Chesapeake IT Consultants Chesapeake IT Consultants (CIC) is a successful Information Technology consulting services firm that utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve measurable results for its customers. Its customer base includes small to mid-tier businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels. CIC feels strongly that its success is dependent on the combination of the talent of its IT consultants, the best practices CIC employs, and a dedication to delivering truly beneficial IT solutions to their clients. Corporate Profile Corporate Name: Chesapeake IT Consultants, Inc. Founded: May 2004 Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland Satellite Locations: Herndon, Virginia; Bethesda, Maryland Number of Employees: 400 Total Annual Gross Revenue: $80,000,000 President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Alvin Morrison Business Areas CIC provides consulting services in the following areas: • Business Process Consulting - Business process redesign, process improvement • IT Consulting - IT strategy, analysis, planning, system development, implementation, and network support • IT Outsourcing Consulting – Requirements analysis; vendor evaluation, due diligence, selection and performance management; Service Level Agreements Business Strategy CIC's business strategy is to provide extraordinary consulting services and recommendations to its customers by employing highly skilled consultants and staying abreast of new business concepts and technology and/or developing new business concepts and best practices of its own. Excerpt from the CIC Strategic Business Plan CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 1 While the complete strategic plan touches on many areas, below is an excerpt from CIC’s latest Strategic Business Plan that identifies a few of CIC's Goals. Goal 1: Increase CIC Business Development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT consulting. Goal 2: Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis support to CIC’s onsite teams in the U. S. Goal 3: Continue to increase CIC’s ability to quickly provide high quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the clients’ needs. Goal 4: Increase CIC’s competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and innovative solutions for its clients. Current Business Environment CIC provides consultants on-site to work with its clients, delivering a wide variety of IT-related services. CIC obtains most of its business through competitively bidding on Requests for Proposals issued by business, government and non-profit organizations. A small but growing portion of its business is through referrals and follow-on contracts from satisfied clients. CIC anticipates it will win two large contracts in the near future and is preparing proposals for several other large projects. CIC, as a consulting company, relies on the quality and expertise of its employees to provide the services needed by the clients. When it is awarded a contract, the customer expects CIC to quickly provide the consultants and begin work on the project. CIC, like other consulting companies, cannot afford to carry a large number of employees that are not assigned to contracts. Therefore, they need to determine the likelihood of winning a new contract and ensure the appropriately skilled consultants are ready to go to work when needed. CIC relies on its HR Department to find and hire the personnel that the line managers need for upcoming contracts. It is very much a "just in time" hiring situation. The Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, houses approximately 300 employees. Satellite offices have been opened in the last two years in both Herndon, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland to provide close proximity to existing clients. It is anticipated that new pending contracts would add staff to all locations. The management team believes there is capacity at all locations, as much of the consultants' work is done on-site at the customers' locations. Strategic Direction As a small to mid-size business (SMB), CIC recognizes that it needs to carefully plan its future strategy. Considering the competitive environment that contains many very large IT consulting firms, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), as well as numerous smaller companies with various skill sets, market niches, and established customer bases, CIC will be evaluating how best to position CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 2 itself for the future and recognizes that its ability to identify its core competencies, move with agility and flexibility, and deliver consistent high quality service to its clients is critical for continued success. One area that is critical to a consulting company is the ability to have employees who possess the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill current and future contracts. Given the intense competition in the IT consulting sector, CIC is planning to incorporate a few consultants in other countries to provide remote research and analysis support to the on-site U. S. teams. Since CIC has no experience in the global marketplace, the Director of HR has begun examining international labor laws to determine where CIC should recruit and hire employees. Challenges The two contracts that CIC expects to win very soon will require the hiring of an additional 75 consultants very quickly. The Director of Human Resources (HR) is concerned that the current manual process of recruiting and hiring employees will not allow his department to be responsive to these needs. He is looking for a near-term solution that will automate many of the manual hiring process steps and reduce the time it takes to hire new staff. He is also looking for a solution that will allow CIC to hire employees located in other countries around the world. Management Direction The management team has been discussing how to ramp up to fill the requirements of the two new contracts, and prepare the company to continue growing as additional contracts are awarded in the future. The company has been steadily growing and thus far hiring of new employees has been handled through a process that is largely manual. The HR Director reported that his staff will be unable to accommodate the hiring of the 75 new employees in the timeframe required. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) then recommended that the company look for a commercial off-the-shelf software product that can dramatically improve the hiring process and shorten the time it takes to hire new employees. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) wants to ensure that all investments are in line with the corporate mission and will achieve the desired return on investment. She will be looking for clear information that proposals have been well researched, provide a needed capability for the organization, and can be cost-effectively implemented in a relatively short period of time to reap the benefits. The CEO has asked the CIO to work with HR to recommend a solution. Your Task As a business analyst in the CIO's department, you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements, and propose an IT solution. The CIO has set up a series of interviews for you to collect information about the current hiring process and the requirements for a system. He has asked you to produce a Business Analysis and System Recommendation Report (BA&SR) as your final deliverable. CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 3 Interviews In the interviews you conduct with the organizational leaders, you hear the comments recorded below. CEO: Alvin Morrison “While I trust my HR staff to address the nuts and bolts of the staffing processes, what is critically important to me is that the right people can be in place to fulfill our current contracts and additional talented staff can be quickly hired to address needs of future contracts we win. I can’t be out in the market soliciting new business if we can’t deliver on what we’re selling. Our reputation is largely dependent on having knowledgeable and capable staff to deliver the services our clients are paying for and expect from CIC.” CFO: Marianne Cho “So glad we’re talking about this initiative. As CFO, obviously I’m focused on the bottom line. I also recognize it’s necessary to invest in certain areas to ensure our viability moving forward. Having cost effective technology solutions that improve current processes and enable future functionality is very important to CIC’s success. We must consider the total cost of ownership of any technology we adopt. CIC is run as a lean-and-mean organization and support processes must be effective but not overbuilt. We do want to think towards the future as well and don’t want to invest in technology with a short shelf-life. Along those lines, we currently have a timekeeping and payroll system; and to help support our bottom line financially, any new solution should effectively integrate with those systems. CIO: Fadil Abadi “As a member of the IT Department, you have a good understanding of our overall architecture and strategy; however, let me emphasize a few things I want to be sure we keep in mind for this project. Any solution needs to be compatible with our existing architecture and systems as appropriate. Obviously, we have chosen not to maintain a large software development staff so building a solution from the ground up does not fit our IT strategic plan. Our current strategy has been to adopt Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that can be deployed relatively quickly and leverage industry best practices. In addition, our distributed workforce means we are very dependent on mobile computing – this brings some challenges in term of portability, maintenance, and solutions that present well on mobile devices. We’ve been expanding at a rapid rate and are seeking to expand internationally so any solution will need to be viable globally. And last, but certainly not least, CIC’s success is largely dependent on our ability to satisfy the requirements of our clients and maintain a reputation of high credibility, reliability and security. Any security breach of our clients’ data would have a devastating effect to our ability to compete for new business as well as maintain current clients.” CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 4 Director of HR: William Bradley “Thanks for talking with me today. I see this effort as very important to the success of CIC. The rapid growth to date and future plans for expansion have pushed our recruiting staff, and we recognize we can no longer meet the hiring and staffing demands with manual processes. I’m also interested in solutions that are easy-to-use and can interface with our existing systems and enhance processes. I’m willing to consider a basic system that can grow as CIC grows and provide more capabilities in