PROJECT PROPOSAL
Instructions: 1. Please complete the form using Capital Letters. 2. Completed proposal must be submitted through the assignment drop box
Course: University of Wales Bachelor in Science In Business Information Technology
Name of <
Email Address: <
Student ID: << My ID >>
Project Title: IT STRATEGY PLANNING FOR GLOBAL SHIPPING PORT MANAGEMENT
Total Number of Pages including this cover page: 16
Date of << The date of Submission >> Submission:
Declaration: I declare that this proposal is my original work and that I have acknowledged any use of published or unpublished works of other people. I understand that I will be penalized for plagiarism and late submission.
______Table of Contents
1 BACKGROUND...... 1 2 AIM...... 3 3 OBJECTIVES...... 3 4 RESEARCH METHODS/APPROACH...... 4 5 RESEARCH DESIGN...... 5 5.1 Methods of primary data collection...... 6 5.2 Sources of Secondary data...... 6 5.3 Interpretation of Data...... 7 6 CHALLENGES...... 7 7 TASKS...... 8 8 TIME PLAN...... 8 9 REFERENCES:...... 9 Appendix 1...... 10 Appendix 2...... 11 Appendix 3...... 12 Appendix 4...... 14 IT STRATEGY PLANNING FOR GLOBAL SHIPPING PORT MANAGMENT
1 BACKGROUND
The author currently works for a leading shipping port operations company called APM Terminal (A.P. Moller Terminal) better known as “Maersk”. The A.P. Moller group of companies head quartered in Copenhagen is a large conglomerate whose four main business focus are Shipping (Maersk Line), Port Operations (APM Terminals), Maersk Oil&Gas and Retail.
APM Terminals is present in 45 ocean shipping ports around the world, of which 13 are under expansion, and 20 ports are either under development or in a concession negotiation stage. Appendix 1 shows the world map indicating the location of these ports. By the year 2010, this number is expected to grow to 85 ports. In the current 45 ports, the IT infrastructure consists of the following:
500 Servers and 12,000 personal computers (PC). 40 Primary Vendors – Terminal Operating System (TOS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) & Technology Over 100 IT vendors being used worldwide 3 Million security attacks on in-house systems per month 500 Mill system transaction updates annually. Apmterminals.com site receives 14,470 hits per day 26 different network domain configurations IT infrastructure & Systems support 13,600 Internal Users
The total annual operating cost for the above list is US$ 72 million and is expected to grow to US$ 137 million per year with the corresponding increase in business by the year 2010. How to reduce cost for this existing systems? As indicated by Hoffman T (2006) it does take creative thinking while using tools like benchmarking and focusing on good
1 business processes to achieve impressive results. Hoffman T (2006) also describes how many IT chiefs were too quick to embrace the “low hanging fruit” such as hardware consolidation and standardization or renegotiated software licensing agreement. This ironically leaves them increasingly difficult to find new avenues for operational savings due to the lack of understanding on where the problem areas are. Sometimes a strategic assessment of possibly spending more money now can save a lot in the long term.
APM Terminals current plan for growth is being proposed to be developed through a reliable networked system portfolio that is rapidly deployable and extensibly utilized with an optimal balance between Standardization / Flexibility and Efficiency / Effectiveness. The diagram below depicts how their deduced balancing is to be achieved.
Standardization : Efficiency : Flexibility Effectiveness
Figure 1. Balancing standardization, flexibility, efficiency and effectiveness as an IT strategy (extracted from APM Terminal IT strategy plan)
The current IT senior managers in the company have realized that some of the learned tools and approach need to be leaner in the future strategy as such there is a need to adopt a process model that will aid alignment of IT to business needs to:
Enable strategic information to be consistently and accurately derived from operational data. Promote data sharing - reduces data redundancy and maintenance costs.
2 Improve productivity by component development, management buy-in and reuse existing resources as much as possible. Reduce software development cycle time. Share information with customers and business partners Process Excellence Operations to align usage and deployment Information Optimization to analyze effectiveness
2 AIM
The aim of this dissertation is to provide a complementary study into some cutting edge proposal in strategic information system planning (SISP) for a company such as APM terminals to help them in their quest to reduce cost in IT expenditure and increase their business productivity.
3 OBJECTIVES
The main aim of the IT management at the company is to significantly reduce the cost of IT expenditure by US$132 million by the year 2010. They plan to achieve this by substantially increasing the new system frameworks’ effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility.
The objective of this dissertation is to: 1) Introduce several leading IT planning strategies. 2) Select or design a hybrid strategy that will assist the company in their aim. Appendix 2 shows a typical IS strategy development process adapted from Ward et al 1996 in Algeo D 1997, that can be used for this objective. 3) Prove the cost savings that can be achieved with this designed strategy. 4) Formulate new and or alternative strategy concepts in the research process to possibly enhance objective 3. 5) Discuss the outcome of the research effort for the company.
