IT at Champion, management homework help

IT at Champion

Background:

For the past eight months, Champion’s executive management team has struggled to establish new business goals that involve the IS and IT departments. Specifically, they have been unable to link attributes aside from costs with IS and IT activities, and have found it difficult to find value in general IS and IT activities. In addition, the recently-hired CIO has been so consumed with work that she has not addressed this critical issue.

Executives have also struggled to find sufficient IS and IT support for various pieces of the business. The executive team at Champion feels that since the new CIO came on board IS and IT costs have increased without concomitant value to the bottom line. The executive team wants support of various enterprise resources, customers, and general business functions, such as accounting and human resources; however, they also want to see how IS and IT systems bring tangible value to these aspects of the organization. 

Finally, Champion executives have heard that some competitors have used Application Service Providers (ASPs) to outsource IS and IT functions, some to India or the Dominican Republic, and they want to see whether there are efficiencies or savings by doing so.

Need to create a detailed 1,750- to 2,450-word (5 to 7 pages) report outlining Champion’s current business support IS and IT implementation and what is required to support IS and IT needs during the next three to five years. Highlight the effects the functions would have on the enterprise’s IT and business units. Each week the Learning Team will have the opportunity to complete part of the final assignment based on the weeks’ learning objectives, with the final report due in Week Six.

The report needs to address the following:

Part 1

  • Compare and contrast the various business support tools IS and IT commonly use to add value to a company, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. 
  • Determine if any of these are appropriate for Champion.
  • Discuss the advantages and future benefits of each.

Part 2

  • Discuss the pros and cons of each system as it relates to Champion.
  • Based on your analysis, determine which systems best fit Champion’s needs. 

part 3

  • Analyze the ASP model and other outsourcing models as they apply to Champion to understand outsourcing as an option. Provide the potential success or downfall of each, including partial outsourcing, single-application ASP support, or network systems outsourcing. 
  • Compare a centralized-versus-distributed-server model as an in-house implementation to cut costs. Determine the viability of both as they apply to Champion in order to understand keeping IS/IT functions in-house. Provide the pros and cons of each as they pertain to various business support systems. 

Part 4

  • Identify the value each implementation provides, and make a recommendation about which support systems should be operated in-house, which should be outsourced, and which methods of outsourcing should be used. 
  • Identify how the organization will measure value of each implementation on an ongoing basis. Describe the process or method the IS and IT departments will use to provide continuing value to the organization.

Part 5

  • Include a synopsis of your conclusions and recommendations to the Champion executives

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