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part 1:
The Plan After the Plan
Prior to beginning work on this discussion read Brown’s (2015),
Strategic planning complete. Now what?
article and review the relevant information from this week’s lecture.
A good plan that is communicated poorly ends up being a bad plan. After spending a lot of time and effort in building a great strategic plan, work has to be put in to develop a plan to communicate it clearly and accurately. This is the situation noted in Brown’s (2015) case study. You have spent time applying strategic concepts in the creation of a strong and viable strategic information technology plan that identifies, prioritizes, and executes business and technology projects. What you must do is create a plan that will disseminate this to right people and parts of the organization where it will have the most impact.
In this Discussion response you will critically evaluate Brown’s Case Study. In a minimum of 500 words, comment on Brown’s Case study of the University after a plan has been put in place. What did the University planners do right? What are they forgetting that you see should be done? How would you add the lessons learned by Monmouth University into your approach to communicating and implementing the
Strategic IT Plan
?
part 2:
Strategic IT Plan
For the final assignment in this course you will research, design, and deliver a Strategic Information Technology Plan. You will base your plan on the
ISM645 Strategic IT Planning Case Study
Company Profile
. The final assignment will use concepts from the previous weeks in the course. You must support your statements throughout the plan with evidence from your sources. There are a minimum of 5 scholarly sources, including the text, required for this assignment. (The FindIt@AU, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest tools in Ashford Library are good starting points for your search. It is also highly recommended that you search through the specialized journals in information technology (e.g., Journal of Information Systems Management, Communications of the ACM, International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, and International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approaches and Studies. (Consult the
MISM Credible Resource Guide (Links to an external site.)
as well as the recommended resources within this course for search tips and ideas for your research.)
The Strategic IT Plan
Outline
Read the ISM645 Strategic IT Planning Case Study Company Profile from the perspective of a Chief Information Officer with the firm and prepare a strategic IT plan to help grow the business over the next three years. Your strategic plan must be future-oriented and include the following headings and content. An IT Strategic Plan
template
is provided as a guideline to help you get started. However, do not attempt to ‘fill in the template’ as a way to complete this assignment. There are many elements in the case study that are not in the basic template, but will need to be added and addressed in your plan.
Executive Introduction (Summary) & Thesis Statement
Introduce the IT Strategic Plan. Summarize the contents of this document. The Executive Summary should be concise, to the point, and give a clear understanding of what is in the document. Be sure to include a general thesis statement in the last paragraph.
Strategic Mission, Vision, and Horizon Statement
Specify the period to which this plan pertains. Create a one-to-two sentence IT Mission and Vision Statement for MarkO Ltd. Assess the organization’s strategic vision with respect to technology and business goals. Consider the various business models that are relevant and review the concepts of a strategic paradox in order to determine where competitive advantage can be acquired. Explain what the company’s time horizon will be in the future. (This can be expressed in a series of general accomplishments desired over a period of time and what the company will look like when it gets to that time or horizon.)
Purpose of Plan: Indicate the reason for creating this IT strategic plan. Determine the basic premise for the plan and explain why this plan is being created and what the significance of this plan is for the company. Specify what the plan will accomplish.
Corporate Strategy: Describe the strategy of the enterprise. Obtain this information from the Company Profile and surmise what the overall company strategy will be in the next three years. This provides the superstructure of how IT will help the business meets its goals and help it realize its Strategic Vision. Evaluate the business environment and address the competitive advantage of the strategic implementation of technology, and the possible implementation of “S” Curve planning methods in your plan. Evaluate the needs of the company and determine the major strategic planning elements and concepts to support the short (1 year)-, medium (2 years)-, and long-term (3+ years) goals of your organization. This includes a general description of the organization and how the business scope and organization are aligned. Tools such as the 5 Force Model and SWOT Analysis found in the previous weeks of the course text readings will assist you in maturing your plan. Explain the strategic plan(s) from the Company Profile including MarkO’s corporate strategy, business strategy, information technology organization, business initiatives to support the corporate strategy, and IT initiative to support the business initiatives.
Business Initiatives to Support Corporate Strategy: Based on the Company Profile, create a minimum of three business initiatives that are planned for the next three years that will support the Corporate Strategy.
IT Strategy: Briefly describe your IT strategy. The IT strategy should have the business strategy as its basis. Spend at least a paragraph on each element below stating your IT Strategy. Among the many areas of IT, examine data warehousing, ecommerce, technology infrastructure, and technology products and/or services you want to include in your Strategic IT Plan. Your Strategy should address the following IT Categories.
- Application development
- Hardware and infrastructure acquisition
- Data center builds and adjustments
- Security
- Compliance and governance
- Networks
- Data (Including Databases, Data Warehouses, Data sources and Big Data)
Within each IT category above address the following elements.
- Explain the kind and style of IT organization that will carry out the IT Strategy.
- Describe the IT organization’s operational profile.
- Explain the IT organization’s risk profile.
- Determine whether or not the organization is a cost or operational center.
- Explain whether or not IT development is operationally focused.
IT Strategic Plan to Support Business Initiatives: Develop a list of the IT systems that are required to support the planned business initiatives. (There is a matrix within the provided template that may assist with this.)