the future. I’m sure Suzanne, our Manager of Recruiting, can provide more specifics.” Manager of Recruiting: Suzanne Rodriguez “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to begin the process of finding a technology solution to support our recruiting processes. In addition to myself, there are 2-3 full-time recruiters who have been very busy keeping up with the increased hiring at CIC. It goes without saying that a consulting company is dependent on having well-qualified employees to deliver to our customers. We’re in a competitive market for IT talent and want to be able to recruit efficiently, process applicants quickly, and move to making a job offer to the best candidate before the competition snaps him/her up. When I talk with my colleagues in other companies, they mention software applications for hiring that have enabled them to reduce their hiring time by 15-20%. I’m so envious of them and look forward to having our new solution in place before the next set of contracts are won and we need to hire 75 (to as many as 150) staff in a 3-month period. I do not think my team can handle such an increase in an efficient and effective manner. It really seems like there would be a rapid return on investment in a technology solution to support and improve the hiring process.” Recruiters: Paul O’Brien (along with Mac Thompson and Juliet Jackson) “This project should have happened 2 years ago but glad it’s finally getting some attention. As a recruiter, I’m sort of the middleperson in this process. On one hand, we have the job applicant who is anxious to know the status of his/her application and fit for the advertised position. It’s important that the recruiters represent CIC well, as we want the best applicants to want to come to work for us. Then we have the actual hiring manager in one of our business areas who has issued the job requisition and wants to get the best applicant hired as quickly as possible. Obviously recruiting is not the hiring manager’s full-time job so we’re always competing for time with other job responsibilities so we can keep things moving as quickly as possible. They look to us to screen resumes and only forward the best qualified applicants to them so they can quickly identify their top candidates. Working with Ted, our administrative assistant, we need interviews to be scheduled to accommodate everyone’s calendars. After the hiring managers make their final selections of who they would like to hire, it is our task to get the job offers presented to the candidates - hopefully for their acceptance. Everything is very time sensitive and the current process is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Applications and resumes can get lost in interoffice mail or buried in email; and, when a hiring manager calls us, we often cannot immediately provide the status of where an applicant is in the process. This can be very frustrating all around. Speaking for myself and the other recruiters, I have high CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 5 expectations for this solution. We need to really be able to deliver world-class service to CIC in the recruiting and hiring areas to meet the business goals.” Administrative Assistant: Ted Anderson “I support the recruiters in the hiring process. After the recruiters screen the resumes and select the best candidates for a position, my job is to route those applications and resumes via interoffice mail to the respective functional/hiring manager, receive their feedback on who they would like to interview and who should be involved in the interviews, schedule the interviews based on availability of applicants and the interview team members, collect the feedback from the interview team and inform the assigned recruiter of the status of each candidate who was interviewed. Then, after a job offer has been made, I coordinate the paperwork for the new hire with HR and Payroll to ensure everything is ready to go on the first day. As you can imagine when hiring volume is up, I’m buried in paperwork and trying to keep all the applicants and their resumes straight, track their status in the process, and ensure everyone has what they need is very challenging. Any tool that would help the workflow and enable many steps in the process to be done electronically would be wonderful.” Hiring Manager (in functional area; this person would be the supervisor of the new employee and would likely issue the job requisition to fill a need in his/her department/team): “While it’s a good problem to have – new business means new hires -- the current method for screening applications, scheduling interviews, identifying the best qualified applicants, and getting a job offer to them is not working. My team is evaluated on the level of service we provide our clients, and it is very important that we have well-qualified staff members to fulfill our contracts. Turnover is common in the IT world and that along with new business development, makes the need for hiring new staff critical and time-sensitive. I confess that sometimes I’m not as responsive to HR as I should be but this is only one of several areas I’m responsible for. I look to the recruiters to stay on top of this for me. In the ideal world, I’d like an electronic dashboard from which I can see the status of any job openings in my area, information on all qualified candidates who have applied and where they are in the pipeline. Electronic scheduling on my calendar of