The main goal of this assignment is to discuss information technology project management and planning strategy. The company under discussion is SmartTraining Corporation. The Smart-Training Corporation offers educational platforms in the form of software. Through the software given by this company, institutions are able to deliver learning content to their students digitally. The business of the company is good. However, the company is currently struggling with high costs emanating from the manufacturing expenses associated with the current traditional version of the software. Therefore, to reduce the manufacturing costs, the company must advance its software model. It is also vital for the Smart-Training Corporation to keep an eye on the agenda of maximizing profit margins through globalization. The current organization is also comprised of employees who are mainly from the United States of America.
This essay offers a new strategic direction beneficial to Smart-Training Corporation. It is vital to note that the decision made by the executive of the company to roll out Software as a Service model in replacement of the traditional version, where the organization provides software as CD and DVD, is tenable and viable. This move requires a clear plan in terms of roll out, transition, globalization, resource balancing, disaster recovery and business continuity.
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System Roll-Out and Transition Plan
In this change project, ensuring seamless and successful transition during roll out of the new software model is crucial. The roll out process will require a strategy meant to ensure every aspect of the new model is known and action-points clarified. This whole process will require an initial planning stage. The company will determine the goals, stakeholders, scope, functionality and governance of the new software version. It is already known that the project seeks to achieve cost minimization and increase in profit margins. These two items are the main project aims.
The roll-out plan will entail actions such as identification of problems and opportunities to be addressed. Defining the scale and scope of the model change project will also be an essential step. Importantly, the main stakeholders in the change project must be defined. It is clear that the customers of the company who are mainly learning institutions are the fundamental stakeholder in this project ( Carr, 2009) . Other stakeholders include the company’s employees who will be actively involved in its roll-out. The management of the company is also an important stakeholder in the project. Moreover, the owners of this corporation will be significant stakeholder in the roll-out of the new software version. Lastly, the IT experts who will take charge of the roll-out must be counted as crucial stakeholder in the whole project.
The project leadership and governance will be done by the management of the organization, especially the top managers within the IT Department. Understandably, this project is an initiative of the IT Department.
A crucial process in this roll-out and transition plan is the identification of inherent risks. The way to go about this action is determining the characteristics of the model to be introduced in terms of its complexity, schedule limitations and cost. The company must also understand the competitive as well as environmental factors. Additionally, operational and management weaknesses which may hinder smooth transition have to be determined and clearly defined. In light of these risks, establishing the feasibility of the whole model version change is important in the roll-out stage of the project.
Notably, a good roll-out process will involve determining the specific success factors and indicators. It implies that the project investment metrics have to be determined. In this case, the organization will have to evaluate the return on the investment before full implementation of the roll-out. Quantifiable measures which will be applied in this evaluation include the return on investment, economic value added and the return on opportunity.
For smooth transition on to then selected model version of software, the company will have to exercise clear communication to the employees and group of customers who use its services. The communication process will involve various activities. Firstly, periodic updates and notifications will be made to the employees and customers expected to be users of the new software. This communication will always be done through electronic mail and regular staff meetings. The purpose of the updates will be to create awareness among the users and staff members. Moreover, this communication will ensure all stakeholders are involved in the roll-out and transition journey.
Additionally, training programs will be rolled out for the staff and other users such as the customers. These training programs will be conducted by the IT experts contracted to oversee the implementation phase of the whole project. Trainings will always take two weeks. The trainings will be conducted in sections with each taking two weeks. Staff will also be involved in the on-job training as the system is rolled out ( Jones, Aguirre & Calderone, 2004) . Through clear communication that involves messages about the significance and need of the new change, the management buy-in will clearly be expressed to the staff and potential users. Encouragement through proper and persuasive communication will ensure the fear of change does not engulf the company and bring about full support for the project.
Notably, deployment will be the most critical part of this software model change. An effective deployment strategy should be selected for the success of the project. Considering the fact that customers are highly affected by this change, errors and failure cannot be tolerated at all. It means that the right approach will be chosen. There are various deployment strategies which may be used in this roll-out and transition. The first one is the plunge approach which offers the benefit of being simple and less costly. However, it is not suitable where the system has bugs. Alternatively, the corporation may use the parallel approach where the new model software is used together with the traditional version initially before full transition. The strategy recommended for Smart-Training Corporation in this project is the use of piloting. In this case, a small sub-set that is less significant will be used to test the new software. Success of the pilot will give green-light to full transition where all transactions are migrated to the new model ( Knorr, 2006) . This strategy is preferred to the other two because it will help Smart-Training Corporation ensure it ascertains the quality and effectiveness of the system it presents to customers in the market. Moreover, by the time full transition happens, the management will have identified any challenge and installed relevant counter-measures.
Source: Module 5, p. 11.
Globalization and Resource Balance Plan
Smart-Training Corporation will have to use the opportunity presented by the new software to internationalize its business operations beyond the United States of America. Expansion into other countries will help the company to increase its sales revenue and improve on the profit margins. The entry strategy is the main determinant of success for a company expanding into a new market or country. Acquisition is an entry strategy where a company fully buys another firm within the new market. On the other hand, merging is a case where companies join together to operate as one entity. However, mergers come with two main disadvantages which include denying the merging company full control of the business. It also elongates the decision-making process since numerous consultations have to be made before a choice is done.
