Information Systems for Managers

1. Farokh Motorwala is the CTO at D'Costa Cosmetics in Hyderabad, Farokh wants to revamp
the firm's IT Infrastructure and align it to the Corporate Strategy.
In order to do this, what are the Technical and Business Considerations for Farokh? What are
the Laws of IT Infra which Farokh must keep in mind?

SOLUTION

Introduction

Farokh is keen to revamp D'Costa Cosmetics IT Infrastructure and align it to the Corporate Strategy.
So, he must study the fact the divide between business and IT is so culturally evident that it reads like
a workplace joke's punchline. The business folks consider technology is just about turning on or off
PCs as and when needed and the tech-savvy employees don't read the nerve center of what the
business is doing.

Of course, there is a divide between people who work in traditionally defined business units and those
who work in IT. This divide was intentional in the initial stage, but as technology slowly came to its
substantial importance, suddenly a requirement popped up for local and global businesses, this divide
is now seen as a hindrance and naïve. Companies these days recognize the need to align business with
IT. A recent Gartner report predicts that worldwide half of organizations have achieved increased IT-
business collaboration by 2022. Though, the problem is that IT-business alignment isn't easy to
achieve.

IT and Business: problems experienced in the current scenario.

Most companies are in view that IT and business aren't working as closely as they should have been
to optimize their product delivery service. What might be the oft-cited reason? The working of
technology is very different from the traditional business units. Other reasons come into perspective
that stereotypes perpetuate misconceptions about how IT sees business and vice versa. Personnel,
who are not IT savvy, think IT is too technical to comprehend, and they might fail to recognize that
IT takes part in core revenue-generating activities like customer service, sales, marketing, etc.
Though, in the 21st century, these stereotypes are changing, and so, different disciplines do
inherently have their incentives, languages, cultures, objectives, and skillsets. That is why, some
people are more comfortable working with spreadsheets and numbers, while writing makes sense for
some people.

Despite the elevation of roles like CIOs and CTOs, tech leadership does not cease to report significant
struggles when they attempt to collaborate with business units. Hence, there is always an easily
noticed some types or other problematic business-IT relationship. This indicates that these differences
are hurting many businesses, as they often demonstrate peculiar problems like:

· Expensive investments with unexpected ROI.

Limited success and/or underperformance.

· Bottlenecks that impede service delivery, perhaps via buggy or slow deployments

· Lackluster or confused customer service

· Obstacles (conceivably outright fighting) between solutions and processes.

· Poor support & communication for potential customers and end users.

Obstacles

Today every organization is out & out of a technology business, no matter what service or product
you offer. This shift is unavoidable, and with it comes the concept of alignment of IT business. That
is why IT enables business while business drives IT efforts. Hence, both are revenue-generating, and
neither is less necessary.

Definition of “alignment” for business and IT

The concept of business and IT alignment is rooted in the longstanding reality that the business folks
and the tech side were unable to bridge their communication, knowledge, and skills gaps to work in
tandem so that they can support successful service delivery.

Benefits of aligning IT and business

· The reductions in IT expenses (even a minimum of 10% of IT spending, hardly benefits any

of the business goals)

Aligning business with IT always results in innumerable benefits:

Increases collaborations

Fine-tunes investments and improves ROI

· Accentuates visibility into problem areas

· Speeds up time-to-market

· Upskills your employee and industry knowledge

· Synchronizes all units to become agile

· Achieves your strategy

All these boost your bottom line, and benefits result in top customer experiences.

It helps in making smarter decisions in every area, viz. application life-cycles,

infrastructure design, marketing and sales, planning and budgeting, outsourcing, partnerships,

staffing, vendors, etc.

Achieving IT-business alignment is always the best practices

Discussing alignment, and resultantly achieving it, denote two separate things. Achieving true IT-
business alignment is rather a hard job, mainly because it's cultural by practicality. Culture changes
might seem easy—encourage department meet-and-greets— hang up value-based posters -- but those
efforts rarely succeed. On the contrary, achieving alignment needs a strategy. And that strategy
should be an iterative process: this mandates defining one change, putting that change in place,
watching the change perform, and finalizing whether to tweak it or not. Consider the Plan-Do-Check-
Act cycle, so that changes can be implemented.
Consider these best practices to align IT and business:

Change your doing & change your thinking --- Think of your entire business units, those must include
tech, in a continuous as well as strategic loop. Changing your thinking reveals teams start
understanding other teams too so that all teams can function better, reduce risk and increase
efficiency.

