AMD-IT Strategic Plan Report

This report presents an IT strategic plan for ACT Motorcycle Dealers (AMD), a successful but traditional SME. The plan addresses challenges related to data governance, e-commerce integration, mobile and social media systems, customer relationship management (CRM), and business security and continuity. It analyzes current issues, outlines potential risks and rewards, and proposes solutions for implementing new systems and technologies. The report includes recommendations for improving data governance through surveys and roadmaps, enhancing e-commerce with RFID and IoT, optimizing wireless systems, implementing user-friendly CRM software, and strengthening business security through computer security measures. The overall goal is to leverage IT to support AMD's growth and increase revenue by at least $250,000 annually.

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AMD-IT Plan
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
The business growth of AMD...................................................................................................................2
Purpose of report....................................................................................................................................3
An IS/IT strategic plan..................................................................................................................................4
Purpose of the plan.................................................................................................................................4
Establishment of objectives.....................................................................................................................4
The plan...................................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of the system elements.................................................................................................................7
Problems and the issues addressed.........................................................................................................7
Management and organizational issues and challenges that would need to be addressed....................9
The risks and rewards of undertaking the work....................................................................................11
The scope of the systems and technologies to be implemented...........................................................14
The systems development and change management approaches to be adopted................................15
Recommendations on the delivery of the new system elements..............................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................19
References:................................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
ACT Motorcycle Dealers (AMD) is a well-established but very traditional small to medium
business enterprise (SME). They have been selling (and servicing) motorcycles, quadbikes and
riding equipment for over 30 years in the Canberra and Queanbeyan district. Their Business
Information Systems (BIS) are fairly simple and could possibly do with an overhaul to help Mike
(the owner of the business) sell more bikes. Mike is planning to revamp its IT systems at the
company AMD. For this, he has appointed a consultant who can give him the required advice
and guidance.
The business growth of AMD
The business of Mike involved sale of the Kawasaki motorcycles but after few years, the local
Honda motorcycles were picked and Mike took its franchise. In 2007, he bought the Canberra
dealership of Yamaha and Suzuki franchises. Consequently, all the Japanese motorcycle
manufacturers’ products came under his company’s banner. In 2011, there were various agency
rights that were acquired by Mike like the Ducati, KTM motorcycles etc. the dirt bikes, golf carts
etc. were sold by him in the regional areas. Then, the company was expanded in the sale of
Honda, Sea-Doo and Kawasaki jet-skis. Apart from the vehicles, the business of Mike is also
into the sale of financial and the insurance packages for the vehicles that he sells. Thus, the
company has developed good relations with the financial institutions like Swann Group, QBE
etc. AMD is also a stockist and sales agent for a number of apparel and accessories companies
including DriRider, Alpinestars, DragginJeans, Dainese, Shoei, AGV, and Fox. The company
AMD also runs its own service centres and the work related to the ordering of the spare parts,
full servicing and rebuilding, preparation of the race bike, turning of the dynamometer, extending
warranty etc. is done in that service centre.
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The annual revenue for the business is approximately $25 million, with a staff expenses bill of
around $3 million. AMD has over 15,000 customers in the region. Any new IT system initiatives
must have the potential to increase revenue to the value of at least $250,000 per year.
Purpose of report
The present report aims to develop a document for Mike and his team of employees on the
possible benefits and disadvantages or difficulties for managing the transformation of his
business information systems, considering that small to medium size enterprise resources are
often limited. This has been prepared from a consultant’s point of view for ANUCONs, an IT
consulting organization that has been appointed by Mike Stoner to provide advice and guidance
on the potential revamp of IT systems at AMD. For fulfilling the objective of the report, an IT
strategic plan will be developed, then there are various system elements related to the business
that are to be entailed in this and these will be discussed and analyzed in the report. Finally, few
recommendations will be outlined that will help the company in proceeding for the delivery of
the elements of the new systems.
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An IS/IT strategic plan
Purpose of the plan
The plan is developed for supporting the growth of the company and for ensuring that the
business maintains this growth. This plan will help the business in exploring its value and the
areas in which the business can enter. The areas will be unlocked using the technology so, the It
plan is required to be developed here.
Establishment of objectives
The plan tries to fulfill the following objectives:
 To build the online channel for AMD for selling the apparels and accessories for the
companies like DriRider, Alpinestars, DragginJeans, Dainese, Shoei, AGV, and Fox.
This is an attractive option for the company and it can help the company in getting ahead
in the competition.
