Providing the Competitive Advantages in Companys Core Business - Essay Example

Topic: the objective of this assignment that you research your organisation in terms of strategic planning that have been conducted at the company with focus on providing the company with competitive advantages in its core business. Emirates Identity Authority- Introduction - Strategic Planning This report studies the Emirates Identity Authoritys (EIDA) project EIDA to identify the factors contributing to its success and also the driving forces for the same. It also explores the strategies that the team has adopted to implement the project. Methodology used to create the strategy - Use of technology extensively Register population Implement the project to enable sustainable development of the economy Cutting edge technology with the state-of-theart infrastructre are intended to be used with further implementation of the project by registering and issuing ID cards to all the citizens. The common database will be used to increase the efficiency of the departments across the country. Vision - One-card system by 2011 The main purpose of the project is to have a one-card system by the year 2011 (AMG,2008) that enables the government to achieve a strategic plan for governance and help the economic growth of the country. This initiative by the government is in line with its efforts to strategically upgrade the countrys infrastructure to implement and support further development in all shperes of its functioning (Shelter Offshore, 2009). To achieve this, the population of the states need to register and obtain an Identity card that would serve for almost every purpose in that country. Mission - Integrated functionality in all departments Consolidate unstructured data Centralised database Identity cards for availing federal and local goernments services UAEs mission through the strategic planning and implementation of this EIDA project to integrate all of the departments functionality with the best tools available. Hence, it zeroed in on Microsofts tool that would facilitate internal collaboration between all departments, and consolidate any unstructured data. To achieve this target, it has decided to create a centralised database for population registration with the vital statistics and personal data that help in confirming an individuals identity to avail the federal and local governments services (Headline Abu Dhabi, 2009). Strategic directions - Implement centralised database Use Microsoft Dynamics GP Population registry and issue of ID cards Strategic planning for governmental activities for economic growth UAE has first identified EIDA to carry out this massive project of registering and issuing of ID cards after the initial stage of project planning and also obtain the required infrastructure needed for implementing the same towards enabling a sustainable development (Headline Abu Dhabi, 2009). EIDA has been able to install the tools needed in these countries in phases with little effort with the support of the Microsoft team. These parties studied the existing infrastructure which consisted of distributed softwares for accounting, human resources, etc which were more or less incompatible with one another. Further, the various departments were also not integrated and needed to share a common database to work efficiently. The team took about six months to install the Microsoft Dynamics tool and get the tool working in all departments and offices. The next step in the strategic plan was to categorize the population and get them to register in phases, whihc is in progress. the population has been divided into three categories namely the skilled workers, the professionals and the unskilled workers. Regular advertisements and announcements are also made to this effect for the citizens to register by providing the required documentation. To get a card you first have to have your visa, health card and residency permit in place (shelter offshore, 2009). Business analysis - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) An analysis of the business has been done prior to planning and the SWOT analysis along with the studying other models as part of the strategy formation for this project. While having an integrated database has been the most attractive feature in the plan which definitely can be a powerful and simple tool for the government to further implement its developmental strategies, an underlying threat in the form of inefficient database or security concerns or even misuse of the same can poe a threat if a strong and efficeint security system is not in place. Another strength of the system can be identified as the ability to process data at a faster pace as compared to the existing abilities of the database system. The chance to upgrade the existing infrastructure can be seen as an opportunity to implement cutting edge technology that can make work easier and efficient. Allocating a decent amount of revenue to implement this system and ensuring that the citizens enrol in the gien time can be considered a weakness in the whole process. However, this can be a small task when compared to the advatages or strengths it has on the whole. Strategic management processes that are implemented - Financial, Training and Human resources UAE has a decent framework for the accounting services in almost all the departments as the financial infrastructure can be enabled by the use of MS Excel which these departments use efficiently. These have also been using a range of softwares for the human resources sector with most of them isolated. Further, the financial and the human resource data is not integrated and do not collaborate with each other, thus increasing the risk