IT Alignment Gap in New Zealand-based Business: A Study

Introduction: Background of Selected Organization

IT alignment gap in New Zealandbased business. You are to base your study on a well- established/registered NZ-based business organization. Your chosen organizations must fulfill the following criteria:

• The organization may be a commercial, government or not-for-profit organization but it must have at least 50 employees, a web site and be a user of e-business/ecommerce

• Use the web, newspapers and/or personal contacts to gain information about the organization and its management of IT

• When selecting the organization, you should consider the nature of the organization’s business environment and the extent to which the organization is dependent on IT to run its operations

• If you are employed, you are encouraged to base this assignment on the organization that you are currently working with, if it meets the above criteria.

Part 1: Introduction: background of selectedorganization

Describe the background of the selected organization in terms of the following: the industry (e.g. banking, healthcare, travel, airline etc.) it operates within, its key products/ services, corporate mission, corporate structure, major business processes, business strategy and relationship with external entities e.g. other organizations, government etc.

Part 2: Mapping the current IT landscape of the organization to specific business strategic objectives. Refer to Chapter 1 of the reference text for the common IT-driven business strategic objectives.

2.1 Analyze the organization’s current IT landscape with emphasis on IT infrastructure, business processes, IT strategy, systems, techniques and IT personnel. For example, you can map each component of the organization’s IT ecosystem with its business functions/ business processes.

2.2 Business firms invest heavily in information systems to achieve specific business objectives. Base on your analysis in 2.1, identify any two of the six IT-driven strategic objectives (discussed in the class) reflected by the organization’s IT ecosystem. You will need to provide a clear description of what IT resources or information systems are used to achieve the objectives and how they are used.

2.3 Analyze the involvement of the IT resources in shaping the organization’s business strategy. If there is an alignment gap between the business strategy and IT, recommend method to minimize the gap. Ref. 1 and Ref. 6 provide some insights into IT and business strategy alignment gaps.

Part 3: In this part, you will recommend a new or modified information system that can help your chosen organization overcome specific business operation issue they are  currently facing. You will need to identify the issue and provide clear description of how to integrate the system into the firm’s current business environment.

Mapping the Current IT Landscape of the Organization to Specific Business Strategic Objectives

3.1 Recommend a new information system which can clearly add value to the business of your chosen organization. Using Porter’s value model, provide a clear analysis of how the system can serve as a competitive weapon for the organization, and identify the likely stakeholders of this new information system and define their roles. For instance, you can suggest how the organization can utilize the new system to improve customer intimacy.

3.2 Describe the data and information that the new system involves, explain the types of knowledge that the new information system can create, and describe how it can inform decision-making. Draw a process model using the BPM notation for the new information system you have identified.

3.3 Evaluate the impact of your proposed information system on the organization’s culture, business processes and all the stakeholders. You will need to identify positive effects (and possible negative effects) of the system on the organization, groups, and individuals, and describe measures of success (efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness) for the proposed new information system with respect to business operation(s)

Part 4: Cloud Computing and Big Data – Recommended strategy

4.1 Ascertain whether the organization already has a strategy to take advantage of Cloud Computing in place or intends to establish one. Then, describe, analyze and discuss any current or planned Cloud Computing Strategy or the Strategy you would recommend, explain why it is important for the organization to have one. You are required to justify your reasons.

4.2 Recommend a strategy to help the organization leverage Big Data to achieve its business objectives. If the organization already has such a strategy in place, recommend how it could further avail itself of new opportunities provided by recent advancements in Big Data technologies. Before you commence your search for material to help you formulate the strategy you should first review ‘Chapter 3: Information systems, organizations and strategy’ in the textbook. Your recommended strategy should be sufficiently detailed to help the CEO in its implementation. The following are some of the areas and issues which your strategy must factor in:

• The reasons why the organization should consider investing in BigData

• The key areas where Big Data is likely to have an impact on its business e.g. customer and supplier intimacy, business intelligence, knowledge management, future planning
• The risks the organization must consider and how these risks can bemitigated
• The supporting tools, solutions and skills the organization needs to have
• How the organization can measure the success of its Big Data initiative

Part 5: Conclusions: key findings and recommendations

4.1 Summarize your key findings and recommendations to the CEO related to your analysis. Clearly state your conclusions. Report Presentation.

• Your submission must be submitted to the CEO as a report in a single document, not an essay. The format must comply with the report structure detailed in the Communication
skills handbook 4edn, except that you would not need a glossary. Please note from the handbook that reports do have subheadings and an appropriate letter of transmittal is required

• The word count does not include the following: executive summary, letter of transmittal, table of contents, figures, tables, references or appendices.

• The body of the report (for Activity B) should be about 4,500 words in length and you may lose marks if it varies by more than 10%

• Use the Harvard referencing format AGPS style for in-text references and the reference list. Your references should include at least one web/electronic link, but all the references should not be from the web. Refer to chapter on referencing of the Communication skills handbook 4th edition for further details

• Inappropriate referencing or excessive grammar/spelling errors will incur a penalty. You should refrain from cutting and pasting chunks of materials from the Internet as this will be treated as plagiarism. To avoid any allegation of academic misconduct from unintentional plagiarism from Internet sources it is strongly recommended that you use the Turnitin software to check your work before submitting it. References are required and the Harvard AGPS standard of referencing must be used. You can get the help for this referencing style from the resources listed below.

Resources:

1. UUNZ TPS Class Activity

2. Book: Summers, J & Smith, B 2014, Communication skills handbook: how to succeed in written and oral communication, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons,Australia.Ensure that your reports are fully referenced, including any reference to the textbook. Your report should include in-text references and a List of References. Do not repeat verbatim large slabs of
information from other sources such as the text – you must put the ideas/information in your own words. You must use at least ten (10) peer-reviewed sources other than the textbook in completing this report.