Written Assignment 3: Data Collection TechniquesBackground: As noted by Kirk (2016), working with data is one of the four stages of the visualization workflow. According to Kirk (2016), “A dataset is

The company needs to conne ct directly with customers through creating interactive websites that will showcase their products. Also, the company needs to reach to different communities and gain insights into their needs and interest. By identifying their needs and interests, the co mpany will be able to position itself in a better position of delivering and becoming successful. Still, in the second challenge, the other challenge is identifying strategies and applications that are cost -efficient. The third and last challenge is ensuri ng that the data used by the company is accurate and firsthand . The salespeople in the company reach their clients on s sheet system. Data needs to circulate effectively and efficiently in the finance department, management, and privacy and security depart ments. Therefore, the company needs to implement ideas on Cloud (McKeen & Smith, 2015 ). This will be important because it will link the various databases of the company. More so, it will ensure that information used is accurate, fast, and secured. The best way for Josh and team to address the issue of innovation in larger organization is to implement a continuous process that improves the innovative ideas and have measurable results to check the progress. It helps in achieving quality and ability to create value to the organization ( Julia, 2018 ). Solutions for international food company It is through creativity and innovation that the company can be able to overcome the challenges that they will be facing. Through creativity, the company needs to identify systems and applications that will match their goals. These innovations are supposed to be cost -efficient and should add value to the company. This means that the implementation of the systems and applications needs to vet by the finance committee. The finance team will identify the strategic value of the systems and applications. More so , they will be able to identify the maintenance cost of the systems. Evidence based decisions are to be considered so that ideas go through process of evaluation which allows innovation team to change direction based on learnings (Viki, 2018). They are req uired to approve the systems that will operate at minimal cost while contributing to attaining the company's vision. The chief technology officer and his team need to devise systems that have good quality. They are supposed to create a technical environmen t that is simplified and ensures predictability of measuring the delivery projection of the company. The systems must be able to track every activity and transaction which happens in the company. They are supposed to ensure that the systems are easy to mai ntain. Concerning the solutions, the company executives are supposed to ensure the best applications are funded well. This is because it is only through enough funding that the applications and systems can be INNOVATION AT INTERNATIONAL FOODS 5 implemented. The second thing the executive team of t he company should be able to set an appropriate criterion for implementing the applications and systems. It is only through using the right standards that the whole process can take less time and minimum costs. The management team is tasked with the respon sibility of organizing the factors of implementing the systems and applications and assembling and organizing resources that will be required in the implementation. They are supposed to direct the entire team efforts toward achieving the set visions (McKee n & Smith, 2015). Josh and Tonya could develop a plan that also addresses key issues of implementing cloud architecture. They must leverage the advantages of cloud having less storage, reduced cost prices and used widely in enterprise architectures that c onvince the management team. The comparison between performance of cloud migrated companies and companies that have not could make huge impact. The reduce in operational cost, rapid prototyping and faster development and deployment of new products and serv ices must be explained clearly to give confidence to the team (Lynn, 2017) . Results Strategy and governance The technology that is being implemented needs to be manageable. Thus, the company must adopt portfolio management. Portfolio management has two levels of management: inventory management and reporting and analyzation management. This will allow the compan y to know the decisions that need to be made, the body or person who is supposed to make the decisions, and the way in which those decisions are going to be made. It is through Professionalism in communication and the way of doing things that the managemen t will be effective and successful. Technical support and value The implementation of the systems is supposed to add value to the company's efforts. First, the systems are supposed to add value by reducing the maintenance cost. If the maintenance cost is low and the systems can deliver, there is no doubt that the company's vision will be attained. Second, the systems and applications should add value to the company by ensuring that systems are easy and friendly to operate.

They should be interactive with the target clients and the company's staff. This will ensure that there are efficiency and effectiveness in communication, management, and doing transactions of the company.