of duplicate, inaccurate records and increased time to process the work. Hence, EIDA has decided to utilize the common database to share data among the different departments like the Finance, Human resource and Training departments among others, and decrease the response time, increase communication to enable efficient work and attain a level of transparency in the operations of the various departments (QPR, 2007, p2) Key strategic decisions that have been taken - document and communicate processes minimizing the response time maximizing transparency and knowledge transfer time and resource saving reducing bureaucracy motivation team towards increased commitment and share responsibility 34 strategic projects A few of the key strategic decisions that the project team has taken, are to document and communicate the entire process of the project implementation along with its uses thereby making the process more transparent which can motivate the employees towards greater commitment and shouldering responsibility. This aim at transparency enables knowledge transfer to become smooth and reduces time and resource consumption while reducing bureaucracy and further encouraging the employees to participate proactively in discharging their duties (QPR, 2007, p2). The team has also decided to put 34 strategic projects to realize the EIDA project (QPR, 2007, p1). Strategic alignment - All departments and processes are integrated As the existing system extensively uses MS Excel for the financial sector and the other sectors too use the Microsoft Office as a tool to implement technology in their departments, Microsofts Dynamics PG tool is found to be an efficient tool to integrate into the exisitng infrastruture without much effort and also the Dynamics tool is found to be simple and serving the purpose of the project plan. Type of strategy used - Activity based strategy- For registration Resource based strategy- For infrastructure enhancement and project implementation It is seen that the project is planned with the available resources and can be considered to be both activity based and resource based as the case may be. While the implementation has been categorized based on the resources available and needed by the individual departments, the registeration of the citizens has been planned based on the activity of individual. Further, three categories of activities have been identified based on which the categorization of the citizens has been done. These are the diploma-degree holders working, administrative and craft sectors, and the unskilled workers (AMG, 2008). Role of information technology in making the strategy successful - Innovated solutions The EIDA has enabled the reduction in cost of operations while increasing the employee productivity by almsot 50% with the implementation of the project. The powerful monitoring, financial and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are expected to make the processes more efficient once the project is fully implemented in 2011 when the government starts using the system for sustainable development and economic growth in the future. This project is expected to enable the economic growth of the countries at a faster pace in the near future (Microsoft Case Studies, 2009). References- Emirates Identity Authority releases enrolment plan for expats. AMG. 22nd December, 2008. http://www.arabmediagrouponline.com/English/News/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?newsId=826. ID Cards in Dubai and the Emirates Identity Authority. Shelter Offshore. 26th November, 2008. http://www.shelteroffshore.com/index.php/living/more/id-cards-dubai-emirates-identity-authority-10186/. Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA). Abu Dhabi Government. 2009. http://www.emiratesid.ae/mainenglish.html. Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) Uses QPR ProcessGuide and QPR ScoreCard to Deploy its Processes and Monitor their Performance. QPR Software Plc. 2007. pp 1,2. http://www.qpr.com/EmiratesIdentityAuthoritySuccessStory.pdf. Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) - UAE ID Authority Boosts Productivity by 50 Per Cent with Business Management Tool. Microsoft Case Studies. 12th March, 2009. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000003857. Slides for the presentation- 1. Introduction -> Strategic Planning 2. Methodology used to create the strategy -> Use of technology extensively Register population Implement the project to enable sustainable development of the economy 3. Vision -> One-card system by 2011 4. Mission -> Integrated functionality in all departments Consolidate unstructured data Centralised database Identity cards for availing federal and local goernments services 5. Strategic directions -> Implement centralised database Use Microsoft Dynamics GP Population registry and issue of ID cards Strategic planning for governmental activities for economic growth 6. Business analysis -> Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) 7. Strategic management processes that are implemented - > Financial, Training and Human resources 8. Key strategic decisions that have been taken -> document and communicate processes minimizing the response time maximizing transparency and knowledge transfer time and resource saving reducing bureaucracy motivation team towards increased commitment and share responsibility 34 strategic projects 9. Strategic alignment -> All departments and processes are integrated 10. Type of strategy used -> Activity based strategy- For registration Resource based strategy- For infrastructure enhancement and project implementation 11. Role of information technology in making the strategy successful -> Innovated solutions Read More