GG Freightways CIO Organization Assignment
This assignment will be submitted to Turnitin®.
Instructions
The Case Study is posted under Course Resources > Case Study. Use the Case Study as the background to develop your assignment.
GG Freight Case Study
Grace Ijelu
UMGC
GG Freight Case Study
The company
GGFRT serves a good part of the southwestern region of the United States. The company has eight main terminals, and each has fifty vehicles in addition to seven hundred and fifty employees. the gross income is $35million and a 6% profit of future financial goal. Although the business environment has remained competitive, the company targets to have an 8% profit which will be achieved through an 8% profit and reduction in operating costs. The organization has operated in the last few decades and has shown great transformation on providing services to clients. It has gained a lot of recognition/confidence from different customers hence has stayed well ahead of its competitors. It serves a good part of the southwestern region of the United States. In terms of fleet, the company has 400 delivery/distribution vehicles with 80 semi-trailer units and 160 box trucks and 160 panel vans and box trucks. (Attached Document (Case Study: GG Freightways (GGFRT).
Business strategic objectives
Strategic objectives are the major reasons why organizations seek to come up with a strategic plan. The strategic plan is meant to guide the management come up with the possible decisions that will aid in achieving their goals. The plan updated annually based on the decisions made by the members on what needs to be improved on and omit what does not improve the business objectives (Vo, E. 2020).
The table has the business objectives which are meant to increase the efficiency and customer experience. The strategic objectives are hoisted under four pillars where each seeks to achieve a line of its own.
Business Strategic Objective |
State the Objective (from the case study) |
Explanation (in your own words; for the new objective, incorporate how the management team would use it to improve the business of GGFRT: |
A strategic objective is to mark the strategy business process. |
Tracking of freight |
Keeping a real time record of the location of the freight to enable near perfect reporting of the delivery time to customers |
A strategic objective is ease customer booking and save their time and costs. |
Improve the percentage of loaded |
The objective is to enable customers collect their freight at the nearest station which will reduce the cost and improve service delivery |
A strategic objective is to give a high customer priority and make sure they are provided with the best services. |
Provide warehousing services |
Customers will have access to warehousing services where they may pick the goods at their convenience or request customers to pick them thus reducing cost and saving time. |
To promote customer expectations, safety and convenience. |
Vehicle safety |
Have all the vehicles checked after 10,000 miles which will increase efficiency and reduce cases of accidents. |
IT mission statement: Utilization of technology to gain a competitive advantage in the industry is the IT mission statement. Although, the current technology is not the most recent, the company intends to make most of it to increase the customer experience thus gaining a competitive advantage. Through the mission, customer services will be improved and also be the best freight service provider in the United States. Comment by Sean Sullivan: Each of the mission and vision should be no more than 1-2 sentences usually. Be specific to your company but related it to how IT will support or enabled business process. Here is some more help: IT mission, vision and values statements: Foundations for success | CIO Start off 2020 right with this mission statement generator (wholewhale.com)
IT vision statement: Implementation of technology in all business units to enhance coordination and efficiency as a way of gaining a competitive edge. The new system will allow all the stakeholders to keep in touch with the freight and different segments of the business which will result in efficiency and cost reduction. The company looks forward as the unique service provider in the freight industry and stands in an improved situation over its entrants. Through the implementation of technology, the company will improve how customers are serviced and they can improve their services soon. The company is also in the move to expand its operational strategies that will cover the needs of the industry in the upcoming years.
Governance
Although the governance will be headed by the IT department, it will have representatives from each of the other departments where there will be two from each. The members on the board will have the role of expressing the needs of their department which will then be incorporated into the IT strategic objectives. Additionally, they will assist in pointing out any hindrances that may occur between the departments. COBIT is the chosen methodology due to its easy adaptability and its emphasis on IT security (Haes & Grembergen, 2016).
The governance body will be charged with generating new IT ideas and identifying emerging needs of the business in different departments (Gregory, 2018). Priority to the needs will be based on the urgency of each. The governance board will determine which is most important and vote which should be allowed to prevail first.
