IT Company Upgrade - Christa Group - Essay Example

Company IT Upgrade Background Christa group for security provides a broad range of services to a broad range of They provide innovative and tailor made solutions that suit their client’s individual needs. Their extensive portfolio includes online transactions, courier services, physical security systems such as alarms, and car hiring. Their highly qualified staffs develop and implement the best technical security systems to meet the exact need of their clients. They also work with and acquire like-minded companies to help them serve their ever growing clientele. These companies are thoroughly scrutinized to ensure they meet both their and their clients’ high standards. History Christa group was established in 1988 and was incorporated into Delaware two years later. Since then they have acquired security companies like hightech security in 1998, dimension data in 2000 and many others. They have also worked with like-minded companies like technology associates in 1995, and breakthrough technologies in 1999 to mention but a few. They continue their operations guided by the Delaware state laws. Organizational chart PRESIDENT V.P FINANCE & PLANNING V.P SALES & MARKETING V.P OPERATIONS MANAGER ACCOUNTING MANAGER PLANNING MANAGER MARKETING MANAGER SALES MANAGER DEVELOPMENT MANAGER CONSULTANCY MANAGER HUMAN RESOURCE Departments The company has seven main departments namely; consultancy, development, human resource, sales, marketing, planning, and accounting. The planning department is responsible for formulating long term, short term, and annual development and financial plans for the company. The accounting department is responsible for keep records of receipts and expenditures in the company on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. These two departments are headed by the company’s vice president in charge of finance and planning. The human resource department is responsible for hiring members of staff; this involves attracting new employees and keeping all positions in the organizations filled with highly qualified and motivated staff. The consultancy department meets with prospective clients who have requested a new security system, and also look for opportunities i.e. other organizations that would require a new system or improvement of their existing one. This department is responsible for advising the clients accordingly. Another department is the development one responsible for development of the technical security solution suggested by the consultancy department. They also develop systems for individual use. These three departments are headed by the vice president of operations. Two departments under this section of the organization are responsible for generation of revenues for the company. The sales department is responsible for attracting and retaining of clients. The marketing department is responsible for the following four main tasks; Provide leadership on serving the clients better Support sales team and distribution partners Manage advertisement and promotions Manage client relations These two departments are under the overall leadership of the vice president sales and marketing. Mission statement To become a world leader in the provision of technical solutions to all our clients. Business model Our business model will outline our strategies to provide the best technical solutions to all our clientele. Our products are aimed at small medium and large organizations. To generate additional funds, advanced security systems for use by the general public will be developed. We have two main departments who will help the company achieve its goals namely; the consultancy department that will offer consultation services to our clients and the development department that will develop and implement the solutions provided by the consultation department for the clients. The development department will also be responsible for development of systems for personal use. In this particular case it is of paramount importance to know exactly what the targeted users want. This is where the consultancy department will be greatly used. This department will have to get as much information as it can about the preferences and the requirements of the customers. After this has been done the production department will be charged with the responsibility of coming up with the exact product which the clients want. Precision is of great importance in this case. D. Current system information The company currently uses an old system developed by Dijkstra technologies in 2003 that runs on windows XP. The system offers the following functions; i. Allows users to save and retrieve E-mails. ii. Allows users to store, view, and save clients information. iii. Allows the finance department to register transactions and generate receipts for clients. The system uses MySQL for database management. The database is used for storage of clients’ information, storage of E-mails, and storage of transactions. To access the services provided by the system, all staff users are required to login by providing their correct details i.e. username and password. It also provides restrictions to the information certain members of staff can and cannot access. The top management can access all the data in databases. The finance department can access the transaction and receipt generation modules. The information on the current system was got from the documentation handed to the I.T manager in 2003 when Dijkstra technologies finished the implementation of the system. Additional information was gotten from one of Dijkstra’s engineers involved in the development and deployment of the system. Most of the users of the system feel there can be improvements to the system as it has become slow and its maintenance is becoming expensive. It is particularly important to consider what the users of the system feel because in most cases they are the individuals who interact with the system almost on a daily basis. There are various motivating reasons that may make the upgrade of the current systems necessary. In this case it is of essence to examine each one of them in order to have a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. Reasons for Upgrade 1. To Improve on the system security The nature of operations of the firm make it rather necessary to have a stronger system security as opposed to what is already there. As has already been mentioned the database contains information that can only be accessed by certain members of staff. This, however, does not mean that the other unauthorized individuals cannot access the system. There should be additional seals that will make sure the loopholes currently exhibited by the system are permanently sealed for the benefit of the company and also its clientele. 2. In order to fix bugs This is a phenomena that is exhibited in almost all systems that are there in existence. Any particular system that is developed cannot be said to be bug-free. These bugs s it were are not usually introduces by the software developers but in most cases they come up in the course of utilization of the system or the software. With this knowledge it can be seen that nowadays most bug fixes are made available on the internet. Even though these may work for some time, it does not necessarily mean that they will fix the bugs that may be present in the system. 3. Compliance with Legislation It should also be considered that time is dynamic and the legislations that were being implemented at the time the system was being developed may have changed making the system redundant in the process. This leaves the management with no other alternative but to engage in system upgrade that is in accordance with the laws that are currently being implemented. 4. The issue of external dependencies In most cases it is usually seen that the major external issue is to do with technology. Changing technology may make the available system and the software that is used rather redundant. The current operating system that is used in the system is windows XP. It can be seen that the current software that are being used may not be compatible with changes that may be taking place with technology. Even if the operating system is changed to something like Windows Vista, Windows 7 or even Windows 8, it does not necessarily mean that the those softwares that were initially used on Windows XP will be compatible with the new operating system and will actually necessitate an overhaul of the softwares that are currently in the system. Proposed Changes The system that is currently available at the disposal of the firm suits its needs to a greater extent. However, this system has to be tailored in such a way that will make it compatible to the technology that is there at the present day. This should not downplay the fact that customer satisfaction is also important and at the same time the implementation of the company objectives. As it has already been established the company deals with a large amount of information. For this reason the database that is there should be one that is foolproof and at the same time very secure. The fact that there is already an existing security system and in this case the use of login details is just not enough. What can be added to this system in this case is the use of log files. These are important in the sense that the information to do with the people who use the system is stored. At the same time the activities which they undertake at the time they have access to the system can also be examined. This prevents the issue of people engaging in unscrupulous activities. Another proposal in relation to the available system is that there has to be a way through which all the departments can be able to access certain information from each other at the time that they need it. This is so because even though they are different entities, they still function under one company and there is some information that may also be relevant to more than one department. Conclusion The need for system upgrades in the present business environment has become something that is more rather inevitable. This is if the firm in question has the intention of having an upper hand in the way it runs its business. The continual use of old or outdated systems can be rather detrimental to the system. It is also seen that through the upgrades that can be done will make the system rather cheaper to maintain. This is so because most elements of these systems are usually incorporated into each other. With this same undertaking it is also seen that the productivity of the system will also be improved. Generally speaking system upgrade is something that should be embraced by not only by Christa but by any other company that wishes to improve on the way it runs its services. References Dennis, Wixom, & Roth. (2009). System Analysis and Design (4th Ed.). New Jersey: John Willey & Sons, Inc. Shelly, B.G., Rosenblat, J.H. (2011). System Analysis and Design (9th Ed.). United States of America: Cengage Learning. Ulrich, Karl & Eppinger, Steven (2000), Product Design and Development, Second Edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston Read More