IFSM 301 IT Decision Paper

Running Head: WOBBLY WHEELS DISTRIBUTION COMPANY 1

Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company

Richard Kennedy

Case Study

Institution

6/1/2014

Part 1

Business environment

Business environment refers to both internal and external factors which affect the operations of a given business or organizational entity (Fernando, 2011). Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company is a distribution and transportation company that serves major cities in the mid-Atlantic region. It is located in Wilmington, Delaware and boosts of more than 400 employees. The company has 6 distribution channels for consolidating freight and 100 delivery vehicles. The business environment is highly competitive and there has been stagnant growth due to a slow economy. The president of the company wishes to reduce the expenses by 5% and set growth at 5% in order to fund new initiatives.

According to Wobbly Wheels (WW) Distribution Company, their environment of operation is affected by several other business environment factors. In developing an efficient IT strategic plan, the company has to evaluate various results such a development may bring to the firm.

In developing a new IT strategic plan, Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company will have to consider the effects on its personnel. The new plan must be a morale booster rather than a demoralizing tool to the customers. The drivers are the most outspoken and good ambassadors to the company and the new system should provide them with an extra motivation.

The company also considers the legal factors in their operations. This involves ensuring compliance with the set federal and state laws whereby the ones given foremost attention are: the Sarbanes Oxley financial audit, a federal requiring that vehicles go through a safety check every 10,000 miles and finally an FCC reporting requirement which requires statements on the number of hours each driver is involved in the company’s operations.

In developing a new IT strategic plan, the company should consider the technological implications of the system. The two-way radio that is used as a mode of communication between the dispatchers at the terminals and the drivers usually has low power which may result in relatively short range compared to other high power radios. Also the further apart the users are the higher the possibility of harmful interferences e.g. a nearby PMR446 walkie-talkie may unknowingly block the lines thus interfering with communication.

Business strategic objective

A business strategic objective refers to the goals set by an organization or a business entity whose fulfillment is deemed as appropriate by the business. (Kelly, 2006)

Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company has set various strategic objectives. One of their main objectives is providing their customers with warehousing services as this will go a long way in reducing their customers’ delivery time since their products will be available locally. Another objective is improving the percent of loaded miles in their fleet. This will lead to reduction in costs as the delivery of freight and pickup will be coordinated at the same time in the same geographic area. The third objective is tracking the whereabouts of freight both in the terminals and on the trucks in order to provide customers with accurate delivery dates and times. This will increase their reliability. The management also wants to comply with all applicable federal and state regulations especially (1) the Sarbanes Oxley financial audit and reporting requirements; (2) a new federal requirement to conduct a vehicle safety check every 10,000; and (3) an FCC reporting requirement on the number hours per day for each driver (or max per week, etc.).

IT mission and vision

Mission

Wobbly Wheels Distribution Company is a leading provider of transportation and distribution services in the Mid-Atlantic region. When it comes to providing reliable shipment services with accurate delivery dates and times, we do not compromise. Our customers are able to access real-time market information on the fleet and track their goods being transported. We aim to provide affordable shipment and warehouse services to our clients who can access up to date information on their mobile phones.

Vision

Wobbly Wheels (WW) Distribution Company aims to become the main transportation and distribution services provider in the Mid-Atlantic region. We will like to make efficient transport and distribution services affordable to every person. We seek to provide our customers with the best experience ever enabling them be able to know the location of their products at whatever time they would like to know.
Appropriate governance process

This involves setting up standards and priorities that define the roles of each individual to ensure efficiency in service delivery. All relevant stakeholders must take part in the governance process starting from the senior most to the juniors. The president must ensure that his managers are doing their work efficiently and the vice president should be in a position to stand in for the president in case of his absence. Each and every leader has a role to play in the committee. The CFO keeps records on the use of funds and projects whether a project will be profitable or not. On the other hand, the CIO should present the board with project ideas to focus on after doing extensive research. The role of the Sales Manager in the board is to present the committee with the various sales in different areas to see the areas that they are performing well or bad. The fleet manager gives an up to date statement on the state and performance of the fleet. The President’s role is to look at the available proposals and rubberstamp the promising ones. The IT projects that should be prioritized are those that align to corporate strategies and operations of the company and they should be ranked based on potential of achieving immediate success. The projects, if selected carefully, will be able to meet objectives and strategies of the business and this will have a positive impact on the business as there will be increased profitability. The committee should also come up with a mission and vision and work hard to ensure they are met.

Current IT projects

The company has some the following projects still being developed: Accurate financial project, management reporting project and a mobile application for the sales and marketing staff.

PART 2

Information Technology (IT) Strategies

Information technology strategy of a company refers to the tactics and objectives which relate to the use of technology in an organization. When carol joined the company she came up with three business strategies that would enable growth of the firm and increase the profits while at the same time increase service delivery quality to the customers.

ICT strategy for the first business strategy (desire to provide warehousing services) would involve the development of a proper freight management system i.e. a freight management tool that would control effectively the inbound and the outbound freight. Another strategy in warehouse management would involve the receiving practice and cross docking- this reduces handling costs while improving customer service and shipping costs.

In tracking of freight should develop an internet based software such as strategy Live Trucking Software. This software provides trucking dispatch, fuel tax, billing, payroll, driver logs and other fleet related records and as such makes freight management easy and more efficient. This also reduces cost and working hours wasted in the manual tracking.

IT project proposal

In line with the day-to-day activities of the company the new IT project to be proposed would be Industrial packaging. This would be important as the company would be able to package their goods according to their own discretion before storing them in their fully developed and well organized warehouses.

Through industrial packaging the company would also be able to customize their packaging materials such that they would fit correctly into the trucks for transportation. This would also lead to proper utilization of the available spaces.

Industrial packaging would also increase the network and customer base of the company. This would lead to an increase. Materials can also be recycled and then used in packaging sector of the company. This leads to a reduction in expenses incurred in the business operations of the company.

Risks facing IT projects

Information Technology (IT) projects are usually faced with a lot of problems and require a lot of effort and dynamism for them to succeed. Discussed below are some of the risks that face IT projects:

Obsolescence is a major issue in the technological world. Due to the dynamic nature of the business environment, a lot of projects are time barred and considered outdated before they are given fully implemented . This leads to huge losses on the part of such companies since they cannot recoup the capital invested in the project implementation.

In most cases there have been budget constraint issues. This is whereby a company’s budget cannot fund IT projects because of the initial investment requirement. Similarly IT projects require expertise management. Therefore information is key to this sector. When not properly managed with the experts the system may fail to produce results and will thereby add no value. Hiring of such experts I most cases usually increases the wage budget of the responsible company.

IT projects require team work. This is because of the complexity of the IT projects developed whereby it becomes even difficult for the developer to remember all the concepts involved in the functionality of such a system. This calls for team among those involved to ensure the success of such IT projects.

Steps to develop business continuity plan

The first step involves identifying threats or risks that may face a potential IT system. Such threats may be historical, geographical or organizational based factors.

The next step involves conducting business impact analysis. This refers to evaluation of people, places or programs that are critical to the survival of the IT system. Also consider what is absolutely necessary to restore critical problems.

The third step involves adopting controls for prevention and mitigation. This is meant to prevent the severity of an unfortunate occurrence. This involves emergency response, resource management and systems security.

The final step in developing a business continuity plan involves testing, exercising and improving the plan routinely. This is to ensure that appropriate changes are made to the system due to the ever changing needs of the company’s business environment.

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