Scimitar and Frostie Management and Development - Research Paper Example

 SCIMITAR & FROSTIE: Final Installation and Support Plan Table of Content S. No. Topic Page # I Management Summary 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Purpose of the Document 3 1.2 Scope 3 2 Installation 4 2.1 Development Plan 4 2.2 The case against direct changeover 5 2.3 Data Migration 6 2.4 Training 6 2.5 Documentation 7 2.6 Business Change Issues 8 2.7 Installation Schedule 8 3 Support 9 3.1 Support Needs 9 3.2 The NISS Help Desk 9 3.3 Outsourcing the Help Desk 10 3.4 Issue Tracking & Escalation 10 3.5 Support service levels 11 3.6 Benefits of the support service 11 4 References 13 Appendix Management Summary This report presents a proposal to the management of SMART stating on how DCL plans to implement S&F system at the various sites of the business and how support would be provided to ease the burden of information systems management from the business. The report entails various aspects of the deployment/installation of the system i.e. defining the approach that would be undertaken for the implementation of this project – the parallel phased approach. Thereon, the approach is compared with the direct change-over approach analyzing its pros and cons. The report then moves to the need of data migration, training, documentation and the change issues associated by the business. In the support section, the features and benefits of the support function, as bundled with the information system is presented considering various aspects such as the outsourcing vs. in-house support, help desk placement, tracking of issues, etc. And finally, the appendix presents on how the installation/implementation is planned to be executed. 1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose of document The purpose of this document is to devise the deployment and support plan for the implementation of SCIMITAR & FROSTIE systems at SMART by DCL. 1.2. Scope The scope of this report is limited to two major milestones of this implementation i.e. the installation and the support plan and the same are presented in-depth within this report. Within deployment, issues such as system migration plan, data migration, training, documentation, issues, and schedule are included, whereas the support function illustrates how help would be provided to the end users. 2. Installation 2.1. Deployment plan The proposed mechanism for installation and deployment of the system is the parallel-phased approach for information system deployment. For understanding this approach, let’s assume that the newer system, S&F has modules A, B, and C, which would replace the modules X, Y, and Z of the legacy system. Accordingly, as the modules X, Y and Z are in function, the module A would be introduced and run in parallel to X and gradually, as the end-users get used to the new IS, module X would be phased out, and a similar strategy would be used for the replacement of Y and Z, with B and C respectively. In accordance with Robson (1997), this system deployment approach has a lengthy time span associated with it but is renowned to be most successful under majority of circumstances. According to McLeod (2008), parallel phased approach is deployed where the right measure of deployment is critical rather than the time taken – as mentioned, it is a time consuming mechanism but has tremendous benefits that ultimately justify its selection. Firstly, in this approach, in accordance with Bocij (2008), there is high level of user involvement, and therefore, the acceptability from the user is on the higher side. Secondly, as system gets implemented in phases, it’s easier for the end user to get a firm grip on the fundamental, generate queries, and have the same resolved to the soonest, as there is constant, regular and longer period interaction between the implementation team and the end user. Also in accordance with Laudon (2009), this approach also eases the process of end user trainings as trainings take place alongside implementation, unlike in other mechanisms whereby long trainings are followed by quick deployment, leaving end users frustrated in no man’s land. Alongside training issues, the data migration also eases up since the gradual shift allows the pertinent databases of the respective modules to be updated and only the strings attached are carried forward. 2.2. The case against direct changeover Another option for the deployment of the system would have been a direct change over approach, also known as one-shot deployment. According to Cadle (2007), in such a scenario, as the working hours complete on one day, the new system is deployed and when employees turn on their computers the next working day, there is a new IS on their computer screens. This approach is easily the least time taken approach but is not suitable under various circumstances, and the case under consideration is no different. In accordance with McNurlin (2008), the major issues of direct changeover are the employee resentment and reluctance about the new system. Though in this scenario, prior trainings are provided to the employees with in-depth instructions on how the tasks previously done on the legacy systems would be operated here with, but still this approach has the tendency of bringing operations to a halt for a certain time period because all of a sudden using a new system is not a very comfortable approach for the end users – theory is different than practical, and therefore, no matter how much class room training is provided to the end users, till they use the system themselves, it is difficult to judge their level of comfort and easy. Despite the fact that seemingly, this approach reduces time to deployment and cost associated with deployment, it has the tendency of increasing the cost of training and support as an end user starts using the new system, there would be tons of queries and support needed. Following the same, this approach does not seem viable, on a general note. However, if SMART wants to have the implementation done this way, a better way of approaching this would be that employees are given class room trainings alongside practical approach towards working on the system for example, in a two hour class room training, half an hour should be devoted whereby the employees are given access to the new system whereby they perform their routine tasks and see where they encounter any difficulty whatsoever. This way, prior to the one-shot implementation, employees can be given a good practical training on the usage of the system altogether. The following section provides brief explanation on how data would be migrated. 