Ubuntu Tech Tool

Dear IT Team,

I am writing to you to bring forth an OS that I was reviewing online. The name of the OS is called Ubuntu. I know we currently use Windows as our operating system but what caught my attention was the similarities between both OS in terms of productivity suites.

For starters this is an Linux based platform, open source OS where Ubuntu, which is backed by Canonical, has volunteers who help build and keep Ubuntu running with the most up to date productivity suites. To give a background on Canonical, it is a partnership with Ubuntu where Canonical is responsible for delivering six-monthly releases, as well as co-ordinating security, trouble-shooting and providing an online platform for community interaction. Canonical works closely with businesses and individuals alike. Canonical also develops bespoke systems, provides comprehensive support and all the training that’s necessary to get everybody up and running. With more than 500 employees in over 18 countries, the company continues expanding to support the millions of Ubuntu users around the world.

Now that you have a foundation of Ubuntu and it's partnership with Canonical lets dive straight in to the productivity suite and its compatibility with Microsoft Office. From what I have tested on my own and read, the Libreoffice suite opens and allows me to edit my word and excel files with ease. It's almost like a seamless transition between the two OS office suites.

Considering using the Ubuntu OS system in our organization would be far fetched. Granted there would be tremendous cost savings but there are some many unanswered questions as will the software we currently use work with the Linux platform. Also considering the many access databases we have organized to pull data from other sources, a major overhaul of our OS to this magnitude would be costly in the realm training, implementation, and possible restructuring of our databases. Considering these factors, I do not believe this will be the best decision for our organization at this time. The savings do not outweigh the cost of having this OS.

Feel free to test Ubuntu yourself and let me know your thoughts.

Regards,

Timothy Booker

iPad Case

Dear Newsbelkis,

I have researched the usage of Apple iPads for the Amrahp employees that are in the sales force. After speaking with the Head of IT, Sales Manager, and the VP of Finance, I compiled a list of concerns and gathered as much information I could find to present to you. The goal I believe that is trying to be accomplished is meeting the functional and technical requirements we have set.

The biggest concern that I found was the ability to safe guard our information. Apple has built these devices with standardized configurations that provide security. However, given the sensitive nature of the information we possess, we will need multiple layers of security. Some of the features we can utilize such as remote wipe if the device is stolen or lost, mobile device management, and digital certificates.

Since the device is primarily application based, appropriate apps must be either built or purchased to mirror what is used on the laptop. There are several third party vendors that are compatible with our Microsoft Office Suite or we can build our own app using Apple iOS Developer Enterprise Program tools. To gain access we will need to register each developer for the site and pay $299/year for the service. The good thing is we can build, test, and deploy the app using this tool. Here we can create an address book, calendar, task list, and much more specific to the user; sort of like an electronic briefcase.

I do not foresee this project being a burden on the company, however the initial costs and time to get the sales team established will be the biggest hurdle. Most of the information was readily accessible through www.apple.com/business. Check it out when you get a chance.

 

Regards,

Timothy Booker

ZARA Reflection

Dear Mr. Salgado and Mr. Sanchez,

Recently you met with Fast Solution Consultant in regards to our current POS system. I understand we were presented with three options, upgrading infrastructure and Operating System, Porting existing POS application to new OS, and Not changing existing system. When conducting my analysis I found that upgrading our current infrastructure and OS would prepare us for the changes in technology as well as provide us the accessibility needed to serve our customers. The cost is a bit expensive at first, but the initial costs will end and we will be left with our annual cost However, the benefit of us making this move will give us access to our inventory allowing us to find the right product for our customers. We are still keeping our boutique feel and structure but we are also enhancing our services to benefit our customers.

Hopefully the presentation from Fast Solution Consultants help solidify the recommendation that I made prior.


Regards,

Timothy Booker 

Accenture Reflection

Dear Mr. Modruson,

A few days ago you met with a Prestige Consulting to determine our IT strategy and found that the topic if concern, or possible plain, is moving towards COBIT 5. I understand that we have implemented a massive overhaul of our IT system to go towards a single vendor. A strong point that was mentioned in the presentation was the usage of COBIT 5 for a financial gain. As this is a smart move for financial reasons, have we determined the number of clients who will benefit from this service? Have the consultants considered any potential setbacks or constraints if we decided to move towards COBIT 5? The process that is in place works well as it has been developed by you and your team, so you can spot a bottleneck in the process versus adapting to a new framework. In the end there are still some questions to be answered and the use of visual aid of our current process compared to the proposed framework could show more information.