IT Strategic Plan – Roadmap Chart: Graphically depict the future of MarkO Ltd.’s Strategic Plan and provide a simple but powerful view of the future through coordinated plans and steps. This is the essence of strategic planning. Using tools and concepts that were covered in Weeks 4 and 5, apply strategic concepts to create a Roadmap Flow Chart (or some other graphical representation of your plan) to depict the schedule for implementing the approved IT systems. Remember to address a 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year strategy in your plan. Be sure to provide a high-level description of the strategic plans ahead including the identification of future moves and prioritized goals and objectives.
Key Performance Indicators: Insert a series of metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), on how you will measure the success of your plan. A Key Performance Indicator is a recognizable value that represents a measure of progress, value, or status. This could be a percentage of completion or whether an action plan is on track or off track. It can also be a recognizable value of an amount compared to a total goal amount. The IT Strategic Plan Template has an example of a KPI Report for your reference
IT Strategic Execution Plan: Explain how you will execute, communicate, and monitor your plan as it moves forward, listing the actions you will take with a brief description of how you will implement the IT Strategy. Briefly describe how you would roll out the plan to senior management.
IT Strategic Plan Summary: In a one-to-three paragraph summary, describe what it took to develop and write the IT Strategic Plan. Explain the information in the Company Profile that was helpful as well as any information that was missing or would have been important to know.
Appendices as applicable: Appendices might include additional graphs, charts, or tables that further illustrate points within your strategic plan.
The Strategic IT Plan
- Must be 12 to 15 double-spaced pages in length (not including title, reference, and appendix pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
- Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of strategic plan
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted - Must use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text. Remember to incorporate information that you have learned from this course as well as your personal experience.
- The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
COMMUNICATING THE PLAN
Jarret, Joseph
PM. Public Management; Nov 2009; 91, 10; ProQuest Central
pg. 18
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
66 | June 2015 www.universitybusiness.com
Strategic planning complete.
Now what?
A nyone who has worked in higher education knows that harness-ing and harmonizing many
disparate voices representing different
academic disciplines and administrative
perspectives can be a challenge. That was
our experience at Monmouth University
during the more than 10-month process
to develop our new strategic plan.
By the time the plan was endorsed by
our board of trustees, hundreds of hours
of open forums, discussion, debate and
deliberation helped to shape the guiding
principles that emerged from the process.
That probably sounds idyllic, but at the
beginning of the process even asking
the campus community to trust that
the development of a new plan would
be truly different was a challenge.
Communicating and successfully
sharing the results of the plan also re-
quired more effort than an administra-
tive email from Mt. Olympus. Too often,
such messages are instantly disregarded
or deleted by faculty and staff who either
feel no sense of ownership or worse—
who think that the process is over, when
it is really just beginning. We publicized
the plan to alumni stakeholders as well
as to our internal community, along with
a clear message: Without your participa-
tion, this plan will not succeed.
Developing a clear strategic plan and
communicating it effectively certainly
wasn’t easy, but it was much easier than
the effort that will now be required for a
holistic implementation process that puts
our vision into action.
Changing team members
One immediate challenge we faced was
a change within senior administrative
personnel. Near the end of the planning
process, our provost returned to a faculty
position. While the new provost brought
extensive strategic implementation ex-
perience from her prior post, she was
not party to nuanced deliberations that
shaped our plan. Provost leadership is
critical to realizing the shift in emphasis
the plan requires—along with improving
the areas identified during the process as
needing further attention or investment.
How would we ensure continuity
in the process while making sure that
the voices that helped shape the plan
are championed? Fortunately, we were
able to persuade the strategic planning
steering committee to continue to serve
as members of an implementation com-
mittee as we transition to our next stages.
Their deep familiarity with the spectrum
of issues raised during the planning pro-
cess provides important continuity and
ensures that the opinions expressed along
Moving from planning to implementation is just the beginning
By Paul Brown
the way will remain at the forefront of
ongoing initiatives. Asking the members
to continue to serve wasn’t a simple deci-
sion. Would keeping the same leadership
team in place cause others to feel shut out
of the next steps? Based on the incredible
weight that the team places on inclusive-
ness and engagement, we concluded that
continuity was worth the risk.
Eager for change
One consequence of inclusive participa-
tion is that the expectations are high,
and after so many months of discussion
across campus, there is palpable desire for
immediate change. The provost and the
committee continue to meet weekly with
an eye on programs or new procedures
that can be implemented quickly.
While some endeavors will require
time and a methodical approach for
implementation, there are others that
can be more quickly organized and sup-
ported. We are evaluating mechanisms
for a comprehensive inventory of pro-
grams and best practices that align with
the broad objectives of our plan. Just as
important is determining the appropriate
metrics so we can benchmark our prog-
ress and measure our success.
Our planning process succeeded
because every area of campus provided
feedback. Likewise, successful imple-
mentation will require involvement and
shared responsibility from the whole uni-
versity. After the planning has finished,
the real work begins.
Paul R. Brown is president of Monmouth
University in New Jersey.
The expectations are high,
and after so many months
of discussion across
campus, there is
palpable desire for
immediate change.
PROFESSIONAL OPINION
UBmag.me/strategic
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