“Assignment 3,
INF30001/INF80030, Semester 2, 2014
CASE STUDY: IT Professional Services, ICS Services Pty Ltd.
ASSIGNMENT
GUIDELINES
Please read the following short case and then answer the three questions at the end. This assignment is worth
30 marks which will contribute 20% towards your final mark. This assignment is
to be done individually. Excluding references and appendices this assignment
should not exceed 2,500 words.
1
INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of Technology
CASE STUDY: IT
Professional Services, ICS Services Pty Ltd.
As you are aware (please see
INF30001/INF80030 Assignment 1 & 2) ICS Services is trying to integrate
five separate practice lines:
1) Infrastructure and
Application Architecture,
2) IS Strategy,
3) Information Security,
4) Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services, and 5) e-Forensics,
and has commenced an
implementation of a CRM across these service lines as part of its strategy to
offer more services to its entire customer base, and thus grow the business.
David Green, the Managing Partner appointed Sarah Lee, the National Marketing
Director as the executive sponsor of this implementation project.
The project has been
problematic from the start. Originally it was intended that Sarah would have
access to project management people from the consulting company that was now
part of Professional Services practice. However, all available project managers
have been assigned to external clients. Sarah then appointed one of her own
marketing staff, Jordan Robinson, as the Project Manager. He was a young
marketing graduate who had been with Sarah for just six months. Sarah had been
impressed by his energy, innovation, ability to get on with people as well as
his attention to detail. Sarah thought the challenge would be very good for
Jordan and Jordans appointment would ensure the CRM system was truly marketing
focused and not just an IT implementation project. She knew Jordan had no
practical experience of IT projects, but had studied project management and so
had a theoretical understanding of projects, the project life-cycle, resource
management, risk management tools, communication strategy development, etc.
Sarah bought a book on IT Project Management for Jordan. Read this she said.
The rest of the project team came from available resources in the Professional
Services practice. They were all presently working on other projects as well.
It was not long after this that the Head of Strategic Projects at ICS resigned,
leaving the company on the same day. Most of the above was unknown to you when
you were approached to join the newly formed ICS as the Head of Strategic
Projects. The recruitment company head hunter had painted an attractive
picture of ICS and the great opportunity the integration of the five
Professional Services lines presented to an ambitious and energetic person like
yourself. With your recently gained Masters of Information Systems Management
degree you saw it as a wonderful chance to display your talents and knowledge.
It was true that ICS had a small number of strategic projects, but your title
would be Head and this surely was a step on the right ladder. You thought
your six years working as a Systems Analyst before you did your Masters would
probably be a very helpful experience as well.
Youve been looking forward to
your first day settling into your office and meeting new colleagues and the
people in your team. In addition, youre looking forward to getting an overview
of the current strategic
2
INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of Technology
projects and their status,
learning about current business strategies and plans, and hopefully having a
good chat with David Green and also Sarah in regards to the CRM project. But it
doesnt turn out quite like that. When you arrive, you are immediately called
into an emergency CRM Project Meeting being chaired by Sarah. After hasty
introductions, she states that the project is a disaster and that it is
entirely your predecessors fault. She informs you that this project is The
bosss (David Greens) No 1 priority and that the project teams have tried hard
but seems to be failing in delivering the CRM system. The young project manager
doesnt say anything. When you ask for a project report and minutes of previous
meetings, Sarah seems flustered and replies that she doesnt think that the
documentation is the problem. You decide that pushing this issue is not
sensible, but make a note that you must see Sarah after the meeting. However
the meeting comes to an abrupt end when Sarah states I guess that this is now
your problem-I wont say anything more! You arrange for a one on one meeting
with Sarah later in the day after you have spoken to the young project manager
and the IT staff assigned to the project. You quickly assemble a meeting with
all your new team and have them introduce themselves. You introduce yourself
and talk briefly about your immediate plans to learn about the business and the
key strategic projects, but firstly you clearly need to address the CRM project
problems. You then reduce the meeting to just those staff who are directly
involved in the CRM project. You ask each of them to briefly talk about their
role and key issues they are facing. When you ask each of them about the CRM
project, they just shake their heads and say something like, Thats a