Source: Module 5, p. 26.
Another known strategy for expanding business into new markets beyond country borders is joint ventures. This particular method is suitable in cases where the new entrant has no clue on the business dynamics within the foreign country ( Buckley & Ghauri, 2013) . The company has to then join another local firm for easier penetration of the market.
The strategy recommendable in this paper is acquisitions. Smart-Corporation stands to benefit greatly if it uses this strategy to enter the new markets while expanding. Since it is an IT firm, Smart-Corporation needs an entry mode which will enable it keep its full control over its business processes ( Froehlich, Hoegl & Gibbert, 2014) . The only method applicable in this case and need is acquisition of local firms in new countries. It is a strategy which will see the corporation increase its market share and company size easily (Daniels et al., 2014) . Moreover, the company’s economies of scale will rise hence enable it to minimize costs significantly .
Disaster Recovery Plan
A disaster recovery plan involves measures put in place for response to emergency incidents within an organization. It is comprised of precautions put in place to minimize the impact of a disaster. Smart-Training Corporation will determine the recovery time objective, which establishes the length of time within which the software rolled out can be down, in terms of minutes or seconds. The company will also specify the recovery point objective, which is the previous point in time when the software must be recovered. Smart-Training will set aside a facilitated disaster response team as a department in the company. This team will specialize in managing the risks associated with the software.
Source: Module 5, p. 14.
It is correct to relate the current transformation in education sector to the transition from apprenticeship to universal schooling, which happened during the industrial revolution of the 19 th century. This premise is credible and pragmatic considering the fact that the kind of transformation being witnessed in schools is massive. Today, pedagogy and learning practices have experienced a paradigm shift as schools embrace modern technology to achieve effectiveness and efficiency. Children can now study while at home because of the internet technology, which has enabled long-distance online learning. It is also possible to access many text books cheaply and easily on the internet in soft copy form, a factor that is greatly enhancing literacy among children. In the past, text books could only be accessed in the hard copy form. However, technology has significantly revolutionized things making learning resources easily accessible. All these developments amount to a transformation in the education sector, which is massive. It is important to note the technological developments even in the area of reading literacy. Students are now exposed to diverse reading practices including pictorial and video reading. Essentially, the kind of transformation brought about by the modern technology can only be compared with the transition to universal schooling from apprenticeship during the 19 th century industrial revolution. During the apprenticeship period, learning largely took place in the outside informally. However, there was transition to universal schooling where people identified formal schools as the only settings for meaningful learning. With modern technology, the transition is now towards identifying both formal schools and the informal outside world as settings of education.
Source: Module 5, p. 3.
Business Continuity Plan
Business continuity refers to maintenance of the business functions and ensuring quick resumption in an event of disruption. At Smart-Training, there will be a regular business impact analysis meant to identify the effect of sudden loss of various functions and assets in the company. This loss will be quantified in terms of losses. It is important to note that the non-core tasks in the company will be done by out-sourced employees. Employment agencies will be contracted to offer outsourced labor in functions like cleaning, catering clerical work and the entry-level jobs within the company. However, premises where the company carries out its operations will always be bought to attain full ownership.
Source: Module 5, p. 19.
Technology in schools continues to show a negative reality despite its high usage in the outside world. The reason for this negative reality is that most education policymakers and teachers just focus on schooling as the only point of learning. Educators and policy makers have not embraced learning that is rich in the informal outside. Therefore, they have not fully adopted technology in the schools. The modern technology encompasses both classroom and outside knowledge. There are a lot of lessons regarding the outside world, which are found on the internet. For students to access such knowledge, teachers and policymakers have to identify the outside informal world as a rich educational setting. Concentrating on formal schooling as the only setting for meaningful learning is the real cause of the existing scenario. It makes educators to only use the technology for teaching specialized courses. Technology just plays peripheral roles in the schools today. In fact, students are not allowed to carry most of the technological devices to the classroom by teachers. Therefore, the biggest challenge remains whether current schools will ever adapt and incorporate the advantage of technology into the learning and pedagogical processes.
In this digital information age, there are specific skills and behavior that are required for the students to become adaptive thinking. The first skill needed is computer literacy. All students must yearn to advance their knowledge of using computers. Learners who cannot do basic computer tasks like typing, printing, sending mail messages and browsing find it difficult to develop adaptive thinking in this digital information age. Moreover, the students require responsibility mindset. It means that they must be responsible enough lest the digital information could be the source of their failure. There are many cases where youths misuse technology, especially the internet. In such cases, technology ruins their educational lives.
Conclusion
Smart-Training Corporation has its clear strategy cut out in this essay. This company has a chance of taking advantage of the huge opportunities presented by the current shift towards long-distance e-learning by increasing its presence in the market and making its brand the preferred one in learning institutions. When deploying the new software model, the company must highly focus on the deployment strategy. It has been recommended that the piloting deployment strategy is the most effective one since it helps in ensuring all potential challenges are identified in advance and addressed. The disaster response mechanism and framework is also crucial for the case of Smart-Training Corporation.
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