2.3. Data migration In accordance with Chaffey (2004), data migration is a critical factor when it comes to change-over in the information systems. The rule of thumb is either to translate all previous data into the newer system or to develop a data warehouse of the previous data, giving access to the end user to generate queries for extracting data as need be. The former is a time and cost consuming activity, therefore, the later becomes a better option. It is being proposed that the legacy data is converted to a data warehouse and say, the data from 1st of June is recorded on the new system. Subsequently, if an end user wants a data prior to that data, they would know that this data can be found in the data warehouse only. For this purpose, a specialized IT team can be developed that would have a couple of individuals from the IT department of SMART as well as participation from the implementers. The presence of SMART individuals would ensure that the redundancy of data is eliminated while individuals from the implementers would ensure that the data needed is the only data that is being captured rather than importing tons of redundant or useless data. The following section talks about the training need and the forms of training that would be provided. 2.4. Training The end users would be given specific trainings. The training model adopted would be in line with the one suggested by McManus (2002). Firstly, an overall feel of the system shall be given by giving the introduction to the system and briefing explaining its features, functions and benefits to the audience (employees) at large. In the second stage, module and department specific trainings shall be provided, whereby it would be illustrated how the new system is better than the previous one and where the efficacy of the system and the employee raises and how. During the second phase of the training, employees would be notified on how implementation would take place and in the same session, they would be given the opportunity to perform their routine tasks on a dummy system. The third phase of the training shall be given posterior to the deployment i.e. when the modules would be running parallel, there would be one or more of the implementation team members present on the respective sites to resolve any queries and to ease the process of the end users shifting to the newer IS. Apart from the training schedules, documentation are a critical aspect by means of which, SMART can keep track of the deployment activities and for the future usage. Following section is a discussion about how the documentation would take place. 2.5. Documentation There would be three major documentations needed for the deployment, as suggested by Fuller (2007): 1. The deployment policies and procedures to keep a track on how things are done; this is critically important from SMART especially for the time when support and services contract expires or when it wants to implement another system. 2. The manual on how-to-use the system for various end user groups. For this purpose, a classification or classes for the end user groups have been developed in accordance with their roles and responsibilities. Since there are more than one sites of implementation, it would be easier for the implementer to just replicate these manuals and have them disbursed. 3. Trouble Shooting manuals are very critical; though the support and services desk can be approach anytime for this but still a better practice is to have a trouble shoot manual because it would also save time for SMART. The service and support turnaround time would be a few hours minimum, but the presence of a trouble shoot manual can allow the end user to resolve the issue themselves or even ease the process of telephonic assistance. 2.6. Business change issues According to McLeod (2008), change is never easy to deploy, and even if there is full support from the management as well as the employees, still there are issues with the business. For SMART, the employee reluctance can be removed by means of parallel and phased implementation, and management support is readily there, however, the major issue for SMART is the change impact on the business. The business does not want any order to be lost or any update to be missing from the system during the course of implementation. To the best of our analyses, the parallel and phased implementation would resolve this issue as well, however, it is recommended to keep the manual logs alive till the final system goes live on the whole. This would be the most optimal way out for this scenario. 2.7. Installation schedule A Gantt chart providing the detailed plan of installation activities is present in the appendix of this report. The Gantt chart provides details on the activities included in the installation section i.e. how the phases will be conducted. Additionally, parallel activities are also illustrated as a subset to the extent they run parallel to the major activity. The following section illustrates the support aspect of this change and the support features and functions as provided by our firm – DCL. 3. Support 3.1. Support needs In accordance with Rahmatian (1995), support is a vital aspect when deploying an IT system in an organization. On a general note, the support feature is bundled with the whole package of the information system. This would be the valid case in the scenario under consideration i.e. support needed would be provided by DCL. The user groups from managerial level employees and thereon shall be given access to the DCL support, while it is advised that the user groups below that level is directed towards the in-house IT department because of the level of understanding and swiftness of the response associated with the in-house problem solving team. The need bifurcation of the groups has been decomposed in two major sections; first user group is below the managerial level and the other is managerial level and beyond. The below level would have smaller problems as their role and operation in the system would be on the lesser, and such issues are easier to resolve by the in-house IT individuals as they consult the trouble shooting manuals. For the managerial and beyond level employees, there would be direct access to DCL. For such a consultation, the turnaround time would be between 12-24 hours, depending on the time of complaint. Apart from this, DCL will keep a log of the activities and the trends of complaints and issues being reported to them as well as those tackled in-house, and accordingly, the IT team would be provided regular and periodic training, approximately every month, whereby the in-house IT team would be trained by the DCL team on the issues that have been reported in-house or to the implementer. 