Prioritizing the IT Project Portfolio - Report Example

Prioritizing the IT Project Portfolio Institute Company Portfolio The A.P. Moller - Maersk Group (2009) is a worldwide organization with about120,000 employees and offices in around 130 countries – with global headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition to owning one of the world’s largest shipping companies, it has also gained a name in oil and gas exploration around the world. We shall be discussing the following four IT systems that are successfully deployed and running at Maersk: MARS SCV Payroll System and Time Management System Foresight MARS MARS (Maersk Automated Routing System) is one of the most important systems of the organization as it provides all the routes on which they supply goods. Every route will have its duration, price, number of stops along the way fed in the system. Analysis Revenue Generation The sales employees are dependant on this system for their sales deals as it enables them to give their customers correct and timely information regarding all the possible routes around the world. The real-time information helps them in making more sales and thus generates revenue for the company. Cost Cutting in doing business The automated system already has all the calculated data fed in it; regarding all the freights and custom duty charges etc. On the contrary, employees would have to work with the figures on every sales deal. This reduces the man-hours of the company and hence cuts cost. As soon as a sales deal is entered in the system; an automated assignment of vessel takes place ceasing any requirement of manual work. Project is mandated by Federal, State, County or local laws or executive orders. MARS is not mandated by any law or executive order and is simply a tool designed to facilitate the business of shipping at Maersk. Similar project undertaken by a Competitor Many shipping organizations have automated routing systems but this system has an edge over the others as it has a very reliable mode of preserving history of the shipments. The information is stored on a server maintained by IBM, which is very necessary for revenue generation reports etc. SCV SCV (Single Customer View) is the system that records all the data of the customers. It has the customer’s personal information and their company’s information. The system is also interconnected with MARS to streamline the process of sale. Analysis Revenue Generation SCV is interconnected with MARS; therefore it is indirectly involved in generating revenue for the organization. It is a sale supporting tool because a sales deal will not be complete without a comprehensive data of the respective client. Reports can be generated regarding the statistics of the frequent customers. More revenue can be generated by giving special routing rates to the frequent customers. Cost Cutting in doing business Every customer’s data is preserved in the system so that their information is not fed at every sales deal. SCV is very useful in maintaining a single identity of a customer. This is to ensure that only one sales employee deals with a single customer rather than getting service from two employees at the same time; thus saving man-hours of the employees. Project is mandated by Federal, State, County or local laws or executive orders. This system is not mandated by any law. Similar project undertaken by a Competitor Moreover, every business that deals with customers has to deploy a similar system in their organizations as it helps to maintain a history regarding their clients and can hold them accountable for any non-payments for the company’s services. Payroll and Time Management System According to RaviRaj Technologies (2007), Payroll and Time Management System is deployed to facilitate payroll processing, payroll tax filing and employee time keeping services. Analysis Revenue Generation Payroll system is not directly involved in generating any revenue for the organization. Cost Cutting in doing business As a result, the system cuts down on administrative time, safeguards from error, and save a good amount of money that could have been lost due to mishandled time cards and employees punching in for each other. Project is mandated by Federal, State, County or local laws or executive orders. According to Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (2009): ISO 9000 is intended for use in any organization regardless of size, type or product (including service). It provides a number of requirements which an organization needs to fulfill to achieve customer satisfaction through consistent products and services which meet customer expectations. It includes a requirement for continual improvement of the Quality Management System and that routine operations are automated. The payroll system automates many operations and therefore brings the company a step closer in attaining the certification. Similar project undertaken by a Competitor Payroll Systems are deployed in many organizations nowadays but all of them have their own distinct features; such a feature is finger-print generated time-keeping facility. This feature is not too common as yet but slowly gaining its pace. Foresight Foresight is a sale projection tool; which helps in projecting the amount of vessel space required by each region within a certain period of time (e.g. months). Analysis Revenue Generation Each region issues a request for the amount of space in the vessel that they aim to achieve in the following months. The decision makers at Maersk Headquarters at Copenhagen, Denmark; analyze all the requests from their different regional offices and grant their requests in such an approach that they would generate maximum profits but at the same time fulfill the region’s requests in an efficient manner. Cost Cutting in doing business Every region is granted a specific amount of vessel space according to their respective need; in this way all the vessel space is utilized in an optimum manner rather than wasting cost of the vessel space. Project is mandated by Federal, State, County or local laws or executive orders. This software is not mandated by any law and is purely customized for Maersk for its efficient consumption of vessel space and vessel routing cost. Similar project undertaken by a Competitor This system has not been witnessed at any other shipping line as yet. Conclusion According to the Likert Scale (2009); Scale of Prioritization: 5 - Very Important 4 - Important 3 - Moderately important 2 - Slightly important 1 - Not important MARS SCV Payroll System Foresight Drive Revenue 5 3 1 4 Cuts cost 5 3 3 4 Mandated 1 2 4 1 Competitor 4 4 3 4 Total 15 12 11 13 After evaluating the relevance of the systems, they can be prioritized in the following sequence: 1. MARS 2. Foresight 3. SCV 4. Payroll and Time management System References A.P. Moller - Maersk Group. (2009). About Maersk http://www.maersk.com/en/Pages/Welcome.aspx Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2009). ISO 9000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000 RaviRaj Technologies. (2007). TimeTRONIX Online Payroll Solution. http://www.ravirajtech.com/timetronix-automatic-payroll-solution-bioMetric.html Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2009). Likert Scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale Read More