Choose one of the 5 questions - Essay Example

The purpose of this research paper is to summarize the company’s strategic plan for the next three to five years. In discussing, this document will describe the company’s overall business strategy and IT department strategic plan in ensuring that it align with the business priorities and financial justifications. Further, the researcher will be looking at some of the current strategic issues the company is facing. Business Strategy and Capabilities Medtronic is a global company whose headquarter is located in Minneapolis Minnesota.

Historically, the company started developing their facilities in 1967 when the first service center was created in Amsterdam’s Schipohl followed by Kerkrade located in Netherlands. Today, the company has expanded so much that there are facilities all over in the world. It is important to understand how the company has been progressing for the past years and the main challenges that need to be met to achieve their strategic plan. According to Medtronic, Inc, for the past five years, the company has shown a remarkable growth in sales and revenue (Ford, 2013 B).

Despite the noted progress, the company has identified a number of challenges that needed to be solved. . In this case, the IT cost drivers should be considered when establishing the company’s strategies and objectives as discussed in the following section. Establishing Priorities Studies show that, Medtronic IT department provides the company with excellent products and services across the globe (Michelson, 2013). To fully succeed in the competitive world, IT departments needs to understand the functional team required and how they can utilize their services to solve the challenges identified.

For instance, the IT department needs to develop software that tracks the clinical trial data; the company needs to look into China or India since these countries have a high number of graduates’ students each year who are competent and experienced and they would cost the company one quarter of the salaries they would earn in the United States (DeRosa, 2013). Furthermore, this report makes the following suggestion, for the IT department, as a means of solving their challenges. First, the department needs to create a strong IT team that would support and implement the goals and objectives set by the strategy team.

There is a need to have a team that would conduct analysis that would enhance positive growth in the company and ensure that there is a small group of IT staff that facilitate daily activities (Oppenheimer, 2013). The IT standardization would help the Company to lower costs and provide opportunities to innovate new products. Overall, the IT department’s information of the business world would help the company achieve its missions and values. Background Medtronic is headquartered in Minneapolis and was founded in the year 1949.

It is an international supplier of