Consider IT as a business transforming instrument --- If you're curious to know how IT can support
others business units like sales, marketing, product development, etc. you're still running after an
archived approach. Expectedly, you explore revenue streams, so that IT can directly impact
Make the ambiance of a customer experience the #1 factor -- Aligning everyone under common goals
and language that will be directly supportive to the customer, will be easier to break down discipline
silos of traditional types. Make sure your tech teams can focus directly on the customer too.

Use a single language -- Every company and every industry has its lingo. Help in demystifying what
every team does -- here you start by standardizing your enterprise's language across all departments.
Remain transparent to all departments -- Discontinuing the theme of unnecessary mysteries, instead,
management and executive decisions should be transparent. Example--If it seemed your CTO simply
trusted his gut and/or your manager played favorites all these are big clues that your organization is
not being as transparent as it should be.

Infrastructure Law Farokh has to follow

For the BASE STATIONS, the deployment of the infrastructure must be adhered to the "Law for the
Strengthening the Telecommunications Infrastructure’s Expansion, (i.e. Law No. 29022) and its
related regulations, and requisite amendments whose purpose is to establish a temporary, yet special
regime to implement the type of infrastructure necessary for the provision of public
telecommunications services all through the national territory, particularly in rural areas.
FHWA estimate, i.e. Highway Authorizations Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Nonetheless,
Infrastructure Law does not relate to the issues that concern land tenants who occupy a property or
plot without the requisite land title claiming ownership. Overall, the aim of the Infrastructure Law is
not only to streamline but also to standardize environmental licensing and land acquisition processes
in transport infrastructure projects.

Conclusion

Farokh's keenness to revamp D'Costa Cosmetics IT infrastructure and also align it to the corporate
strategy must take care of the above important points. He is also expected to take care of rotating
business and IT employees to encourage understanding, promote an inclusive and vibrant culture,
understand changes in humans, and finally, create an alignment plan with exclusiveness.

2. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian government-owned oil and gas
explorer and producer. BPCL's CEO is K. Padmakar. In this role, what is the Focus of the
CEO's role (i.e. Objectives, Kinds of Decisions, the information needed, Timeframes, etc.)?
What are the Primary IS & Supporting IS Used (Description Data Types, Kind of Data, Type of
Processing, which provides data to these IS)?

SOLUTION

Introduction
Arthur D Little, Inc. (ADL). played a very significant role in bringing in a change initiative in BPCL
that started towards the end of 1996. In co-creating a vision for the company, the methodology of
ADL involved a cross-section of the organization, who all determined the company's current reality,
conceptualized the gaps between current reality, and vision, and finally evolved a change plan to
bridge these gaps. The emergence of customer focus took place as the overriding dimension of this
exercise. Therefore, the change initiative of the company down the line was transformed into a
program called — Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction(CUSECS).

SBUs (Strategic Business Units)

The change plan, in tangible terms, resulted in radical and restructuring delayering of the
organization. It abolished the earlier departmental silos while creating six strategic business units
(SBUs), viz., Refinery, Industrial and Commercial, and Aviation, Retail, LPG, and Lubricants; in
addition to sharing services and support entities such as finance, information systems, human
resources, etc. As compared to the previous seven or six layers, the new structure came up with four
layers. According to (Senge, 1990), it involved in intangible terms, change processes that would
transform BPCL into a learning organization.

Since the entire change plan required effective integration and had to be premised on a massive
increase in the organization’s information intensity. It was envisioned that to a great extent, IT
would contribute to this and thus began the project to evolve as an information system for the
organization.

BPCL’s IS Plan

The IS plan of BPCL envisaged the comprehensive system's creation for supporting the business
aspirations of the company. A small team of nine people drawn from the CUSECS and IS programs
set out to map the existing business systems (legacy systems) and also the future needs characterized
by resource optimization, customer focus, integration, and flexibility. The team concluded that it was
essential to replace the prevalent "batch-process-oriented legacy systems” with a “state-of-the-art
ERP system”. The IS plan team, as part of the selection process, mapped all the major processes in
BPCL with the help of conceptual insights and people identified as possessing expertise in their
business areas through a series of process workshops, and conclusively came up with over 600
process maps. These workshops were conducted at all 4 regional headquarters, viz., Mumbai,
Calcutta, Delhi, and Chennai. The team a comprehensive questionnaire, developed a detailed
requirement-list, based on these processes, and finally came up with some scripts so that they could
capture credible business scenarios.