Finally , the new systems and applications should add value to the company by prior itizing to serve the objectives and vision of the company. INNOVATION AT INTERNATIONAL FOODS 6 Discussion The governance of the company is supposed to be inclusive when it comes to making decisions. All the necessary departments are supposed to be engaged in the decision -making process. The managers need to have awareness and accountability for every process that happens within the company. Effective and efficient governance is critical for overcoming the challenges that the company is facing. More so, managing the applications require profe ssionalism. The applications used are supposed to capture key data from the different levels of the company. This is because it is by analyzing and interpreting the data that the company will know where it is and the decisions they are supposed to take to reach where they want. Conclusion So, as per the research conducted by me , Josh Novak initially faced some issues with transition to larger organization (International Food Group) as every new idea or innovation must go through company procedures to avoid risks and reach out to customers effective way . Though Tonya IT marketing manager provided support there were still some issues with innovation which must be addressed. Josh must develop a plan with Tonya about the business value of these initiatives and he must be able to convince the finance team based on the analysis with data. In addition, he has the idea of implementing cloud architecture in the organization though that is the future still it is a great deal of work in migrating to cloud infrastructure for which clear process must be defined. In my view success of the applications depends on three factors that reinforce each other. The first one is management that is anchored o n professional procedures. The second factor is the application inventory. This will be important because it will ensure it will structure data in a way that is accurate and complete. The third factor is the reporting capability of the applications. It is through the right reporting capabilities and evidence -based decisions that the company will be able t o innovate and reach out to the customers effective way. Discussion Questions In discussion with Josh, Tonya foreshadows “some serious obstacles to ove rcome.” Describe these obstacles in detail. The first obstacle that we can identify from the case study is, small scale vs large scale business because, small businesses lack foundation, structural capabilities, and customer relations. Glow -Foods owned by Josh Novak was a successful start -up and International Food Group was impressed with Josh’s IT plan at Glow Foods and requested his help at IFG for IT Strategies. So, Since Josh worked at a small startup, the things IFG was expecting were completely diffe rent and corporate. INNOVATION AT INTERNATIONAL FOODS 7 The second obstacle was the process to be followed and a very little space to play with new ideas. So, it is difficult to develop a plan for innovation and creativity that goes through all the corporate procedures. These corporate concerns were valid. But, however, Josh and his team were used to platforms like Facebook and Instant Messenger to publicize their ideas and co nduct few researches. This restriction was quite annoying to their team. Also, Ben’s concern was to follow the protocols and not to have him bypassed while talking to product teams and meetings. The next obstacle was with respect to creating a bottle neck for the transition of Glow Foods to IFG was difficult since there were so many restrictions for Josh and his IT team, like requesting access for social - media , going through layers for the work to be done. Like, consulting Ben Nokony, the team’s marketing liaison , before talking to any product teams (Mckeen & Smith, 2015) . Another major setback of the team is they were not aware of costs and financial estimates when they were asked to work for Sheema. But this issue was understandable since the team was n ot aware of the financial issues until they discovered their capabilities, and this made them difficult to outline their budget. This lack of credibility and knowledge was one of the obstacles that Tonya has mentioned. Based on Rick Visser’s mention, the a rchitect in charge, the organization of this scope cannot operate successfully. How can Josh win support for his team’s three -point plan to use technology to help IFG reach its customers? Josh must come up with a three -point plan, that needed to reach their customers and use technology and their IT expertise. For this, Josh needs to enhance the idea of interactive website. One of the approaches would be to reach out to the uses for proper feedback. So, the re could be chances of improving the idea. The second step would be come up with plan that explains the business value from innovative ideas that are proposed. He must get in touch with different communities that need encouragement. He must collect the data and get insights on the interests which help the marketing plans and add value to the organization. He must analyze the data and present evidences helping Ben to convinc e the finance team about innovation. The third step would be working closely with Rick and work out a cost -effective plan that works for his company. Josh must come up with repeatable process of evaluating ideas and testing them. This repeatable process co uld turn innovative ideas into profitable business models (Viki, 2018). He must also concentrate on cloud architecture give clarity on how cloud improves the performance of the organization and the way it reduces cost by migration. He could also provide so me comparison charts that provides evidence that cloud implementation is cost -effective, requires less storage and how it impacts the future of Information Technology. In this way he addresses all the issues posed by team and evidence -based decision would always give confidence for team to invest on innovation in IT organization. INNOVATION AT INTERNATIONAL FOODS 8 References Julia, K. (2018). 6 Best Practices and Key Success Factors for Innovation Management . Retrieved from https://www.viima.com/blog/innovation -management -best -practices Lynn, K. T. (2017). 5 ways cloud drives enterprise innovation . Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud -computing/2017/05/17/cloud -drives -enterprise -innovation/ McKeen, J. D., & Smith, H. A. (2015). IT strategy: Issues and practices . Pearson Ed . Viki, T. (2018). Six Principles for Creating A Good Corporate Innovation Process. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tendayiviki/2018/03/26/six -principles -corporate -innovation - process/#648ad6da44f4 INNOVATION AT INTERNATIONAL FOODS 9