review (PIR) to establish the success of implementing the new information system and in particular appraise the extent to which the new system has met the set objectives or yielded the expected benefits (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). The PIR also serve to inform of any improvements that may be necessary to optimize the new system and the lessons learned from the exercise that will serve to improve future projects (Khosrow-Pour, 2006).
The IT manager will have to galvanize support from the top management as well as from the users for the successful implementation of a new information system. Effective communication is necessary to obtain commitment and a sense of ownership from the users and address any reservations they might have regarding the new information system (Sparkes, 2008).
Reference list
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