interviews would be a real time saver. It’s important that we impress candidates with our technology and efficiency – after all we are an IT consulting company—and using manual processes makes us look bad. And, this system must be easy to use – I don’t have time for training or reading a 100-page user’s manual. Just need to get my job done. CIC Case Study 11/15/2017 rev. 4 6 Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study on Chesapeake IT Consultants (CIC). Overview As a business analyst in the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO's) department of Chesapeake IT Consulting (CIC), you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements and recommend an IT solution to improve the hiring process for CIC. This work will be completed in four stages, and each of these four stages will focus on one section of an overall Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) report to be delivered to the CIO. Section I: Strategic Use of Technology (Stage 1) - The first step is to look at the organization and explain how an IT system could be used to support CIC's strategies and objectives, and support its decisionmaking processes. Section II: Process Analysis (Stage 2) – Next you will evaluate current processes and workflow and explain how CIC can use IT to improve its processes and workflow. Section III: Requirements (Stage 3) –Then you will identify key stakeholder expectations for the new technology solution to support CIC’s hiring process and develop a set of requirements. Section IV: System Recommendation (Stage 4) – Finally, you will review the provided Vendor brochure for a proposed solution and explain how it meets the requirements and what needs to be done to implement the system within CIC. The sections of the BA&SR will be developed and submitted as four staged assignments. In stages 2, 3 and 4, you will also incorporate any feedback received when the previous stage was graded to improve the effectiveness of your overall report and then add the new section to your report. At the end of the course, you will submit a complete BA&SR document that includes all the sections and changes that resulted from previous feedback. Part of the grading criteria for Stage 4 submission includes addressing previous feedback to improve the final report. Assignment – BA&SR: Introduction and Section I – Strategic Use of Technology Write an appropriate Introduction to the entire BA&SR Report (guidelines are provided below). Section I of the BA&SR document contains an organizational analysis and identifies ways in which information systems can help CIC, the organization in the case study, meet its strategic goals and meet the information needs of various levels of management. Using the case study, assignment instructions, Course Content readings, and external resources, develop your Introduction and Section I: Background and Organizational Analysis. To start, review the Business Perspectives Module (week 1 content), particularly the sections that describe the example of Booz Allen Hamilton, a services company with a business model similar to that of CIC in the case study. The case study tells you that the executives and employees at CIC have identified a need for an effective and efficient hiring system. As you review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 1 assist in your analysis; in particular, look for objectives to support the strategies in the table below, and decisions that the various individuals make in the hiring process as expressed in the "interviews." Use the outline format, headings and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below. For Stage 1, create a title page and reference page that will be used for all 4 stages. Apply specific information from the case study to address each area. Introduction Begin your report with a clear, concise, well organized introduction to explain why you are writing and what is to come. This should briefly set the context for CIC – business purpose, environment, and current challenges related to hiring. Then specifically provide what is to come in the full report (not just Stage 1). Keep your audience in mind – this is an internal report for the CIO of CIC. Provide an introduction in one paragraph that engages the reader’s interest in continuing to read this report. I. Strategic Use of Technology A. Organizational Strategy – Briefly describe the organizational strategy using the Business Strategy statement and information from the Case Study, and explain how a new hiring system would support that strategy. (Use two to three strong sentences that explain how the system would support the strategy and justify your position with specifics from the Case Study.) B. Competitive Advantage - Explain how and why CIC can use the new hiring system to increase its competitive advantage. Your explanation should demonstrate your understanding of what competitive advantage is as well as how improving the hiring process will help achieve CIC’s competitive advantage. Include how CIC can use the type of data/information that will be in the hiring system for strategic advantage. (Paragraph of 2-3 sentences) C. Strategic Objectives- Review the four Strategic Goals in the Strategic Plan section of the CIC Case Study. The CIO has asked you to come up with an example of an objective to meet each goal and explain how a new hiring system would help achieve that objective. As you can see from the example provided in the table below, an