3 The research paper may include management presentation documentation for concept approval and expenditure justification for adoption of project.
4 RESEARCH METHODS/APPROACH
Ghauri & Gronhaug (2002) explains that “research methods refer to systematic, focused and orderly collection of data for the purpose of obtaining information from them, to solve and/or answer our research problems or questions. The research for this project will likely take on a combination of explorative study and descriptive research. This method of the research will be done as indicated by Segars & Grover (1999) on six broad process dimensions, namely: comprehensiveness, formalization, focus, flow, participation and consistency. The detailed descriptions of the six broad process dimensions extracted from Segars & Grover (1999) can be found in Appendix 3.
Explorative study will most likely cover most of the objectives while descriptive research shall be used to answer the who, what, when, where and how questions. The findings here will steer APM terminals to make sound decision which according to Zikmund 2003, a process of resolving a problem or choosing among alternative opportunities.
The explorative research segment will include much of data based research using both quantitative and qualitative analysis. It will cover a comprehensive study for the following category covering all 45 ports of the currently operating terminals:
IT Processes Systems Infrastructure Organization IT Governance
4 5 RESEARCH DESIGN
Fawcett & Downs (1986) explains that descriptive theories are generated and tested by descriptive research. According to Fawcett & Downs (1986) such research are also called explorative research . In keeping synchronization to the objectives of this project, the stages for the design of the research will be as follows:
1) Study into modern IS planning strategies. 2) Simultaneously during stage 1, initiate explorative research to create spreadsheets of existing IS infrastructure and other data gathering efforts mentioned above. 3) Construct a hypothesis a possible hybrid strategy for the company. Deliverable – proposed IS strategy. 4) Get approval and buy-in from the company IT senior managers. (*** Decision point**; alternative methods may be needed). 5) Rework the proposed hybrid strategy to include information gathered in stage number 4. Deliverable - finalized strategy and cost saving proof of hypothesis. 6) Submit final dissertation with recommendations of possible alternative approaches, future deliberation based of emerging business trends and conclusions.
The initial explorative stage of research for this project in IS Strategy Planning will be to identify the many proven strategy planning methods theoretical or otherwise. This identification will be done by reading books written on this topic, other research papers and periodicals, industry trends based on documented case studies, professional and reputable business magazines and internet resources. Senior IT Management at APM Terminals has at this stage already discovered general problems and to some extend hypothesized some possible solutions. Some of this discovery is listed in the background above and shall be included for the explorative research. As indicated however by Zikmund 3003, that “uncovering conclusive evidence to determine a particular course of
5 action is not the purpose of the explorative research rather it is conducted to clarify ambiguous problems.
5.1 Methods of primary data collection The quantitative data to study each terminals systems and infrastructure will be collected from the respective IT departments of the country office. This primary data will be recorded in a spreadsheet and will be re-handled to assess inventory profile and cost profile. The future cost prediction to technology change will be added to the spreadsheet for detailed comparison and realize the actual savings. These data will also be extrapolated to show effectiveness and its efficiency.
The qualitative information that is being sought will come mainly from interviews with senior company management, IT managers at the HQ, IT managers at the local terminal office and users or super users of the various systems. A typical approach to quantitative and qualitative analysis is shown in appendix 4.
Last but not the least is to hear some direct comments from our customers. A simple questionnaire will be prepared to get our customers to tell us what they actually think of us as business partners and how they rate our service quality and how we can better interface to their IT solution to better track their shipping commodities.
5.2 Sources of Secondary data According to Brannick & Roche (1997), there are two main advantages of secondary data. First it is quicker to gather the data and secondly it is cheaper and easily available then primary data. The sources for secondary data will be extensively used to gather most of the information for this research that may come from: 1) Journals, white papers, text books and internet resources. 2) The company HQ’s IT department. 3) Contacting each individual terminal IT. 4) Management and employees of each terminal. 5) Customer representatives.
6 6) Business partners / vendors.
The disadvantage of this data according to Brannick & Roche (1997) is how reliable are they? So credibility of data here will be highly critical.
5.3 Interpretation of Data The quantitative data from the spreadsheet will be used to track mainly the dollar objective that needs to be proven with this project. It will also show how standardization, efficiency, effectiveness of usage will also improve over time. The data should also be able to provide staffing requirements with this initiative and help identify the need for relevant vendors and resource development plan.
The qualitative data collected from interviews, group discussion and questionnaire are mainly sources to create ideas to assess how we can add value to our customers in terms of showing them that we care about their success. Identifying and improving on better communication and provide for them an on-demand search for their information will take the guess work out of their doing business with us.