 To integrate the business systems of the company using the IT. It is difficult for the
company to manage the supplies of different products that it gets from the suppliers. So,
the business integration systems will help the company in solving this problem.
The plan
The IT plan has been prepared for the company so that it can achieve the maximum benefit from
the innovations in the IT sector. The plan requires more research capability, more training and
delivery of the efficiencies for supporting the functions of the administration. This plan is also
useful for the recruitment and the retention of the employees of the company which includes the
staff of IT too. The plan involves putting in place the infrastructure so that the people in the
company can talk to each other, clarify their doubts and communicate effectively. This allows
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sharing of the information in a secured and collaborative way both at the local level and the
global level (Banyard, 2015) Thus, the strategy of the IT plan revolves around the collaboration
and the partnership because that develops the stronger IT organization. Also, the IT plan will
make the organization stronger and thus, the end-to-end delivery of services can be made. The
company will be able to respond effectively to the technology that is evolving (Kerzner, 2013).
This plan is also a key to engage the staff of the company and ensures that the people in the
company meet the needs of the people. Helps the company in partnering with the other parties in
terms of delivering the services and integrating the IT beyond the physical boundaries of the
company.
The main emphasis here is on the service excellence of the IT department of the company. The
strategic plan in the IT of the company establishes a framework in which the project is improved
and the delivery of the service is made better too. Initially, the plan will include a new central
information system and then after few years, the companies can focus on getting the best values
from those systems. Thus, the benefits will get improved and the quality of the information will
also get improved (Elenkov, 2014). The things in the company will become accessible because
all the data will be stored at one place. The decision making of the comp any will thus improve.
The, another focus of the plan is on the training and the dissemination of the best practice that
will empower the staff in the company and give them opportunity to innovate, make use of the
systems of It more effective, improve the digital literacy of the people in the company (Migliori,
2014). Also, the people will be able to evaluate and create the information using the digital
technologies.
The combination of all these features will help the company in improving the expansion plans
and will also ensure the governance. The plan will be reviewed regularly and the activities will
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continue to get amended with the changes in the technology, the behavior of the user and the
expectation. The plan will include several other combinations for bringing the related activities
together so that a coherent and joint program can be produced.
The main activities
 Building online channel for the sale of apparel and accessories.
 Integration of the business systems of the company.
 Software for governing the data of the company.
 Setting up the e-commerce business for accessing the online market of the motorcycle
accessories.
 Setting up the wireless systems for exchanging the information with the customers and
the suppliers of the company.
 Using the social media for connecting with the customers and the suppliers.
 Establishing the CRM software for managing the customers of the company.
 Creating the cloud backup for ensuring the security of the business and its continuity.
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Analysis of the system elements
Problems and the issues addressed
1. Data governance: The business of the company is growing and the owner of the
company i.e. Mike and the team members have to handle the materials and the data that is
available in large quantity. The data is related to the spare parts, rates of the labor, the
sales figures and the pricing of the products. The issue here is that it is very difficult to
handle this data because the coordination needs to be established among the supply chain
data and the related data. The data has to be governed because the systems of the
company have to interact with the systems of other companies.
The common issue that may arise with governance of data is the ignoring of the data
shadow systems. People focus on the transactional system of records of the enterprise and
the BI systems because they feel that they can find the important data there
(Guckenheimer, 2013). But, the data shadow systems contains the key information. It is
scattered in the organization. Thus, it is required that the data governance is a
combination of the joint business and the IT endeavor.
2. E-commerce and the internet of things: When the business has to be expanded in the
online mode, there are various problems that are required to be addressed. The problem
related to positioning of the company will be faced by Mike. The company will have to
arrange for finances to go online, for purchasing the domain, for promotional activities
etc. There will not be any one-to-one interaction with the customers, so the problems of
customer satisfaction will be faced by the company. Also, the company is planning to
deploy the smart sensors for its brakes and the suspension parts which are expensive and
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requires the use of latest technology. If the sensors do not work properly, then the
company will have to arrange for the service for the customers.
The e-commerce systems need to be integrated in a proper way. The company may also
have many systems that it plans to manage; they may hurt the growth of the company, its
margins and the productivity (Floros, 2015). The current solution that the company gives
may not be multi-channel. The systems also sometimes become difficult to use.
3. Mobile, Wireless and Social Media Systems: The Company is planning to use the
mobiles and the wireless systems for exchanging the information with the suppliers of the
company and its customers. But, the problem is that if the systems fail in any case, then
the entire communication will get hampered. The technologies will have to be developed
and it will take a lot of time of the company to establish these things. Also, there will be
problem in integrating the technologies with the systems.
