MDCM, Inc: Strategic IT Portfolio Management - Case Study Example

During the discussion at MDCM between the Information Technology (IT) department, Shawn Atkins, the Chief Financial Officer (CIO), and Max McMullen, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) many options were explored to repair the problems associated with the current state of the IT department. Shortly after becoming the CIO, Atkins order, and implemented an internal audit of the current state of the IT department at MDCM. The current state of the IT department at MDCM is the service of the IT department have been poorly managed over the past five quarters. Atkins, and many others in the MDCM IT department were already aware of this. MDCM, Inc. Strategic IT Portfolio Management, Page 2. During the meeting there were many options made available to the IT department. The IT department would implement new strategies in an effort to cut costs, and save the company money. McMullen has found blame for the companies loss of revenue in the previous five quarters on the IT department. McMullen hired Atkins to begin an assessment of the IT department, and to help the company begin posting profits again as soon as possible. Atkins began his position with an internal audit of the IT department. Some of the options discussed in the meeting were to create a company email. Every personnel who needed to communicate would be given their own email address. With a just one email address for everyone in the company this will filter out possible important information being filtered to the junk folder by the recipients email provider. The company was going to an overhaul the computer system within the organization. The company was going to update all computers throughout. Every computer would then operate with the same operating system. With the computers operate with the same operating system the computer would be compatible with each other. Currently there are computers with four types of operating systems. The computers are not compatible with each other. The internal audit has found that this is one reason many important messages are being missed within the company. The company discussed that they would begin to use only one freight carrier throughout the organization. Currently the company uses three freight carriers. This creates delays in the customers receiving their products. The company will also create a website. The website will allow customers to order products directly from the site with no need to contact a representative in the organization. The website will allow a customer to leave an email message, and to contact the company if necessary. The company will implement new strategies for the different offices too effectively, and efficiently communicate with one another. The company will cut some of the labor force. The United States division of the company currently has the largest work force. The company will begin to eliminate some of the jobs. Every position the company eliminates will help the company save money. The company wanted to assess the situation, and develop the most effective solution to the company’s current situation. The company will use the savings of cutting some of the positions and appropriate the funds to the Information Technology department. Atkins requested an increase in the budget for the IT department. The company found they could not increase the current budget of the IT department without cutting costs elsewhere. The company, Atkins, and the leaders of the IT department have developed the strategy to cut some of the positions and re appropriate the funds to the IT department budget. With the extra funds available to the IT department the company will be permitted to implement the strategies, and recommendations made by Atkins, and other leaders of the IT department. When the company implements one network, this will be beneficial to the company. There can possibly be a strong financial gain to incorporating one network. In having only one network, the associates in France will communicate more efficiently, and effectively. The network will be one, so there will be no compatibility problem to worry about. When the company begins too out a source many of the positions that the company is going to cut in the United States, and abroad the company will begin to save money. The company will be paying the staff who does the work at substantially lower rates than the company pays current staff members to do the same jobs. An outsourcing always saves the company money. The company does not have to pay for the electricity, and other overhead costs of having associates perform the work within the company. Having a standardized server, and platform will makes all computers compatible with each other. There will be no missed communication of important information. This is going to be the costliest change made to the IT department with the company. The company will need to change all of the computers to have a single operating system. The cost of a computer is high. There are many computers within the organization. To change the computer system to the Windows 2000 will be costly to the company, but the company will make more money in the future by changing the computer system. The company will have better communication, and with better communication will be customer retention. Having customer retention could mean these customers will begin to tell others of MDCM. Implementing an enterprise resource plan will not be costly. This will be a good strategy that the company will begin to benefit from almost immediately. Creating an employee, intranet will expedite the employees’ communication. Having expedited employee communication will be beneficial to the company in many ways. The company will not lose important clients because there was a communication error within the organization, and the associates will not begin to lose employee morale because they missed important information. There have been many studies that have found if there is low employee morale, there will be low employee production. The company knows if there is low employee production this will mean a loss of customers. In managing the supply chain the company will save money. The company will save money with this measure by having less product loss. Having less product loss will help the company save money, and begin to profit again. Having a CAD system will assist the company in saving money. When the company begins to save money, the company will begin to post more revenue, and then higher profits. The CAD system will help the company save money because the company will use one design system throughout the company. Having only one design system throughout the company will make this unit of the company compatible with each other. When the company is compatible throughout the company, the company will not have a loss of money because of the loss of production time. Improving the collaboration systems is almost as important to the company as any of the other strategies that were discussed during this important meeting to overhaul the IT department. Improving the collaboration system will also create better communication throughout the company. When the company has better communication throughout the company, will be more productive. Creating a database for the company records will assist the company in keeping all-important documents at the companies. This will also expedite production and save the company money over time. The company will have all-important documents stored in the computer database and everyone in the company will be able to access the database. This will expedite the process of filling orders for customers in a timely manner. The time it will take to implement a procurement system will be worth it over time. Having one place for the staff to access files, file, fax, and email will be beneficial to the company over time. Again it will expedite the process many ways. If the company expedites the process, the company will be able to expedite the orders. All of these recommendations Atkins made, and other top officials in the IT department all seem to have benefits for the company. Despite the high cost the company should begin to implement the process of these changes promptly. When the company begins to see the change with the money saved by implementing these strategies, the company will realize they should have done this sooner. The company will also be able to retain customers, and gain some customers by implementing these strategies. So, it is recommended that the company implement all the strategies. Works Cited MDCM, inc. strategic IT portfolio management. (2003). http://www.academia-research.com/filecache/instr/m/d/528577_mdcm_b_.pdf. May 11, 2011 Read More