|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
Managing Information
MIL Assignment
Flipper Communications Ltd. ... Company background 4
Business Strategy 4
The Marketplace 4
Other market factors 5
External forces which affect Flipper 5
Information Needs and Use Analysis 8
Anthony Triangle 8
Porter value chain 9
Real world information needs. 10
Information Audit 10
Information Systems Needs Analysis 11
Information System Usage Analysis 12
Other Information Systems Factors 13
Part 2. Current ICT System 14
Enterprise Architecture 15
An improved system 16
Simple diagram of new system 16
Hardware and software requirements 17
The strategic impact of technology to Flipper. ... Business Justification 22
New system comparative costs 22
Other costs and benefits 23
Cost benefit analysis and Return on Investment 23
Conclusions 24
Recommendations for the business 24
Other Internal and External Information Systems Conclusions 24
Appendices 25
Reflection on learning objectives. 25
Survey results 25
References 26
Glossary 26
Introduction
Flipper Communications Ltd (Flipper) was founded in 1999 as a software spin off from the UK based, NASDAQ listed, IT hardware company, Dolphin Networks. Flipper was challenged to design, develop, manufacture, market, and sell a new product suite focussed on the emerging ethernet data communication market. ... This "growth through direction" accurately describes the boards goal for the new CEO, and this paper looks at the impact this dramatic change in company direction and style is having on the information systems and infrastructure.
Learning objectives
The main learning objective of this paper is to provide an opportunity for the objective analysis and appraisal of the various information requirements of the company – to compare the theoretical needs of such an organisation with the daily reality. ... Company background
Flipper is a global organisation employing around 100 people, within two legal entities, Flipper Communications Ltd, and Flipper Inc. ... This is a very new marketplace, and Flipper has built competitive advantage on the intellectual property derived from its years of research in this field.
Business Strategy
The new mission of Flipper is "to be the leading global provider of security and control software for ethernet data networks", with the objectives of being one of the first companies into the "security and control" niche of the broader ethernet data market niche; and hence taking a dominant position, which will facilitate the eventual exit of the venture capital investors at a premium price.
The companys key strategies are:
· to perceive itself and to be perceived as a global company
· to develop, market and sell clearly differentiated quality software products for sale to the corporate market
· to create a sustainable environment for innovation
The company uses the following tactics to achieve its strategies :
· all staff are actively educated into a global business perspective, with frequent travel and high exposure to other cultural information, with measurable, specific, timebased learning goals
· the work environment is optimised to create positive, active feelings to maximise performance
· frequent out-of-office learning exercises to improve team information flow
The attitude of the new management team towards the staff, and the new culture is clearly designed to complement the business strategy. ... A few key statistics are obtainable, and Flipper has commissioned Gartner and Accenture to develop more niche market information over the coming months to assist in its marketing strategy. ...
Other market factors
The current UK political climate aims to improve the opportunities of the small business has yet to show a clear benefit to Flipper. The "e-enablement" of UK businesses has certainly done little to spur rapid adoption of new technologies, such as the ethernet data market which Flipper inhabits. ... Having collected comparable salary information, the Flipper Human Resources department has stated that it could make significant salary cost savings. ... The net effect is that Flipper is well positioned provided the company is able to establish the internal systems and procedures to facilitate that growth. ...
External forces which affect Flipper
Flipper exists in an emerging niche market which if considered using Porters Five Force model, shows some unusual anomalies.
Porter’s Five Forces Model applied to Flipper
The greatest force influencing Flipper is that of the threat of substitutes. ... Accurate acquisition information is thus key to Flippers competitive positioning. ...
Flipper is stacked with technology. ... All of this is theoretically connected together with "bleeding edge" ethernet communications, which are unreliable. ...
In December 2002, the organisation was hierarchically organised, with little horizontal communication of information. Most information flow was vertical by means of departmental meetings.
Organogram, December 2002
The new CEO decided that this organisation structure was not the most suitable for a company about to go through a high growth phase, and as suggested by Weinshall in "Two conceptual schemes for organisational behaviour", he reorganised the company into a centrally meshed structure with faster information communication.
Organogram, March 2003
This change of company structure has also changed the information flow requirements of the organisation, and has served to highlight the imperfections in the lack of Information Strategy. ... Flipper has thus far failed to use IT in either role as is considered in the next section.
Information Needs and Use Analysis
In order that Flipper can correctly assess the efficacy of its existing information system, and possible solutions for improvement, it is important to consider both the theoretical and actual information needs of the organisation.
Anthony Triangle
The theoretical analysis of the information needs of Flipper may be broken down into Operational Information, Informed Knowledge, Tactical Information, and Strategic Planning Information. A common representation of this uses the Anthony Triangle :
Anthony Triangle
Each department within Flipper has specific needs for information, and each department collects raw data, adds human understanding to create expert knowledge, and then summarises this information for use within tactical plans, and with the addition of time based data, show trends which are useful in strategic long-term decisions.
The true value in the Anthony Triangle is to analyse decision making which is associated with the different levels of information. ... At the higher levels of the triangle the information becomes more subjective and less structured decisions occur.
The relevance of this to Flipper, is that the new CEO needs to make a number of long term decisions, to redirect the company towards profitable product sales, and to do so he will need to collate information from every department in the company.
However, his attitude towards empowering the management team, shown in his adoption of the Weinshall Entrepreneurial Structure shown above, further complicates the information flow, as there will be horizontal (between department) interpreted data flows, as well as the classic Anthony derived vertical information flow. Furthermore, the Anthony Triangle does not consider the profit implications of such information flows.
Porter value chain
Another way to consider the information requirements of the company would be to consider the main operational purpose in terms of a value chain. In general, Flipper takes a number of inputs, mostly research based and intellectual in nature rather than classical "raw materials", and through the transformational guidance of the management and the pursuit of the business strategies and tactics, produces outputs of software and hardware products which are then marketed and sold by the relevant departments. ...
Real world information needs.
Through the use of a structured questionnaire, it has been possible to assess the actual information needs of the Flipper company.
Information in different forms and with different contexts is required by the CEO, all employees and directors of the company, by suppliers, and by customers – these are the information stakeholders.
Approximate Word count = 6022
Approximate Pages = 24.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|