The accreditation of COBIT 5 involves standards being put in place that will not allow for deviation. This would involve a commitment from the several departments and giving up the freedom that is in place now. I would suggest we should consider all the options prior to moving forward with this framework.


Regards,

Timothy Booker

Accenture Case

Problem:

After the split between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen, Andersen consulting spent millions on a rebranding campaign to build awareness of Accenture being the world’s largest management consulting firm. With the split and the need to unify themselves, Accenture needed to make substantial advancements in their IT department. They needed to run this department as a business to control costs and the inconsistencies in software at the different location. Accenture faced a dated IT infrastructure that was made up of platforms that are obsolete and did not communicate seamlessly with one another. This also made remote access very difficult and costly to set up. Information was compiled and manually uploaded to aggregate results from offices. Offices in other locations began adopting their own software to run a business. The problem that Accenture is having is not from the data infrastructure, but from the governance with IT and future projects will be handled.

 

Situation Assessment:

Accenture has completed a holistic overhaul of their IT infrastructure allowing the business to run its IT like a business within Accenture. In doing so Accenture decided to go with a single vendor approach providing one system for all users and meeting the application needs through economies of scale. The overhaul introduced a newly formed steering committee that included high-level management and senior IT staff to define the IT horizon for the coming fiscal year as well as updating the strategic direction of IT for the next three years.

COBIT 5 framework is designed to help enterprises of all sizes. The framework addresses business and IT functional areas across an enterprise and considers the IT-related interest of internal and external stakeholders. The framework is based upon five key principles: Meeting Stakeholders Needs, Covering the Enterprises End to End, Applying a single, integrated framework, Enabling a holistic approach, and Separating Governance from Management. The benefits of using the framework is to maintain high-quality information to support business decisions, achieve strategic goals and realize business benefits through the effective and innovative use of IT, achieve operational excellence through reliable, efficient application of technology, maintain IT-related risk at an acceptable level, optimize the cost of IT services and technology, and support compliance with relevant laws, regulations, contractual agreements and policies.

 

Alternatives:

Accenture is debating between using their own IT governance or purchasing the service from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

The benefits of creating your own steering committee is the ability to collective create new rules, be a part of new product offerings or process changes. This will also keep the business sponsor and IT team alert due to the audits to determine ROI and that the project is managed effectively. The cons to establishing your own steering committee is the pushback from the different managers. Managers will provide excuses as to why presenting to the steering committee their projects will not work.

The alternative to creating a steering committee is purchasing licenses from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Here Accenture would be purchasing a framework built upon other major frameworks, standards and resources such as ISACA’s Val IT and Risk IT, Information Technology Infrastructure Library, and standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Adopting the COBIT 5 framework would require some changes in separation of governance and management. Also there are the training courses that would give users a full understanding of the framework. The courses can be taught globally with its main locations in the United States and England.

 

Recommendation:

I would recommend against adopting the COBIT 5 framework for Accenture to use. This would call for further disruption to implement as well as Accenture losing its identity upon what it has already built. The framework is a generalized set of standards that can be applied to any business. The basic principles and enablers are similar to the framework that has been established by Accenture steering committee. With the current process in place, Accenture has reduced spending per employee by 60% and reduced IT’s overall expenses as a percentage of net revenue by 58%. The process works as it is currently set up when Accenture reviewed its company as workforce doubled in size from 2001 to 2008.

ZARA Case

Background:

Zara is a clothing retail store for women, men and children, concentrating sixty percent of their effort to the women’s clothing market. Besides retailing, Zara also designs, produces, and ships their lines of clothing to their Zara stores. Zara’s corporate concept is to offer fashionable, trendy, designs at a reasonable price.   The key to their corporate success is to offer the latest trends and fashions before their competitors (H&M, Gap, and Benetton).   They believe that they are in the fashion business (not the clothing business per se) and as part of this corporate concept, try to hold very low levels of inventory, often having their entire inventory out on display, in order to sell out and make room for the next wave of fashion. Zara started out in 1979 with 6 stores and flourished to all major Spanish cities during the 1980′s.   Within the next decade, Zara’s parent company, Inditex, expanded to 29 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Additionally, during this time Index acquired other big name fashion brands; each
operating independently of each other.   By 2002, Index had expanded to 1,284 stores in 39 countries.   Zara represents 75% of Inditex sales, and by 2003 Zara had 565 stores in 33 countries. Zara examined its IT infrastructure and determined that it may be beneficial to consider implementing a new upgraded POS system to create a more robust system that is responsive to Inditex’s supply chain network and also to remove the risk it currently is facing with the existing system becoming obsolete as their vendors move on to other systems that may no longer be DOS compatible.