With the use of these systems, the web space gets filled and there is no scope for the
users to upload the content that they wish to (Snider, 2015). These also require a unique
web address which is difficult to find and think. The profile building requires time and
effort of the people in the organization.
4. Customer Management: The customers of the company are very loyal to the company
and they are very old. They buy the new products from the company and they also get
their vehicles serviced from the company. But, the establishment of the CRM system
cannot be done in-house because the company does not have the required expertise. So, it
will have to be outsourced and in this process the company will lose the direct control on
the data of its customers. There is a risk of getting the customers lost and the outsourcer
may not be able to retain the customers.
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There is no direct contact with the customers in the IT world. They meet on the virtual
platform where it is very difficult to understand the needs of the people, their queries. If
the people are not answered properly, they feel dissatisfied. Also, the lack of personal
contact reduces the perusal power and the people do not get influenced by the company
and their products (David, 2016). The customers are spread across various geographical
areas and it is difficult to manage them, give them personal attention and influence them
towards the expansion of the company.
5. Business Security and Continuity: The major problems will be faced here that needs to
be addressed. The attention of Mike is towards the security of the business information
and the problems caused in case of catastrophe. The problems to be dealt with include the
Canberra bushfires that can lead to the data loss, the failure of the major systems of the
company. Likewise the attack by Trojans, malware etc. are the problems that needs to be
addresses for maintaining the security of the business. Also, the company needs to
arrange for the backup so that the continuity is ensured.
The Company’s IT infrastructure contains huge amount of data. The data needs to be
secured. For this, the security problems arise like the data theft, loss of data. Along with
this, the company needs investment in the software that secures this data and ensures the
continuity. Also, the problem of backing up the data is faced by the companies because
they have to ensure the continuity of their business.
Management and organizational issues and challenges that would need to be
addressed
1. Data governance: The team that has been handled by Mike is very large and the
business is also growing. So, the challenge would be to handle the large volume of the
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materials and the data in the materials that would need to be managed. There is need to
address the safety of the prices that are decided by Mike because if the data related to the
spare parts, labor rates etc. is not governed, then the competitors may steal the
information and quote lesser price than the price of the company run by Mike. Also, there
is a challenge to manage the supply chain and the data associated with this because the
business has expanded and so is the supply chain. A lot of coordination is required
between the things which is another challenge to fulfill because it is not easy to
coordinate the systems. For example, the AMD systems may need to exchange
information with the Honda systems and there may be a problem of Inventory Bullwhip.
2. E-commerce and the internet of things: The challenge to set up the business son the
online channel is another issue. A lot of things needs to be managed when the business go
online. The company will face challenge of building the appropriate stock, then the
supply chain needs to be managed and the delivery partners have to be contacted. It is
very difficult to coordinate with the delivery partners because they are the ultimate
contact people with the customers and they need to deliver faster services so that the
customers do not have to wait for their products.
3. Mobile, Wireless and Social Media Systems: The most important challenge that needs
to be addresses here is the knowledge of the systems with the people. If the knowledge is
not appropriate, the people of the company cannot use these systems. Also, it is very
important to integrate them into the business which is not an easy thing to do.
4. Customer Management: The Company needs to install a good customer relation
software. The challenge here is that the people needs to be trained on how to use that
system. Another challenge is to service and maintain that system (Scott, 2015). If this
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system is not maintained, the company may not be able to retain its customers. So, this
system requires a lot of time of the company and its people for maintaining and update g
it continuously.
5. Business Security and Continuity: The most important management challenge here is
to back up the data in the systems otherwise the business continuity cannot be ensured.
There are possibilities of any catastrophic event which if occurs, can ruin the entire data
system of the company. So, the challenge is to secure the data of the business and ensure
its continuity.
The risks and rewards of undertaking the work
1. Data governance: This work will help in making the data of the company consistent; the
quality of the data will get improved. Also, the company will be rewarded with the
accuracy of data and the data will also be complete. The company will be able to
maximize the use of the data and the company will be able to take the appropriate
decisions (Vassilakopoulou, 2016). Thus, the rewards will be obtained by the company in
the form of improved business planning, the improved financial performance and the
finally the profits of the company will get maximized.
The risk here is that if data is not governed, then the unethical practices may take place in
the company and the company may suffer from losses. The data will get wasted and the
company will not be able to analyze it in a proper way. But, if the data is governed, the
communication between the systems can happen, the data can be authentic and the ethical
policy of the company will remain intact.
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