Validating or pre-selecting the ERP products

The questionnaire and requirement list served the purpose of validating or pre-selecting the ERP
products for detailed evaluation, while the scripts were used in the final evaluation of the product.
While the team was preparing itself for the ERP products' objective evaluation, it was the supporting
functional entities and SBUs that had to own it up. As per one IS team member, "Sheer vastness and
the intrinsic complexity of ERP packages in itself posed an intimidating challenge, however, the
bigger challenge lay in enrolling all the stakeholders in the selection process". A series of educative
workshops were conducted for the Entity/SBU heads and their teams on aspects that ranged from
basic concepts to architectural specifics of ERP products.
These presentations were extended to a wider cross-section of people in the organization at a later
stage. Each vendor, after deciding upon the possible ERP vendors, was asked to put up presentations
to an identified set of over 100 people from different businesses. The objective of putting up these
presentations was to make key people clear their doubts, understand the working of ERP systems,
create a felt need in them and eventually make them commit themselves to ERP in their
implementation of respective businesses. Each business, by following this process, came out with its
expected qualitative as well as quantitative benefits, which formed the basis for the approval of the
project.

For finding the 'best fit ERP package for the current and future needs of BPCL, a detailed technical
selection process was undertaken. For the implementation of this best-fit ERP package, SAP R/3
software was selected.

Project ENTRANS

A short form for Enterprise Transformation i.e. ENTRANS name was decided by the top
management for the project that implemented their SAP R/3 project. The name represented the vision
of BPCL's top management to transform BPCL and make it a new BPCL. The uniqueness of BPCL's
ERP implementation is that it has been a robust business initiative that too right from the project's
conception. "We just performed the necessary catalytic role", paradoxically, this expression of pride
or egoism is noteworthy from the Head of IT in BPCL.

Although during the phase of software selection, on account of the criticality of technological issues,
BPCL’s IS had to get into the role of a process anchor, and subsequently, the implementation phase
was led by a non-IS person. The person, Mr. Shrikant Gathoo, who eventually headed the project was
an HR professional. The notable feature of the IS plan team was that it had only ten persons from IS,
the rest of the 60 come from various business disciplines. A PSC (Project Steering Committee) was
constituted with the heads of all the HR, IS, SBUs, and Finance as its members. The PSC's mandate
was to validate decisions taken by the project team, and then take decisions on interfacing the Entity /
inter SBU issues, followed by identifying and soliciting decisions from the Apex Council (that was
formed by the working members of the board of directors) on issues with wider organizational
/strategic implications, providing resources, and reviewing the project's progress. The PSC used to
meet at least once a month and as and when the issues mandated resolution.

Conclusion

BPCL ‘s two-phase implementation was worked out to implement almost all the SAP R/3 modules.
The implementation was to be completed in two phases. The first phase was constituted of the
Conceptual Design and Planning (CDP) while the second phase was designed for the Detailed Design
and Implementation (DDI). The necessity of engaging an external agency — an SAP Implementation
Partner having relevant expertise and experience — was generally agreed upon. It was the PWC
(Price Waterhouse Coopers) who were selected, through a bidding process for the CDP phase, as the
implementing partner.

3. Jennifer Roberts has just been hired as the CIO at Hawthorne Investments. During her
interview, Vijay Ananth, the CEO, tasked Jennifer with the responsibility of revamping the
firm's IT Infrastructure. Now that Jennifer has come on board, she is keen to get started on the
Infra Revamp initiative and has targeted BYOD as her first initiative.

a. What is BYOD? Explain the three (3) levels of BYOD. (5 Marks)

SOLUTION
Introduction

Jennifer Roberts's keenness to go ahead with the Infra Revamp initiative Hawthorne Investments and
has started her journey by targeting BYOD as her first initiative. As the requirement of the
assignment, I need to highlight a few of the important Tips for establishing a successful BYOD policy
in the company.

Anyone like Jennifer is in the process of developing a corporate BYOD (Bring Your Device) policy,
still hasn't gotten around to creating a policy yet, or might already have one that is outdated, the
following few tips that will help in addressing IT security, IT service, application use, and many other
components, as in Figure 1.