difficult one, then silence. You know that given its apparent importance that
you really need to get to the bottom of what is going on with this project.
Given the reaction to your
questions about the CRM project in a group setting, you decide to see each of
your direct reports separately. But first you talk to the CRM project manager
Jordan Robinson. He is glad to see you and eager to tell you of the issues he
faces. I really want this to work, but I will need a lot of help and guidance
he says. He at least appears to understand how CRM systems work from his
university studies and can see that there will be real benefits if it is
implemented properly. However he tells you that James McKay, the IT
Infrastructure leader at ICS, had not been told about the project and his staff
was too busy on other projects and he himself was unable to get any support
from the other IT leaders (applications, storage, security, network,
collaboration, etc). You thank him and tell him that you will be talking to
Sarah about how you might start the project from a fresh perspective. You then
decide to talk to James McKay, the IT Infrastructure Leader. James says that
his team have been trying to install the CRM chosen by David and Sarah so that
it is accessible in each of the practices. He tells you that the software was
chosen because it was supplied by a friend of David and confirms Jordans
story that his staff had been unable to gain assistance or interest from the IT
staff at ICS. You say that you are checking all the facts and that you will
come back to him when you have an opinion on how best to proceed. You then talk
to the help desk leader, John Thwaites who says that he is very concerned about
the CRM implementation because there is no SLA, contract, or user
documentation that I have seen and he does not know what arrangements there
are for maintenance of the system. Also he says that his responsibility has
only been to support the previous practice and he is not sure how he will
support the new entity.
Your final discussion is with
Felix Chan, one of the Analysts in the Professional Services practice. His main
problem with the CRM project he says is with customer records and data formats.
He spends half an hour
3
INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of Technology
detailing the issues he is
facing. After taking some time to reflect you go to Sarahs office to have a
discussion about how you might move forward together. You have thought through
the main points that you wish to make around the following topics:
You confirm that you
understand the benefits that may be realised from the CRM project and how you
might manage their realisation,
You outline an acquisition
strategy that you think should be adopted, You suggest a simple governance
strategy,
You also let her know that
you believe that you will need her assistance to organise the support
Professional Services practice other managing partners.
When you are finished, she
calmly looks you in the eye and states, You are the first person around here
that makes sense! I will ensure that you get my full support. I am meeting
David later today and will get back to you with his view of how things should
go from here. You thank her for hearing you out and head back to your new
office, sit down and breathe deeply. Already its 5pm. You start to write a
list of things you must do tomorrow, starting with most of the things you had
planned to do today.
A few hours later your
Blackberry flashes. Its an email from Sarah, David likes your ideas and wants
them presented to him within the week. He says maybe choose a new CRM
application and do it properly this time.
You smile and laugh nervously,
but think to yourself I know the theory I just need to apply it. Better get
on. Its going to be a long evening.
ASSIGNMENT 3
IS AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT: DUE IN WEEK 11
QUESTIONS
1. The implementation of the
CRM is now in disarray. Identify the problems in the acquisition and
implementation process that may have contributed to this state of affairs. Why
did these problems arise?
2. The Analyst Felix Chan spent
half an hour quite specifically describing customer record and data issues.
Outline the problems you think he might be facing with customer records and
data and why these might exist. How might these problems be addressed? What
difficulties might be experienced in trying to fix them?
3. Sarah is anxious to find a
solution to the problems with implementation of the CRM system. You explain
that the implementation problems stem from problems with the acquisition as
well as the implementation process. Explain and justify a process that you
believe would lead to the more successful acquisition and implementation of a
packaged CRM application in the Professional Services practice at ICS in the
future.
The marking
guide for the assignment further outlines the areas that you may need to consider
for this assignment.
INF30001/INF80030 SYSTEM
ACQUISITION AND IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT 3: ASSESSMENT FORM
Assignment 3 is worth 20% of total
marks allocated to this unit
Student id : __________________
Student Name : ____________________________________________ Date:
__________________________ Tutor:
_____________________________________________________