The data gathered from the explorative research will now be used to test the hypothesis of the derived planning strategy to save APM Terminals US$ 132 million by the year 2010.
6 CHALLENGES
One of the biggest challenge envisaged in this project undertaking is the proximity of the authors current working location (Los Angeles, USA) and the Company’s headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands. The General Manger of IT and Business processes Mr Scott Kelley at the headquarter office is the main sponsor of this project. He has accepted to sponsor this program and is currently preparing an official note in this regard. Unfortunately, this letter of sponsorship is not available at time of this project proposal submission.
7 7 TASKS
TASK 1 Identification and Submission of project proposal TASK 2 Establish a working relationship with the project supervisor. TASK 3 Deliverable 1 : A hybrid strategy. – Progress report. TASK 4 Presentation of strategy to company management. TASK 5 Deliverable 2: Approved strategy. – Progress report. TASK 6 Deliverable 3: Submission of dissertation and project viva.
8 TIME PLAN
TIME PLAN FOR DISSERTATION
Submission of project proposal Acceptance of project Student on vacation Detailed study of IT system and infrastructure Research of modern IT strategies. Derivation of new IT strategy for the company Presentation of strategy to senior managements. Submission of first draft of dissertation Conceptual change if any after management presentation Second draft of dissertation Final submission of dissertation
April May June July August September October November December
8 9 REFERENCES:
1. Hoffman T (2006). Squeezing dollars for maintenance. Retrieved on May 1, 2006 from : http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,110972, 00.html
2. Algeo D (1997), Developing the IS strategy. Retrieved on April 26, 2006 from https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/ism/smis/topics/isstrdev/isstrdev.htm
3. Ghauri & Gronhaug (2002). Research methods in Business Studies; a practical guide (2nd Ed). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall.
4. Segars & Grover (1999). Profiles of Strategic Information Systems Planning. Extracted on April 28, 2006 from: http://www.bkae.hu/nemeslaki/02folyamat/php75GXDU_article.pdf
5. Zikmund W.G (2003). Business Research Methods 7th edition. Mason OH:South- Western, a division of Thomson Learning.
6. Fawcett & Downs (1986). The relationship between theory and research. Norwalk CT: Appelton Century Croft.
7. Brannick & Roche (1997). Business research method; strategies, techniques and sources. Dublin Ireland: Oak Tree Press.
9 Appendix 1
Terminals
Terminals under expansion New Implementations
Figure 2. World map showing current APM Terminal locations.
10 Appendix 2
Figure 3. A framework of model and techniques to develop an IS Strategy (extracted from Algeo D 1997)
11 Appendix 3
Details of the the six broad process dimension for strategic information system planning (SISP) extracted from Segars & Grovers (1999) are as follows:
SISP process Explanation of the dimension dimension Comprehensiveness a. Exploration of a wide range of alternatives. b. Identifying a full range of objectives. c. Constantly balancing the cost and risk of the various consequences. d. Searching for information to constantly evaluate alternative actions. e. Seeking expert advise on judgments and for the above alternative actions. f. Reexamining the positive and negative consequences of all derived alternatives. g. Making detailed plans, which should include the consideration of contingencies for implementing a chosen action.
Formalization The establishment of structure, techniques, written procedures and policies that guide the planning process. Focus Having a sound balance between exploration through limitless creativity and control orientation that exist in the process structure of strategic planning. Flow Within a management hierarchy , the strategic planning may need a information or decision flow bottom-up and top-down respectively. It concerns the vertical flow of the planning system. Participation In contrast to the flow, participation is concerned with the breadth of the involvement on strategic planning. This includes involvement of individuals representing the various functional areas of the company providing lateral communication in the
12 SISP process Explanation of the dimension dimension planning process. Consistency Capturing the frequency of planning activities/evaluation/revision of strategic choices. The favored scenario is continuous planning process, constant communication among planning participants and frequent assessment and revision of strategic decisions.
Table 1. Six broad process dimension for strategic information system planning (SISP) extracted from Segars & Grovers (1999)
13 Appendix 4
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE 1. A high 1. The level of usage of these system level system and infrastructure and infrastructure and its effectiveness breakdown in each port. to the business. 2. Maintenance and upkeep/operation 2. IT managers’ assessment on the cost of having these systems. economical advantage in the current cost drivers. 3. Categorize for uniformity and
standardization comparison of 3. Users perception on the existing systems and infrastructure effectiveness of their systems to for business model analysis. evaluate the utilization capabilities and the effect of change. 4. Measure throughput of every
system and correlation to its 4. Assess the ease of use of these business logic cost effectiveness. systems and operator responses to future/more cost effective technology 5. Collate current and future cost usage. breakdown for tracking research
goals. 5. Learn the effect of the initiative to customers and partners.
Table 2. Quantitative and qualitative analysis for IT strategy in change management
14