Inventory of the current IT system
Although there are [plans in place to have an updated IT function, the current system comprises of three main segments. They include the finance and accounting department which handles the revenue and expenditure. The other segment is that of freight tracking which ensures tracking and coordination of freight from the point of receipt to its destination. There is also the fleet maintenance which handles the servicing of the vehicles by keeping a record and allocating the dates alongside a schedule to transport freight. The IT inventory is captured in the table below.
The table below gives a description of the current system in use and the IT resources that have been allocated to support the Company’s operations/ IT requirements.
1
Running head: GG FREIGHT CASE STUDY
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GG FREIGHT CASE STUDY
Current System Spring 2019 |
Function/Description |
Strategic Goal aligned to |
Business Unit/Department |
Business Benefits |
IT spring ‘19 Resources |
Freight tracking system |
Currently used in tracking and optimizing services in the company. It is essential in ensuring the operations run smoothly. |
Streamline the organization’s operations |
Operations |
Smooth running of the organizational operations. |
IT accounting systems |
Fleet maintenance system Comment by Sean Sullivan: Ensure this stays in the margins. |
Has a history of the vehicles on fleet and any repairs done to the vehicles before? Also, Information concerning the maintenance schedule is provided by this system. |
Any expenses and services done to a fleet vehicle are provided by this system |
Maintenance |
Maintenance expenses are always updated within this system. |
IT accounting systems |
Finance and Accounting system |
Contains information on the company’s expenses, profits, or losses made by the company. The system has been used to replace the currently used system. |
Ensure no errors and done and accounting operations are done smoothly. |
Accounting/finance |
Improved/ accurate accounting |
IT accounting systems |
Financial Reporting System |
Helps in the keeping of accounting and financing records for referencing |
To promote easy record keeping and availability when needed. |
Accounting/ finance |
accurate account records |
IT accounting systems |
Sales staff mobile application system |
Contains information concerning potential customers |
Helps in identifying trends and requirements of the customers. |
Promote customer services. |
Convenience of the customers and customer needs |
Mobile application tools |
References
Attached Document (Case Study: GG Freightways (GGFRT))
Haes, S. D., & Grembergen, W. V. (2016). Enterprise governance of information technology: achieving alignment and value, featuring COBIT 5.
Gregory, R. W., Kaganer, E., Henfridsson, O., & Ruch, T. J. (2018). IT Consumerization and the Transformation of IT Governance. Mis Quarterly, 42(4), 1225-1253.
Vo, E. (2020). What is strategic planning? Strategic planning process. Retrieved February from https://sba.thehartford.com/business-management/what-is-strategic-planning/
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Running Head: IT MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE 1
IT MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE 7
IT Management and Governance
Grace Ijelu
IFSM 301
Foundations of Information Systems Management
February 8, 2021
Part Two
IT Strategies
The GG Freightways company can use these four Information Technology (IT) strategies in improving profit performance in the company.
IT Strategy (Spring 2019) |
State the Business Strategic Objective, then Explain the Alignment of the IT Strategy to the stated Business Strategic Objective |
Internal/Business-Enabling (state the words “Internal” or “Business Enabling”) |
Example: do not use but leave it in the table when completing this section. Meet compliance requirements by updating current technology or developing/acquiring new technology to meet those mandates |
· Business Strategic Objective: · Meet FMCSA reporting requirements for driving hours by the company’s drivers · Explanation of the Alignment of the IT Strategy to the Business Strategic Objective: By acquiring or developing technology that will capture and store driver hours electronically, the company will comply with FMCSA regulations and, able to provide this information upon request. |
Internal Comment by Sean Sullivan: Standardized alignment in columns. |
A Unified Communication |
· Business Strategic Objective: A unified communication method will help in communicating between two employees working in remote environments. · Explanation of Alignment of the IT Strategy to the Business Strategic Objective: Comment by Sean Sullivan: Missing explanation. |
Internal |
Open Source |
· Business Strategic Objective: The data analysis software essential in recording and analyzing information in the community shared knowledge. · Explanation of Alignment of the IT Strategy to the Business Strategic Objective: The open-source IT strategy enables the commercial community to access free software for business operations in the GG Freightways. Comment by Sean Sullivan: Open-source does not always mean free. Many open-source software is free for individual and non-profit or at least school use. Business regularly must pay for licenses. This is not always the case but must be kept in mind. |
Internal |
Voice Over IP (VoIP) |
· Business Strategic Objective: · The third IT strategy for the business system of GG Freightways is the voice over IP to initiate communication among people in the landline. Comment by Sean Sullivan: Why just over landline? · Explanation of Alignment of the IT Strategy to the Business Strategic Objective: The IP voice delivery enables different to have massive business calls through this service. |
Business Enabling |
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) |
· Business Strategic Objective: · The fourth IT strategy in the IT system is customer relationship management for information storage. · Explanation of Alignment of the IT Strategy to the Business Strategic Objective: The speed directory for product movements in GG Freightways is initiated by CRM to ease the ability of workflow. |
Business Enabling |
IT portfolio Road Map
The following is the time for improving profit in the GG Freightways with the IT development and data management.
