IT Planning at Modmeters Essay

IntroductionThis paper discusses the different aspects of IT planning at Modmeters Company which has two strategies of expanding globally and providing direct-to-customer sales. The role of IT is essential in the expansion initiatives of Modmeters. The executives of various departments held a meeting to identify the budget requirements for the expansion. The plan is to establish naked plants in Asia and Eastern Europe where the stem facilities are not sufficient required for the operations at Modemeters. Brian Smith, CIO of Modmeters is sick about these two initiatives as the IT funding was very poor. The community has neer invested in reengineering the existing systems, instead, they always introduced new systems on top of the other. illusion Johnson, CEO wanted to change the name of the company as MM for this updated strategy.The current budget levels at the company are not deprivation support the expansion initiatives. Surprisingly, only 2% of the revenue was allocated to IT. According to Brian, 80% of the IT budget was fixed for running the existing systems and fixing errors. The remaining 20% was allotted based on ROI, where majority of the budget was used by manufacturing department, Human resources and marketing departments having minor share. Brian believed that this kind of budgeting is not effective for their new business organization strategies (McKeen & Smith, 2012). Brian explains the requirement to implement flexible systems to support the updated strategies.He stresses on the budget requirements to buy new infra social organization and problems with the existing systems. The systems are not integrated and use different terminologies in different divisions. IT involve coronation for infrastructure, underlying processes and to manage the information. However, the outcomes of the budget meeting after having a great discussion were to prioritize the IT proposes depending up on their contribution to the key objectives of the company and also how each of them is adding value to the Modmeters.To develop the direct-to-customer sales, the marketing department inevitably more investment to get the resources. Hence, to implement the new strategicinitiatives at Modemeters, the budget allocated to IT and marketing plays a key role.RecommendationsAn IT planning process packs to be unquestionable to meet the demands of the new projects. First of all, the IT architecture has to be changed such that the systems are flexible to use. All the divisions should use similar spoken communication to manage the information and communicate with other divisions. A data dictionary need to be developed to address the terminology issues. IT should be touch on in decision making at Modmeters. An enterprise architecture need to be developed to get the scoop up out of IT. Though, I postulate that IT projects should be measured in terms of ROI, the current situation at Modmeters is different. The systems are never reengineered and the communication between the systems look like a spaghetti, where failure of each system may lead to a sodding(a) failure. There is a need to invest on amend the architecture considering long term advantages of the investment. The IT and business should have a common goals and objectives in developing the existing business.The needs of the manufacturing, marketing, R&D and HR need to be understood and allocate the budget accordingly. Identify the core competencies of IT and a cost-benefit abbreviation should be made for the projects. The business employees opinions should be taken in using technologies. The key business staff needs to be place and made account managers. They should present their findings to the top management so that, the governance body can look for interoperability of the systems. In the IT vision, guiding principles should be developed which links the business strategies. Meanwhile, existing business requirements and operations should be intercommunicate as a continuous process. A departmental approach should be taken while prioritizing the projects. This approach focuses on improving the business by expanding globally, enabling direct-to-customer sales, satisfying Stans auditing needs, making use of existing projects and improving the infrastructure.Account managers should analyze how the proposed project would benefit their respective departments. The IT and business bulk should work closely while developing strategies. A SWOT analysis should be made while developing the plan. IT should be given enough budget and team work is essential to implement new strategies. The commonwealth need to be trained by allocating budget required to HR department.The resources should be used effectively for the global expansion. A centralized IT structure is essential for Modmeters to share the information between the divisions. Fred, VP of manufacturing should understand the value of IT. At Modmeters, business needs should be understood by IT to de liver the best technology meanwhile, business people should provide necessary funding to IT.aside from the ROI, Customer satisfaction, greater efficiency, product quality, cash savings and other nonphysical benefits need to be considered while assessing the business value of a project (Ferris, 2012). The marketing department funding needs to be increased. It is important to alter smooth transition while expanding and change should be managed carefully to be successful. Also, the policies and procedures in the IT plan should comply with the regulations. To conclude, IT and business collaboration is important in strategic IT planning. IT value should be understood by business and business needs should be understood by IT. At Modmeters, reengineering the existing systems, fetching a departmental approach, satisfying the departmental needs and funding sufficiently will help to implement the two strategic initiatives.ReferencesMckeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2012). Delivering Value with I T (2nd ed). spic-and-span Jersey Pearson Education, Inc.Ferris, B. (2012, June 12). How to Measure the Business Value of a Project. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http//cobaltpm.com/measuring-business-value-of-a-project/