Corporate Level Disaster Recovery and Security Architecture Options

Disaster Recovery Facility/Centre and Security Architecture

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AUSPOST AND TOLL: ROADS TO RICHES
This project comprises 60% of the assessment for this course and is to be completed as
an individual assessment and treated as a Take Home Exam. No group work is to be
conducted or submitted.
Note that wherever possible you should try to support assertions and judgements you
make, or opinions you express, with references to appropriate literature (not only from
your textbook and/or lecture presentations or other material provided during the conduct
of the course, but from quality journals and textbooks).
Background
You have been appointed by the AUSPOST Board as an IT integration consultant to
provide advice and guidance on the proposed merger between AUSPOST and TOLL
(IT related aspects only).
AUSPOST is facing an information systems integration cost of more than $225 million in
an attempt to reduce IT operating costs by over $75 million per annum as part of the
proposed merger. The merger could take the form of: (i) a full acquisition with TOLL
becoming an ‘intimate’ operating division of AUSPOST; or (ii) a merger of equals with
AUSPOST and TOLL integrating their divisions (ie, mail services, contract parcel
delivery, domestic logistics, international logistics, freight forwarding, logistics centres
operations).
It is expected that, as part of the merger, the annual IT savings at TOLL will range
between $25 - 35 million per annum. The total cost of the merger is likely to approach
$335 million, so the IT integration aspects are significant, and will be critical if the
merger is to succeed. Both firms have reasonably current core business systems that
will, nevertheless, require a substantial integration effort.
Aspects of the IT Integration
IBM supports AUSPOST and Accenture supports TOLL IT operations. In fact, IBM holds
a 4-year, $2 billion contract for outsourced IT support services at AUSPOST. IT support
services must be merged under the new organizational structure.
Interestingly, AUSPOST is SAP-centric (mainly SAP R/6 for ERP) and TOLL is Oracle-
centric (mainly Oracle e-Business Suite for ERP) but have similar suites of operating
systems (eg, MS Windows, z/OS, iOS, android), databases (eg, SAP, IBM DB2, and
Oracle), customer management technology (eg, SAP CRM, Oracle-Siebel Systems),
business intelligence (eg, Oracle and IBM-Cognos), and security products (eg,
Symantec, Kaspersky, ACL, AV, DC, PKI, RSA Tokens). As an estimate, approximately
40-50% of IT systems and products are common across the two organizations.
However, the level of systems customisation is so great (given the need to support the
very different business processes and procedures at both firms), a large IT
rationalisation and duplication removal project will no doubt be needed (as an example
both firms use highly customised versions of ERP). New processes will be needed for
CRM, SCM and business continuity management.
Telstra holds a $150 million annual contract to provide telecommunications and call
centre services to AUSPOST, and a similar contract valued at $100 million per year with

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TOLL (this includes overseas partnerships with companies like BT, AT&T and so on).
Key considerations include merging the corporate telecommunications services,
customer contact and shared services centres, and the need to establish a ‘corporate
level’ disaster recovery facility/centre and security architecture.
Additionally, there is a large pool of IT executive talent possessing significant levels of
systems integration experience. Their initial investigations have revealed several
possible directions in which they might focus corporate attention and resources:
 D1: Concentrating on integrating, rationalizing and refreshing their internal
functionally organized business systems, by (possibly) making use of
technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems and EAI, and
approaches such as Enterprise Architecture;
 D2: Developing closer integrated and electronic links with their supplier and
partner organizations (eg, equipment suppliers, service contractor companies) to
better coordinate their activities and reduce costs through implementation and
use of e-procurement, Supply Chain Management systems, or similar
technologies;
 D3: Establishing integrated and rationalized corporate systems and services
delivery using a single telecommunications provider, a high quality contact and
call centre management solution, and a disaster recovery facility that may
possibly make use of an ‘off-site’ data warehouse and integrated data marts;
 D4: Using integrated systems to improve and extend their marketing and
business intelligence activities, both nationally and internationally, through the
implementation of a consolidated Customer Relationship Management system;
 D5: Establishing a consolidated security architecture that enfolds the business
processes and procedures of both banks, and streamlines security operations
and management; and,
 Note 1: Extensive use of Cloud Computing models to deliver collaboration,
security, storage and other business functions to the merged company might be
considered as important.
 Note 2: Expected growth in BYOD/BYOA in the merged entity, including advice
on security models, policies and MDM systems may prove useful.
You are to provide a report for the AUSPOST Board on the possible directions the
integration might follow. At a minimum, your report should contain the following
deliverables:
1. A proposed enterprise architecture for the merged entity, including a detailed
discussion of the framework applied (eg, Zachman, TOGAF), the major artefacts
created (eg, data architectures, security architectures, telecommunications
architecture, process taxonomies, governance frameworks), and a diagrammatic
representation of the architectures (D1, D3 and D5).
2. A detailed discussion for each of the following:
(i) Consolidation and/or integration of ERP systems, including any use of EAI,
and the implications for BPR and BPM (D1); and

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(ii) Integration of suppliers and customers under the respective SCM and CRM
systems integration tasks under the new architecture. Also, provide use case
models that describe how supplier and customer interactions and data, and the
SCM and CRM will be merged (remembering that your audience is Director-level
management who are not necessarily familiar with what IT integration is about)
(D2 and D4).
3. Exercising your business analysis skills and knowledge, conduct the
following:
(i) SWOT analysis on your proposed solutions in part (2) ERP, SCM and CRM
(D1, D2, D4); and
(ii) A Requirements analysis of the top 15 technical system requirements and
top 15 business system requirements for your proposed solutions in part (2)
ERP, SCM and CRM. Provide priorities for these 30 system requirements. (D1,
D2, D4)
4. Any other relevant analyses or points that may arise, such as (for example, but
not necessarily only) whether similar IT integration approaches may work in
other less or more sophisticated marketplaces around the world.
Assessment Structure
You should:
 Provide a title page and table of contents;
 Organize the contents of your assessment into appropriate sections, with
appropriate headings. It should not be simply one long essay;
 Include a list of quality references that you have used, and cite them in the
text using either the Harvard referencing format (exclusive use of Internet
references is not acceptable);
 Word Limits (expected): Up to 6,000 words, not including the Appendices. Do
not, however, pad your work with irrelevant or peripheral material – make every
word count;
 AVOID PLAGIARISING other people’s work or being dishonest in your
assessment – YOU CHEAT – YOU FAIL;
 Use DOUBLE SPACED PARAGRAPHS throughout the assessment;
 Use Times New Roman 12 fonts in your assessment only.
 Use diagrams, figures and photographs to illustrate your advice and
recommendations where appropriate. Use appendices where you feel it is
appropriate (eg. for some analyses).
 If you do not have enough information on which to base your arguments, given
the background presented above, make any plausible assumptions you need
(making it clear what you have assumed for the purposes of your argument).
Nigel J Martin