GG Freightways (GGFRT) IT Strategic Plan, Part 1

GG Freightways (GGFRT) IT Strategic Plan, Part 1

Before you begin this assignment, be sure you have read the “GG Freightways Case Study” and all the course content from Weeks 1 and 2.

Purpose of this Assignment

This assignment gives you the opportunity to apply the course concepts to begin development of an Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) to support the strategic direction of GG Freightways (GGFRT). This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

· identify, define, and explain the concepts of information technology governance and management

IT Strategic Plan for GG Freightways

Lance, the new CIO at GGFRT, has asked you to write an IT Strategic Plan that he can use to guide the direction for his organization. The ITSP will be developed in two parts. This assignment covers Part 1; Part 2 will be covered in the next class assignment. Together, they will form an ITSP that has been tailored to the course material covered in this class. You may work for an organization that has an ITSP, and it would be a good idea for you to look at it, but it will likely be structured a little differently from this one. Each organization develops an ITSP that will work for them. 

Assignment

You will develop Part 1 of the ITSP for GG Freightways (GGFRT), using the outline below. Each of the topics to be included in your outline is covered in the course content readings assigned thus far. In addition to the course materials, at least two external resources (resources other than those provided in the class) must be used. Two or more cited references will earn top credit. Use a separate References page to list just the references you have cited. Remember to use the APA formatting rules and correctly cite and reference your sources with APA format. Use the Grading Rubric to be sure you have covered everything. 

Please use this outline to build your IT Strategic Plan.  Use the numbering and headings shown below.

Part One

1. Business Statement – Summarize in one paragraph, in your own words, the business of GGFRT. Include the locations of the company/terminals/maintenance facilities, fleet information/details (breakdown), and current/future financial climate/goals (with cost savings). Refer to Case Study.

2. Business Strategic Objectives – In the Case Study, the management team has identified three (3) new strategic objectives.  Using the following table (copy/paste it into your assignment), List/fully state the three (3) objectives, then, in your own words, in full sentences, add a brief explanation to each one.  Next add a new strategic objective of your own – one that you consider important to the current and future health of GGFRT’s business. In the explanation (for the new objective only), it should also add a statement of how the management team would improve the business of GGFRT. It can be one of the three federal/state regulations that the company wants to remain in compliance with, or a new one that you choose.  Write a brief introductory paragraph prior to the table. The paragraph must come first before your table, to explain what the table is providing.

The format below should be used for the presentation of this section:

Business Strategic Objective (BSO)   (enter number 1, 2, 3, 4 only)

Fully State the Objective (from   the case study); for the new objective, it should not discuss IT.

Explanation (in your own words for   each BSO; for the new objective only,   also incorporate how the management team would use the new objective to   improve the business of GGFRT. None   should discuss any relationship to use   of IT

1

2

3

4 (new objective)

3. IT Mission and IT Vision Statements – Write two short paragraphs with separate IT mission and IT vision statements for the Information Technology Department at GGFRT.  Label one “a. IT Mission Statement:” and one “b. IT Vision Statement:”. The format should be:

a. IT Mission Statement: (stated in full sentences)

b. IT Vision Statement: (stated in full sentences)

Use what you learn from the case study to create your own idea for the IT Mission Statement (current IT goals) and use the case study situation at GGFRT to write the IT Vision Statement for the IT department (future IT goals). (These should be general statements from the IT Department’s perspective and not note specific systems being planned for the near, or long-term future and general company operations).

Refer to the course materials on mission and vision, particularly the reading on “Creating a Future Vision for the Chief Information Officer”. If you need help on a mission statement, do a little research on the web; you will find many examples of IT mission statements.

4. IT Governance – Using the course content materials and the case study, describe, following the format below for each section, how the IT governance process should work for GGFRT. Lance wants to engage the other senior leaders, so include: 

a. who the participants are,

b. what each of their roles are on the governance board (why each is a member of the governance body, not their general roles in the company), 

c. what specific governance methodology should be established/justification (i.e. COBIT, ITIL, etc.; documents in various weeks’ content), discussing your choice based on projects/case study

d. what general responsibilities the governance body would have, and 

e. how they would prioritize IT projects to include (1) prioritization tool, (2) general criteria that is being considered for determining project importance, specific systems being planned should not be noted as the priority).

Refer to the course materials on governance, and you should supplement those documents with external research. IT Governance methodologies are covered in Week 5’s course content.

5. Inventory of Current IT Systems – Using the information in the Case Study, you will use the table provided to describe the current systems in use (not the systems being planned or in process of being completed, servers and PCs are hardware, not systems) and the IT resources allocated to their support (these are personnel in the IT Department only as well as equipment that hosts these systems). Copy and complete the table below, creating additional rows as needed to cover all current systems at GGFRT (if needed), then write a brief introductory paragraph prior to the table. The paragraph must come first before your table, to explain what the table is providing. 

Current System

Function/

Description

Strategic Goal   aligned to (business strategic objective from part 2 of this assignment; if   compliance noted as business goals were not used, they can still be   incorporated in this table.

Business Unit/

Department

Business   Benefits

IT   Resources only (people, equipment supporting this system)