objective is a statement that is clear (not vague) and is something that can be measured or evaluated to determine whether it has been met or not. First, insert an introductory opening sentence for this table. Then, for each of the rows listed below, complete the table with the requested information. (Provide an introductory sentence and copy the table. Create an Objective for each of the 3 remaining Goals and explain using 2-3 sentences for each.) Strategic Goal Objective Explanation (from case study) Increase CIC Business Development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT Consulting Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis support to CIC’s onsite teams in the U. S. (clear, measurable and time-bound) (2-3 sentences) Increase international recruiting efforts and employ 5 research analysts in the next 12 months. The new hiring system would allow applicants from around the world to apply online, increasing the number of international applicants. It would enable the recruiters to carefully monitor the applications for these EXAMPLE PROVIDED Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 2 positions, identify the necessary research and analysis skills needed, and screen resumes for these key skills. Recruiters could quickly view the number of applicants and identify when additional recruiting efforts are needed to meet the objective. Continue to increase CIC’s ability to quickly provide high quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the clients’ needs Increase CIC’s competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and innovative solutions for its clients D. Decision Making - In the Information Systems (IS) course module (included in the Week 2 Learning Resources), you were introduced to the information requirements of various levels of the organization. First, insert an introductory opening sentence for this section. Then, for each of the management roles listed below, complete the table with the appropriate level (as defined in the course module), an example of a specific decision supported by the Hiring System to be made at that level, and what type of information from the hiring system would be needed to support that decision. Think about what information the hiring system could provide about applicants, etc. and then identify an example of a decision that might be made by each level of management. A decision is a choice or conclusion that the management might make about business operations or future planning. This is not about the decisions about implementing a new technology solution or about general responsibilities of each role. (Provide an introductory sentence then copy the table and insert information within.) Role Level as defined in IS Course Module Example of Possible Decision Supported by Hiring System Example of Information the Hiring System Could Provide to Support Your Example Decision Senior/Executive Managers (Decisions made by the CEO and the CFO at CIC supported by the hiring system.) Middle Managers (Decisions made by the Director of HR and the Manager of Recruiting supported by the hiring system.) Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 3 Operational Managers (Decisions made by the line managers in the organization who are hiring for their projects supported by the hiring system.) Formatting Your Assignment Consider your audience – you are writing in the role of a CIC business analyst and your audience is CIC and your boss, the CIO. Don’t discuss CIC as if the reader has no knowledge of the organization. Use third person consistently throughout the report. In third person, the writer avoids the pronouns I, we, my, and ours. The third person is used to make the writing more objective by taking the individual, the “self,” out of the writing. This method is very helpful for effective business writing, a form in which facts, not opinion, drive the tone of the text. Writing in the third person allows the writer to come across as unbiased and thus more informed. • • • • • • • • • • • • In Stage 1, you are preparing the first part of a 4-stage report. Use the structure, headings, and outline format provided here for your report. Write a short concise paper: Use the recommendations provided in each area for length of response. It’s important to value quality over quantity. Assignment should not exceed 4 pages excluding title and reference pages. Content areas should be double spaced; table entries should be single-spaced. To copy a table: Move your cursor to the table, then click on the small box that appears at the upper left corner of the table to highlight the table; right click and COPY the table; put the cursor in your paper where you want the table and right click and PASTE the table. Ensure that each of the tables is preceded by an introductory sentence that explains what is contained in the table, so the reader understands why the table has been included. Create a title page that includes: The company name, title of report, your name, Course and Section # and date. Use at least two resources with APA formatted citation and reference. Use at least one external reference and one from the course content. Course content should be from the class reading content, not the assignment instructions or case study itself. The final document should contain all references from all stages appropriately formatted and alphabetized. Begin a Reference Page for resources required for this assignment. Additional research in