Assignment 2: Weekly Assignment: Analysis and Research for the Decision Making Process

Read the synopsis of the scenario you viewed at the beginning of this module: (see below under “This is all the information I have.”).

The two companies will need to merge their business information systems or find a new one that will work in a distributed organizational environment. The first order of business is to determine which platform would be best.

You will analyze what needs to be done for the platform analysis. In order to determine the solution, you must first understand what information you already have or need in order to move forward.

Estimate the future growth opportunities of Summit Solutions, Inc. and determine the most appropriate business information systems to accommodate the merger and future growth.

• Describe at least three characteristics of enterprise architecture
• Describe how enterprise architectures support information and can create value for the organization.
• Compare open, proprietary, and web service business information systems and describe which will work in a distributed organizational environment.
• Support and defend the decision for Summit Solutions, Inc. to run on “open” platform. Use at least 3 outside resources in your response

Write a 3 to 5 page report in Word format. Apply current APA standards for writing style to your work.

My class ebook is:

Baltzan, P. & Phillips, A. (2009). Business driven information systems (2^nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Retrieved from http://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu/#/books/007-7376919/pages/48416828

This is all the information I have.

Hey, I need your attention on a project!  You may not be aware of this, but our company is in the process of acquiring The Wing Company and will become a very large distributed organization called Summit Solutions, Inc.  As a result, we need to review all of our business applications to make sure they will run on an open platform. If not, I will expect you, and any other personnel you will need to involve, to use a structured approach to determine the platform needed in order to run the latest business apps.  Will this require a new infrastructure or just software? That’s one of the recommendations you people are going to have for me. That’s why we hired you.  I need you to get input from each of the end users so you know which system is preferred. You will need to determine if the requests are feasible and can operate in our environment.   Oh, and keep in mind security issues particularly since so many more people will soon have access to our computer system.  I expect you to be on top of the latest technology trends and factor those into your decisions. Now I don’t care where you get this information, maybe it’s from Fortune and Business Week or maybe you get it from colleagues. But I expect you to be forward thinking in these matters.  To get started, we need to evaluate our IT department to determine and analyze the following:

Are all the software solutions being utilized by both companies up to date on licensing?

What type of maintenance agreements do we have for upgrading our solutions? Are they valid at both locations now?

Efficiency-are we utilizing all available IT options to operate as efficiently as possible?

Effectiveness-are we utilizing all available IT options to operate as effectively as possible?

Do we have or need a data warehouse capability at one or both of our company headquarters? DSS needed or do we already have one in place that works for us?

Do we need to move into an Ebusiness plan or Internet strategy in order to increase profitability?

The resulting data will be presented with our off-site companies, so make sure you address each of their specialty areas. Keep in mind the various regulatory items that each organization has and make sure our applications can address these.

Got it? Great. Thanks.

What the CIO said…

Hey, about that acquisition we discussed last week—it seems that we aren’t going to get anywhere with this IS merge until we provide top management with a plan for strategic decision-making. I’m stuck in executive committee meetings all week so I need you to

put together some information for the CEOs. I need you to determine who from our company

and Wing should be involved in IS decisions. I don’t need specific names right now but just give me the departments and personnel level that should be included and the rationale behind those choices. We will need to establish some kind of process for how IS decisions should and will be made. There is probably some technology in the picture as well.  In fact, the CEOs were asking if decisions will be made using information from the existing IS. They also want to know the pros and cons for using technology for decision-making. I think we’d better also tell them how often strategic plans should be reviewed as well as how we will determine which plan to implement.

Do what you can to get these issues wrapped up this week. You can try catching me on my cell phone or by e-mail if needed, but I will be tied up in meetings all week, so my response may be delayed. I’m counting on you—I have no doubt you can handle this without me. Thanks.