 

Problem:

The problem in this case stems from a conversation between Salgado, the Head of IT for Inditex, and Sanchez, the technical leader for Zara’s POS System. Zara currently uses a Point of Sale system to run their business. Salgado thinks an upgraded system is necessary to remain competitive in terms of technology and the upgrades their hardware vendor is making which would no longer be DOS compatible. Sanchez thinks there is more risk involved in upgrading the system since it works just fine and has proven to be stable – he has the mind set of if it’s not broken don’t fix it. Sanchez also knows all of the ins and outs of the system and believes he can handle any issues that they face with it – both currently and in the future. Overall, the main problem Zara is facing is if they should or should not upgrade their system.

 

Situation Assessment:
Zara’s business model puts a great emphasis on speed and decentralized decision-making. They have no Chief Information Officer and follow no formal process when deciding on an IT budget or new IT projects. Zara employs a technology committee that Salgado and Sanchez both take part in. When this concern was raised in the past, the committee decided that it was best to write the applications required for the programs themselves in order to apply the unique concepts required by Zara. They were against purchasing commercially available software because of the uniqueness of their brand. The only commercial applications used are ones such as word processing and emails to ensure office productivity. Such applications that run the heart of the business include applications created to prepare offers and distribute it over the Internet to stores internationally and to receive orders from those stores, applications created to compare aggregate orders to available inventory for each SKU,  and applications created to track “theoretical inventory” in which shipments increase it and sales decrease it.

Another form of technology currently used by Zara are PDAs, which require POS terminals. PDA’s are used in-store by employees to order inventory, handle returns, and transmit information to other stores. Store managers and salespeople must initially determine necessary orders by counting garments as they walk around the store and communicate with one another. Inventory balances cannot be looked up on any in-store computers. Managers learn about new available garments through their PDA by linking it at the end of each day through a dial-up modem connecting it to an information system in La Coruna. When managing a new store opening, employees must insert new floppy drives into a blank POS terminal. Both the POS terminals and the PDAs are not always connected to headquarters or other stores; therefore, employees must copy daily sales totals from each terminal to floppy disks, carry the disk to the modem-equipped terminal, and complete the transition. POS terminals are a huge part of Zara’s business model and day-to-day functions, but Salgado and Sanchez both have valid concerns regarding the future of them. On one hand, if the hardware vendor does actually change its machines, Zara will be left without a system. The vendor has stated that Zara is his only customer using a more dated system. On the other hand, a new technology might prove to be overkill for the type of business Zara is running and in turn destabilize Zara’s easy and efficient existing system.

 

Alternatives:

1.     Do not change the system

One alternative as suggested by Sanchez is for Zara to leave the system as is. Zara has been able to run a successful, efficient, and productive business on POS terminals. The system has proven to be stable by running without many complications. Employees have also been able to use the system without additional IT service. By 2003, Inditex has opened 550 Zara stores internationally, with Zara accounting for a majority of its sales, all while operating on POS terminals. Any shift away from this system might prove to be an unnecessary risk, affecting the entire flow of the company. While keeping the same system, Zara can choose to purchase more POS terminals. Doing this would provide a safety-net for the company if they happen to lose the support of their vendor. Although the vendor has shown no desire to change the machines, being that Zara is its only customer using this system, they cannot be sure a change will not occur in the near future.

2.       Update POS to another system

The other alternative would be to completely update POS to another system such as Windows, UNIX, or Linux. This option would require a complete change to the company. Such a change would allow for new capabilities such as larger screens, keyboards, and mouse attachments, along with wireless networks. The new capabilities would satisfy some employee complaints and wireless networks would eliminate the need for floppy disks and allow for permanent Internet connection. The addition of wireless networks will also keep all stores connected to headquarters and allow for a quicker way to know all inventories. To upgrade their system Zara is looking at a significant cost for implementation and training. Being that Zara does not usually allocate a formal budget toward IT investments, this cost might appear high. Although significant costs might be incurred, Zara will no longer have to work with the POS vendor and can let go of the uncertainty that he might change his machines and leave them without an operating system at some point in the future (whether sooner or later). This option also allows Zara to remain technologically competitive as advances continue to occur and competitors advance along as well. This ensures Zara will not fall behind in efficiency and lose customers or momentum as a result.  