1. Specify only the permitted devices

The older days were simple and clear. You had a blackberry that you used to bring with you for work
and nothing else. However, employees are pampered with choices, with a whole variety of devices
from Android phones to iOS-based mobiles. Above all, it is important to specify what exactly is
meant by 'BYOD'. Should you instead be saying bring your iOS device and not your Android device?
Or should you be saying bring your no other gadgets, except your iPad? You need to clarify what
devices can be used, and what devices are acceptable by the enterprise.

2. A strict security policy should be established for all devices that enter the premises.
Generally, device users refuse to move to lock passwords and screens on their devices. They face
hindrances towards the ease of access to the content on their device and also their functionalities.
However, this is not a very valid complaint. A lot of sensitive information becomes accessible by
connecting phones and other devices to corporate servers. If employees are interested to adopt the
BYOD initiative, they need to configure their devices with complex passwords for protection. A
lengthy and strong alphabetical password needs to be put in place – not merely a four-digit one.
3. Defining a clear service policy for devices under the BYOD system is a must

It is a must that the management needs to set the boundaries when it comes to questions about
employees' devices and resolving problems there-in. Policy-makers will need to answer the following
questions, to enable themselves to implement this:

What all will be the policies for supporting personally owned applications? What support needs to be
provided for devices that might get damaged? Will your management limit the Helpdesk to ticketing
problems with calendaring, email, and other personal information management-type applications?

4. Clear needs of all forms of communication to be applied on who owns what apps and data.

While it may look logical for the organization to own sole rights to the personal information that is
stored on the servers, problems are sure to arise when wiping the device in case of theft or other
intricacies.

Conclusion
As per the conventional system, when a device is wiped, all digital elements on the device are erased
as well, which might include personal items that the individual might have paid for. Sometimes, these
items are irreplaceable.

Thus, there arises a valid question -- whether the BYOD policy that is created will allow the wiping
of the entire device that is brought into the network?

b. What are the Pros & Cons (2 each) of BYOD? (5 Marks)

SOLUTION

Introduction

BYOD or Bring Your Device is the latest IT trend in town. It is a practice under which, employees
are encouraged to make use of their devices to access systems and data of the enterprise. Being a
small part of the larger trend of ‘IT consumerization’ – where software and hardware of the customer
are allowed into organizational premises – BYOD is such a movement that can affect from the CEO
to the hourly worker, i.e. each individual in the company.

The IT department's struggle to stay on top of constant technological changes is vigorous even these
days. The system has emerged as an increasing desire among employees who carry their own devices
for accessing corporate data. The umbrella-term BYOD (Bring Your Device) has also come to refer
to several other initiatives such as BYOT (Bring Your Technology), BYOPC (Bring Your PC ), and
BYOP (Bring Your Phone). These initiatives have emerged as the empowerment of the workforce
and also aligning them with the concept of 'IT consumerization.

The BYOD policy & its Pros and Cons

The Pros

As mentioned above, BYOD has many a merit:

1. Ensures employee satisfaction

2. Improves user engagement
3. Brings down technology costs for field service firms
4. Takes newer devices’ advantage and their cutting-edge features.
5. Cost Savings --- Renting or purchasing devices for each employee.
6. Hiring hardware and IT support teams.
7. Providing training for using new devices.
8. According to Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, these savings add up to $3,150 per
employee per year.
9. Further to these, when employees bring their own devices, they take extra care of their hardware
and thus save you the additional cost of providing alternative devices.
10. Up-to-date Technology --- they are likely to be more vigilant about keeping their all devices,
including laptops up-to-date and installing the latest available update.

The Concerns

1.  No matter the background or the situation, problems will always arise. No uniform end-user
support is available there. There may not be a uniform support system in place with BYOD, in
regards to any issues that may arise, since most employees will be working on makes of devices and
different types. It is of foremost importance to understand and equally remain aware of this.

2. Security has been an unending concern across all platforms today, and this is no exception for a
BYOD policy as well, yet, it is not impossible to tide over this challenge. All it requires is the
sensible preparation of IT departments to remain alert. Antivirus programs and Password-protection
need to be installed to separate apps and work decks from personal information.

3. Data retrieving: What happens to the organization's data when an employee leaves the company?
Do they have their phone number? Who will discontinue their access to your company data? What
happens if/when clients were calling that number directly?

Conclusion

For an employee in the sales environment, this BYOD system becomes extremely risky, and BYOD
policies need to be understood very carefully and so, address this issue. Otherwise of it, an ex-
employee may suddenly turn into a competitor with easy access to client information.
Annexure