3.2. The NISS Help Desk Since DCL does not currently provide the support services, therefore, a department for the F&S support shall be developed. In other words, a specific help desk for services to SMART shall be developed for the time till the service contract remains valid, and beyond that, this department will seize to exist unless there is an extension for the service contract. This help desk would constitute ‘5’ individuals working as a team, and coming from backgrounds such as PC support, network support and IT support. In a few months time, two of these in-house team members would be substituted by two freshly hired individuals with command over F&S workings and troubleshooting. The help desk would be having its space on all sites of SMART, and would sit on the sites on pre-defined days of a week. The upcoming section sheds light on why outsourcing the help desk is a viable solution for SMART. 3.3. Outsourcing the Help Desk Outsourcing is one of the most escalating trends particularly when it comes to IT projects today. Outsourcing allows the business to concentrate more on its core operations rather than worrying about the non-core activities. Outsourcing has moved organizations from generalization to specialization, particularly taking toll in the HR and IT functions of an organization. In-house sourcing would imply hiring specialized work force that would not just be expensive to hire but expensive to retain as well, developing burden on the pay roll for generation of bonuses, etc. and having replacements stand-by in case these individuals plan to switch. With outsourcing, this hassle would be eliminated since SMART just pays for a contract, and rest is the responsibility of DCL i.e. providing bonuses, replacements, etc. and the biggest plus point remains that the firm should let the specialized people take care of the case. 3.4. Issue tracking and escalation It is proposed that the help desk works under the IT department on the whole, so that the issues tracking and escalation comes on the record for the in-house IT department, and monitoring of the same is made possible. Issue tracking and escalation would be formulated by means of a complaint/query log that would be maintained at the IT department. When an issue is reported, it would be given a particular reference identification, a primary key, a complaint number that would be used for tracing the problem. For example, if the issue is reported from a managerial level of above, it would be reported directly to the DCL team, which would describe the process of solution/resolution with possible time to completion. The general completion time is 24 hours maximum and if this possible time exceeds the maximum time span, there would be exception reported for which there would be explanation from DCL. At the same time, if the actual time exceeds the possible time, then there would be a similar reaction. 3.5. Support service levels The standard service level target for problem/issue resolution would be 24 hours; however, there may be exceptions depending on the complications associated with the issue under consideration and complexity may vary from scenario to scenario. Monitoring of the same would again take place in the in-house IT department, and a log of the same would also be kept at DCL to ensure compliance with the committed service level. 3.6. Benefits of the support service There are exponential benefits for SMART as it keeps a dedicated support service. The major benefit is, according to Robson (1997), the all time availability of specialized individuals to cater to any issue, need or problem; this would in-turn ensure a reduced down time for the systems, allowing systems to be functioning at the best of their abilities and skills. Apart from this, it keeps assurance in the minds of the end user who always know that their support service is readily available anytime, and therefore, their adjustment to the system becomes an easing and smooth process. 4. References Barbara McNurlin, Ralph Sprague, Tung Bui (2008) Information Systems Management – International Edition. 8th Edition. Pearson Education Dave Chaffey, Steve Wood (2004) Business Information Management – Improving Performance using Information Systems. Pearson Education James Cadle, Donald Yeates (2007) Project Management for Information Systems. 5th Edition. Pearson Education John McManus, Trevor Wood-Harper (2002) Information Systems Project Management – Methods, Tools, and Techniques. Pearson Education. Ken Laudon, Jane Laudon (2009) Management Information Systems. Global Edition. 11th Edition. Pearson Education Mark Fuller, Joe Valacich, Joey George (2007) Information Systems Project Management - A Process and Team Approach. Pearson Education Paul Bocij, Andrew Greasley, Simon Hickie (2008) Business Information Systems – Technology, Development and Management for the E-Business. 4th Edition. Pearson Education Raymond McLeod, George Schell (2008) Management Information Systems. International Edition. 10th Edition. Pearson Education Sasan Rahmatian (1995) Management Information Systems – Learning Exercises and Applications. Pearson Education Wendy Robson (1997) Strategic Management and Information Systems – An Integrated Approach. 2nd Edition. Pearson Education Appendix This is approximately a 80 days project and a safety cushion of 10% can be considered into account. Job Start Date End Date Total Days Appointments Module 15-May 25-May 10 Jobs Module 25-May 04-Jun 10 Payment Module 04-Jun 14-Jun 10 Purchase Module 14-Jun 24-Jun 10 Quotation Module 24-Jun 04-Jul 10 Registration Module 04-Jul 14-Jul 10 Sales Module 14-Jul 24-Jul 10 Stock Module 24-Jul 03-Aug 10 Suppliers Module 03-Aug 13-Aug 10 FROSTIE to SCIMITAR Interface 13-Aug 23-Aug 10 FROSTIE to SEAMS Interface 23-Aug 02-Sep 10 Read More