 

Recommendation:

This case provides a difficult set of alternatives to choose from. Deciding to leave the system as is might save Zara from incurring costs now, but it might prove to be a more costly decision in the future. On the other hand, upgrading their system now will require a significant investment, but may prevent significant costs in the future. I recommend that Zara upgrade their system. It is clear that technology is advancing quickly and although their system works fine now, it will not benefit them to remain with this same process as the end all. The familiarity of their current process will only keep them stable and efficient for the time being. At some point it will become even more outdated than it already is, forcing Zara to upgrade anyway. Upgrading to a new operating system now will allow them to prepare more adequately in order to handle the changes to come with the new process.

 

Microsoft Visio

Dr. P,

I would like to comment on the usage of Visio and how this software could bring value to our department. I found the product to be easy to use and a great tool to describe a current work process or to be used when trying to shift to a new work process. This tool can even be used when training new employees, providing a visual aid to illustrate the workflow.

Another great feature I notice with the software is the ability to create an organizational chart. Here we can show the reporting structure of the company to vendors, new hires, and even current employees. The best part about this product is that we can even construct a floor plan to have an idea of where each employee is seated within the building. There are several templates available to suit the needs of the task at hand.

I have found that we can purchase individual licenses and push them out to each workstation where the this tool will be used.

Please provide me your thoughts as I will work with IT to gather a completion time.

Thanks,

TB

Proctor and Gamble

Problem/Issue Statement:

Proctor & Gamble is experiencing a longer wait time versus its competitors when trying to reduce the time is takes for clinical trials in its pharmaceutical division to be completed and bring new products to the market. The current process involves using data collection that is paper based where the first portion of information is collected on site by the coordinator, then this information is verified by the clinical research associate, and then this is manually inputted into P&G’s database by the clinical data manager.

The problem is found in the data collection process that is lengthy and involves multiple parties that are duplicating work. This involves the aforementioned parties collecting the data on site, then passing the same information to be verified by the clinical research associate before it is entered in to the P&G database. These steps are the cause of increasing lag times in sending/receiving the data by paper versus utilizing the internet to take advantage of Electronic Data Capture (EDC).

Situation Assessment:

The situation with P&G is their need to decrease the time between the trail and bringing the drug to shelves. The process that is in place currently involves a great deal of paper being transferred by hand which is causing for the trial to last longer and decreasing profits. The goal of the consultants is to assess the alternatives to find the most effective and efficient way to streamline the process and increase profits for P&G.

List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action:

Three alternatives were presented of consideration involving P&G current process. The alternatives are improving the paper-based process, Web-enabled EDC, or Digital Imaging.

Improving the paper-based process would involve using express mail shipments on a daily basis as well as hiring additional staffing to speed up the verification process.

Web-enabled EDC is the toughest out of the three options to implement. The reason behind that statement is due to the amount of training involved to bring all the employees up to speed on how the system works and make sure that the level of training provides enough knowledge to access the program. In addition to the training, the facilities that P&G operates these trials from will need to have their systems updated and provide system access with various degrees of access to its employees.

Digital Imaging is the ability to take the completed paper documents and transfer the information via fax to receive the information in a digital format and save to the system. The limitation with this option is the level of training that needs to be administered to the employees.

Logical Recommendation:

The logical recommendation would be the web-enabled EDC. This new process will decrease the amount of time it takes for the information to be inputted in to the system. With this new system, patient data is keyed into the system allowing for the transmission of the data to be instantly available. However, for the convenience of the system would require P&G to spend more in initial cost and training. But in the long run, this process would show greater efficiency and ultimately pay for itself once new products are able to make its way to market quicker.

Presentation:

The focus of the presentation should be on the ineffectiveness of the current process. This should be illustrated by using flow charts and showing where the lag occurs. Once this has been identified my team and I would then propose the solution we would choose. We wouldn’t necessarily discuss the alternative as Digital Imaging does not stand up to Web-enabled EDC. With the solution proposal we would discuss the ease of use and how the employees will adapt seamlessly with the new process with the training that is provided. Here would be a good time for the team to talk about how the information is secured to address any uncertainties with the system. Finally we would conclude the presentation with the cost savings over time when using EDC and how profits increase per drug by the decreased time in processing information during the trial and getting the drug on the shelves.

Reflection:

After hearing the consultants present their case to P&G, I found that we both agree that EDC is the best option overall. The group provided an in-depth overview of the process demonstrating their understanding of P&G and their pharmaceutical division. The group did explain each alternative spending the majority of time touching on EDC and its benefits. Another good point I noticed with the group is the explanation on savings with each alternative which illustrates from a dollar perspective which would be a contender for the new process. In the end I feel the consultants provided a quality presentation to propose a solution to P&G.