CRITERIA

RATING

Analysis of the underlying factors
that have contributed to the poor acquisition and implementation processes
– Problem analysis is undertaken
with reference to the acquisition and implementation processes, highlighting
activities that are problematic
– The discussion does not only
outline the symptoms but also makes explicit the potential underlying causes.

/5
/5

Analysis of the problems
associated with customer records and data and why these might exist.
– Data
specific problems that arise during acquisition and implementation are
outlined & sources of these problem are discussed
– Strategies for addressing these
problems are discussed & challenges in implementation strategies are
identified

/5
/5

Development of a process that will
lead to more successful acquisition and implementations of packaged
applications in the future
– A process
view is outlined
– The process activities and resources required for implementing process
activities are discussed
– Process bottlenecks are
identified

/10

Total

/30

Rating

1= very poor, 2=poor, 3=fair/ok, 4=good, 5=very
good
2= very poor, 4=poor, 6=fair/ok, 8=good, 10=very
good

Assignment 3,
INF30001/INF80030, Semester 2, 2014
CASE STUDY: IT Professional Services, ICS Services Pty Ltd.ASSIGNMENT
GUIDELINESPlease read the following short
case and then answer the three questions at the end. This assignment is worth
30 marks which will contribute 20% towards your final mark. This assignment is
to be done individually. Excluding references and appendices this assignment
should not exceed 2,500 words.1INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of TechnologyCASE STUDY: IT
Professional Services, ICS Services Pty Ltd.As you are aware (please see
INF30001/INF80030 Assignment 1 & 2) ICS Services is trying to integrate
five separate practice lines:1) Infrastructure and
Application Architecture,
2) IS Strategy,
3) Information Security,
4) Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services, and 5) e-Forensics,and has commenced an
implementation of a CRM across these service lines as part of its strategy to
offer more services to its entire customer base, and thus grow the business.
David Green, the Managing Partner appointed Sarah Lee, the National Marketing
Director as the executive sponsor of this implementation project.The project has been
problematic from the start. Originally it was intended that Sarah would have
access to project management people from the consulting company that was now
part of Professional Services practice. However, all available project managers
have been assigned to external clients. Sarah then appointed one of her own
marketing staff, Jordan Robinson, as the Project Manager. He was a young
marketing graduate who had been with Sarah for just six months. Sarah had been
impressed by his energy, innovation, ability to get on with people as well as
his attention to detail. Sarah thought the challenge would be very good for
Jordan and Jordans appointment would ensure the CRM system was truly marketing
focused and not just an IT implementation project. She knew Jordan had no
practical experience of IT projects, but had studied project management and so
had a theoretical understanding of projects, the project life-cycle, resource
management, risk management tools, communication strategy development, etc.
Sarah bought a book on IT Project Management for Jordan. Read this she said.
The rest of the project team came from available resources in the Professional
Services practice. They were all presently working on other projects as well.
It was not long after this that the Head of Strategic Projects at ICS resigned,
leaving the company on the same day. Most of the above was unknown to you when
you were approached to join the newly formed ICS as the Head of Strategic
Projects. The recruitment company head hunter had painted an attractive
picture of ICS and the great opportunity the integration of the five
Professional Services lines presented to an ambitious and energetic person like
yourself. With your recently gained Masters of Information Systems Management
degree you saw it as a wonderful chance to display your talents and knowledge.
It was true that ICS had a small number of strategic projects, but your title
would be Head and this surely was a step on the right ladder. You thought
your six years working as a Systems Analyst before you did your Masters would
probably be a very helpful experience as well.Youve been looking forward to
your first day settling into your office and meeting new colleagues and the
people in your team. In addition, youre looking forward to getting an overview
of the current strategic2INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of Technologyprojects and their status,
learning about current business strategies and plans, and hopefully having a
good chat with David Green and also Sarah in regards to the CRM project. But it
doesnt turn out quite like that. When you arrive, you are immediately called
into an emergency CRM Project Meeting being chaired by Sarah. After hasty
introductions, she states that the project is a disaster and that it is
entirely your predecessors fault. She informs you that this project is The
bosss (David Greens) No 1 priority and that the project teams have tried hard
but seems to be failing in delivering the CRM system. The young project manager
doesnt say anything. When you ask for a project report and minutes of previous
meetings, Sarah seems flustered and replies that she doesnt think that the
documentation is the problem. You decide that pushing this issue is not
sensible, but make a note that you must see Sarah after the meeting. However
the meeting comes to an abrupt end when Sarah states I guess that this is now
your problem-I wont say anything more! You arrange for a one on one meeting
with Sarah later in the day after you have spoken to the young project manager
and the IT staff assigned to the project. You quickly assemble a meeting with
all your new team and have them introduce themselves. You introduce yourself
and talk briefly about your immediate plans to learn about the business and the
key strategic projects, but firstly you clearly need to address the CRM project
problems. You then reduce the meeting to just those staff who are directly
involved in the CRM project. You ask each of them to briefly talk about their
role and key issues they are facing. When you ask each of them about the CRM