next stages will be added to this as you build the report. Running headers are not required for this report. Compare your work to the Grading Rubric below to be sure you have met content and quality criteria. Submit your paper as a Word document, or a document that can be read in Word. Keep tables in Word format – do not paste in graphics. Your submission should include your last name first in the filename: Lastname_firstname_Stage_1 Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 4 GRADING RUBRIC: Criteria Introduction Describes the organization and provides an introduction to the overall Report Strategy How the system will support the organization’s strategy as derived from the case study Competitive Advantage Explanation of how the system and its data can be used for competitive advantage Strategic Objectives Three objectives derived from Strategic Goals in Case Study with explanation of how new hiring system would help achieve. DecisionMaking Types of decisions supported by 90-100% 80-89% 70-79% 60-69% < 60% Far Above Standards 9-10 Points Above Standards Meets Standards Below Standards 8.5 Points 7.5 Points 6.5 Points Well Below Standards 0-5 Points The introduction is very effective; is clear, logical, derived from the Case Study; and demonstrates a sophisticated level of writing. 18-20 Points The introduction is clear, logical, and derived from the Case Study. The introduction is adequate, and is derived from the Case Study. The introduction is not clear, logical and/or derived from the Case Study. The introduction is not included, or demonstrates little effort. 16-17 Points 14-15 Points 12-13 Points 0-11 Points The explanation is clear, logical and fully supported using a sophisticated level of writing. The explanation is clear, logical and supported. The explanation is provided and supported. The explanation is not clear, logical and/or supported. The explanation is not included or demonstrates little effort. 0-8 Points 13-15 Points 12.75 Points 10-11 Points 9 Points Clear, complete, logical, derived from the Case Study, and demonstrates sophisticated analysis and writing. Complete and accurate; derived from the case study, demonstrates analysis and effective writing. 12.75 Points Explanation is provided and related to the Case Study, may lack specifics and/or clear logic. Explanation is not clear, logical and/or supported. 10-11 Points 9 Points 0-8 Points Objectives are clear, measurable and time-bound and are strongly and fully explained using a sophisticated level of writing. Objectives are clear, measurable and time-bound, and are clearly explained. Objectives are somewhat clear, measurable and time-bound, and are explained. Objectives are not clear, measurable and/or timebound, and/or are not explained. Too few objectives are presented, are not explained or exhibit little effort. 13-15 Points 12.75 Points 10-11 Points 9 Points 0-8 Points Identified correctly and explained and are derived from the Case Study. Not all provided; and/or are not correct and/or not Very incomplete or missing. 13-15 Points Identified correctly and fully, clearly and logically explained; are Identified correctly and clearly and logically Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 Possible Points 10 20 15 Missing or extremely incomplete or inaccurate. 15 15 5 the system for each of the three levels of the organization Research Two or more sources--one source from within the IFSM 300 course content and one external (other than the course materials) Format Uses outline format provided; includes Title Page and Reference Page derived from the Case Study; and demonstrate sophisticated analysis and writing. 9-10 Points explained; are derived from the Case Study; and demonstrate analysis and effective writing. 8.5 Points derived from the Case Study. 7.5 Points 6.5 Points 0-5 Points Required resources are incorporated and used effectively. Sources used are relevant and timely and contribute strongly to the analysis. References are appropriately incorporated and cited using APA style. At least two sources are incorporated and are relevant and somewhat support the analysis. References are appropriately incorporated and cited using APA style. Only one resource is used and properly incorporated and/or reference(s) lack correct APA style. A source may be used, but is not properly incorporated or used, and/or is not effective or appropriate; and/or does not follow APA style for references and citations. No course content or external research incorporated; or reference listed is not cited within the text. 13-15 Points 12.75 Points 10-11 Points 9 Points 0-8 Points Well organized and easy to read. Very few or no errors in sentence structure, grammar, and spelling; doublespaced, written in third person and presented in a professional format. Effective organization; has few errors in sentence structure, grammar, and spelling; doublespaced, written in third person and presented in a professional format. Some organization; may have some errors in sentence structure, grammar and spelling. Report is double spaced and written in third person. Not well organized, and/or contains several grammar and/or spelling errors; and/or is not double-spaced and written in third person. Extremely poorly written, has many grammar and/or spelling errors, or does not convey the information. 10 15 TOTAL Points Possible Stage 1: Background and Organizational Analysis – 11/15/2017 v.4 100 6
Purchase answer to see full attachment