Projects by Functional Area |
Qtr. 1 |
Qtr. 2 |
Qtr. 3 |
Qtr. 4 |
Qtr. 5 |
Qtr. 6 |
Business objectives Product sales IT strategies |
||||||
Product Development Improvement Showcase Company Products |
||||||
Accounting Business Intelligence Customer relationship management |
||||||
Risk Management Risk optimization Strategic management |
||||||
IT support system Updates of new system Data management |
Comment by Sean Sullivan: All of your projects are overlapping. Will all your internal employees be able to handle this at the same time? This depends on your setup, who will create this (in-house expertise) versus being contracted out. You could contract out surge personnel for the projects or just the actual services to develop the deliverables for these projects. You will still need someone from your business to keep an eye on the project if it is outsourced. |
Proposed Project
In the GG Freightways company, important IT concepts are required, in the management and governance of operations. IT governance and management concepts involve the following: IT framework enterprise, strategic management, benefits realization, risk optimization, and resource optimization. These concepts of IT governance and management helps in providing knowledge and guidance to the operations of GG Freightways. Each concept provides security assurance and guidance to the main domain of the GG Freightways company (Van., & De Haes, S. 2018). The first concept of IT framework enterprise provides a continuous assessment for the company through direct planning on goals and objectives. This concept of IT helps GG Freightways utilize industry standards based on business accountabilities and responsibilities of IT Governance.
Risk Management
The strategic risk management for IT Governance helps in supporting business objectives.
1. First analyze the IT domain to provide a good alignment of activities based on enterprise management.
2. Evaluate the most effective method in the management portfolio forms an architecture methodology for showcasing the company's products.
3. Treat all IT concepts for governance and management is a benefits realization which optimizes the profit of GG Freightways by enabling IT investments.
4. The IT initiative helps in monitoring benefits and value practices of products. Avoid any IT governance and management for resource optimization through sufficient use of applications, infrastructure, and information to achieve competence. Reduce resource optimization to execute a project effectively way through training and development programs of GG Freightways.
Business Continuity Planning
a. The GG Freightways company can apply IT management and governance for business continuity planning. The following are steps of business continuity planning.
· Risk assessment: The performance decision in the GG Freightways requires assessment of risk by establishing classical methods of monitoring shipping activities (Van & De Haes, 2018).
· Business Impact Analysis (BIA): The IT management and governance system recovery assumptions help in making decisions about improving the company's efficiency.
· Hedge Fund Business planning: The IT infrastructure helps in supporting business operations of GG Freightways through data input and implementation of IT investments opportunities.
· Plan implementation: This involves sharing the plan with main stakeholders and conducting training sessions. The IT management and governance help in scientific and technical decision making on responsibility developed through open sources of the company.
· Plan Testing and System Maintenance: The simulation exercise for the plan are initiated while maintaining the new system. The IT solution architecture in the company initiates some regional services presented in the different directories.
b. Equally important, IT management and governance decisions are associated with business continuity planning. The advice and implementation of decisions made involve a standard process that acts as responsibility control for different activities in GG Freightways.
c. The continuity of the plan is enhanced when customers are engaged in decisions making as proactive ways of focusing on new goals. The best approach to making IT changes is enhanced through readjustment in the IT section (Steinberg, 2011).
d. The IT management and governance system will remain operational by making the important decision on an updated strategic plan. Also, the company is able to make a decision on reasonable cost with a different change of IT organization. The current IT management and governance system enables the company to have
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