project, they just shake their heads and say something like, Thats a
difficult one, then silence. You know that given its apparent importance that
you really need to get to the bottom of what is going on with this project.Given the reaction to your
questions about the CRM project in a group setting, you decide to see each of
your direct reports separately. But first you talk to the CRM project manager
Jordan Robinson. He is glad to see you and eager to tell you of the issues he
faces. I really want this to work, but I will need a lot of help and guidance
he says. He at least appears to understand how CRM systems work from his
university studies and can see that there will be real benefits if it is
implemented properly. However he tells you that James McKay, the IT
Infrastructure leader at ICS, had not been told about the project and his staff
was too busy on other projects and he himself was unable to get any support
from the other IT leaders (applications, storage, security, network,
collaboration, etc). You thank him and tell him that you will be talking to
Sarah about how you might start the project from a fresh perspective. You then
decide to talk to James McKay, the IT Infrastructure Leader. James says that
his team have been trying to install the CRM chosen by David and Sarah so that
it is accessible in each of the practices. He tells you that the software was
chosen because it was supplied by a friend of David and confirms Jordans
story that his staff had been unable to gain assistance or interest from the IT
staff at ICS. You say that you are checking all the facts and that you will
come back to him when you have an opinion on how best to proceed. You then talk
to the help desk leader, John Thwaites who says that he is very concerned about
the CRM implementation because there is no SLA, contract, or user
documentation that I have seen and he does not know what arrangements there
are for maintenance of the system. Also he says that his responsibility has
only been to support the previous practice and he is not sure how he will
support the new entity.Your final discussion is with
Felix Chan, one of the Analysts in the Professional Services practice. His main
problem with the CRM project he says is with customer records and data formats.
He spends half an hour3INF30001/INF80030
SYSTEMS ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT Semester 2, 2014 Faculty of
Business & Enterprise Swinburne University of Technologydetailing the issues he is
facing. After taking some time to reflect you go to Sarahs office to have a
discussion about how you might move forward together. You have thought through
the main points that you wish to make around the following topics: You confirm that you
understand the benefits that may be realised from the CRM project and how you
might manage their realisation, You outline an acquisition
strategy that you think should be adopted, You suggest a simple governance
strategy, You also let her know that
you believe that you will need her assistance to organise the support
Professional Services practice other managing partners.When you are finished, she
calmly looks you in the eye and states, You are the first person around here
that makes sense! I will ensure that you get my full support. I am meeting
David later today and will get back to you with his view of how things should
go from here. You thank her for hearing you out and head back to your new
office, sit down and breathe deeply. Already its 5pm. You start to write a
list of things you must do tomorrow, starting with most of the things you had
planned to do today.A few hours later your
Blackberry flashes. Its an email from Sarah, David likes your ideas and wants
them presented to him within the week. He says maybe choose a new CRM
application and do it properly this time.You smile and laugh nervously,
but think to yourself I know the theory I just need to apply it. Better get
on. Its going to be a long evening.ASSIGNMENT 3
IS AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT: DUE IN WEEK 11QUESTIONS1. The implementation of the
CRM is now in disarray. Identify the problems in the acquisition and
implementation process that may have contributed to this state of affairs. Why
did these problems arise?2. The Analyst Felix Chan spent
half an hour quite specifically describing customer record and data issues.
Outline the problems you think he might be facing with customer records and
data and why these might exist. How might these problems be addressed? What
difficulties might be experienced in trying to fix them?3. Sarah is anxious to find a
solution to the problems with implementation of the CRM system. You explain
that the implementation problems stem from problems with the acquisition as
well as the implementation process. Explain and justify a process that you
believe would lead to the more successful acquisition and implementation of a
packaged CRM application in the Professional Services practice at ICS in the
future.The marking
guide for the assignment further outlines the areas that you may need to consider
for this assignment.INF30001/INF80030 SYSTEM
ACQUISITION AND IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENTASSIGNMENT 3: ASSESSMENT FORMAssignment 3 is worth 20% of total
marks allocated to this unitStudent id : __________________
Student Name : ____________________________________________ Date:
__________________________ Tutor:
_____________________________________________________CRITERIARATINGAnalysis of the underlying factors
that have contributed to the poor acquisition and implementation processes- Problem analysis is undertaken
with reference to the acquisition and implementation processes, highlighting
activities that are problematic- The discussion does not only
outline the symptoms but also makes explicit the potential underlying causes.
/5/5Analysis of the problems
associated with customer records and data and why these might exist.
– Data
specific problems that arise during acquisition and implementation are
outlined & sources of these problem are discussed- Strategies for addressing these
problems are discussed & challenges in implementation strategies are
identified/5/5Development of a process that will
lead to more successful acquisition and implementations of packaged
applications in the future
– A process
view is outlined
– The process activities and resources required for implementing process
activities are discussed- Process bottlenecks are
identified/10Total/30Rating”