Business Operations Improvement Report: Monsanto and Engeo

This report undertakes a comprehensive analysis of business operations improvement strategies for two companies: Monsanto and Engeo. It begins with an introduction and provides detailed company overviews, examining their values, visions, and missions, along with their respective business operations. The report then delves into the current network and communication situations of both companies, highlighting existing infrastructure and challenges. The core of the report focuses on proposed network improvements, including the adoption of new network technologies and the application of the OSI model to understand the network layers and their functions. Furthermore, it addresses the required resources for implementation, change management strategies, and the potential impact of these changes on the organizations. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for enhancing business operations through improved network and communication systems.

Business Operations Improvement
(Monsanto and Engeo)
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Company Brief...........................................................................................................................2
Monsanto................................................................................................................................3
Engeo......................................................................................................................................4
Current Network and Communication Situation........................................................................5
Monsanto................................................................................................................................5
Engeo......................................................................................................................................6
Proposed Network Improvement...............................................................................................6
Required Resources for the Implementation............................................................................11
Change Management and Impact of the Changes....................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
In the previous paper, the two companies, were introduced whose business and operations
and the network and communication was assessed to some extent. The current paper is
concerned with the improvement of the business operations that can be brought within the
company with the improvements in the communication systems of the organizations and the
network elements of both the organizations. The improvements will be done by the adoption
of the new network technologies that exist in the market. The focus would not only be on the
induction of the new technology but also on the improvements in the way things are being
managed related to the network and communication. It is a well-known fact that the
improvement in the network and communication is directly associated with the improvements
in the business operation aspects (Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart, 2010). Considering this
orientation, it has been considered that the current business operations of these two
companies can be further improved if the appropriate improvement in the infrastructure is
brought on the table. The second chapter gives brief overview of the company. The third
chapter is concerned with understanding the current network and communication structure of
the organization. The fourth chapter covers the network improvements proposed to these two
organizations. The fifth chapter focuses on understanding the required resources that will be
required to bring in the proposed changes. The next chapter considers understanding the
impact of the changes that might have on the organization. In the end, a conclusive remark
has been given for the overall changes.
Company Brief
The current chapter gives a brief overview of both the company and tries to understand the
existing business operations of both of them. This will ensure that a background

understanding is established prior to moving ahead with the implementation or improvement
of the condition. The following two sub-sections briefs on Monsanto and Engeo respectively.
One thing that is common in both the organization is their scale of operation. Both the
organizations have number of offices in their respective country. The business operations of
both the companies are different and a clear understanding of these will allow the author in
taking right approach for their improvement suggestions.
Monsanto
Link: www.monsanto.com
Values: “We operate under a genuine value system—our pledge—that demonstrates integrity,
respect, ethical behavior, perspective and honesty as a foundation for everything we do.”
Vision: Helping world get better agriculture
Mission: Work with integrity, establish dialogue, be transparent, share, benefit, and respect.
Monsanto is based in United States and is into agricultural products. The goal of the
organization is to empower the farmers in generating more revenue from their efforts. The
company ensures that the farmers work towards improving the natural resources
conservation. The company has multiple units around the world and in the United States. The
company engages in licensing of seed technologies and make these available to the farmers.
The goal of the company is to ensure that the economies around the world get access to
improved agricultural technologies that can be implemented to get fruitful results. The
company generates genetically engineered seeds that are tested and distributed for better crop
production. Monsanto has multiple learning centres and research centres in various parts of
the world. The organization also has seed production facilities, sales offices, administrative
offices, and biochemical manufacturing plants that cater to the market demands. The

company is headquartered in St. Louis (United States) and handles all its operation from
there. The company always try to establish itself around its customers so that it can cater to
their needs as soon as possible. The reach of the company is extensive and so its operational
size is substantial.
Engeo
Link: www.engeo.com
Values: “Establish meaningful opportunities to promote growth.”
Vision: “To help people realize their potential, achieve their dreams and make a difference.”
Mission: “Challenge the status quo. Trust and empower. Listen to our clients. Understand
their needs and deliver pragmatic and innovative solutions.”
Engeo provides geotechnical and environmental services to various clients situated in the
United States and the New Zealand. Engeo is headquartered in California and is handling its
other branches from here. The company provides various services to its clients such as
geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, environmental engineering, water resources
and hydrology, special inspection and material testing, geologic hazard abatement districts,
laboratory testing, entitlement and permitting support, construction management, weather
stations, and asbestos services. The substantial diversification of its business operation
requires that it employs large number human resource which is scattered across the two
countries. The company’s vision is to ensure that the highest quality service is provided to its
clients and this requires implementation of right technological infrastructure throughout the
organization. The organizational operation is scattered, slow, and requires robust
communication network. While providing the services, it is required that the client
relationship is maintained at all times as the services require constant engagement of the

stakeholders of the project. In this organization, the client satisfaction is ensured by keeping
the client in the loop at all times on the progress. Engeo has various technological
infrastructures in place that are targeted towards providing appropriate value to the client.
Almost all its services call for hiring experts who have knowhow of the recent technological
development.
Current Network and Communication Situation
From the earlier chapter, the author came to understand the current business operation about
the organization. Now as the goal of this paper is to improve the above discussed business
operation by the introduction of better network and communication elements, therefore it is
important that current network and communication situation of the organization is
understood. The implementation of the network infrastructure that can facilitate in seamless
communication is important within the organizations (Klaus, 1999). Some of the aspects of
the network and communication of both the organizations were discussed briefly in the
previous research paper. The current chapter will look into further detail while considering
the previous situation.
Monsanto
Monsanto has branches all over the world and it coordinates with all the branches using the
emails provided to all the members. The staff members of the company is scattered and
therefore it requires that they coordinate with the head office through emails. The current
communication infrastructure faces challenge when the company is operating in the locations
that are in poor developed countries. The developing countries like India have some form of
infrastructure in place in its cities and towns that allows the company branches to establish
good communication. However, there are locations in other underdeveloped and developing
economies where the infrastructure is not robust and the company cannot rely on the state of

the art technologies to conduct its business operation. Importantly, with the increase in the
world population and changes in the economic diaspora, the company has spread farther and
the need for the robust communication has become a necessity. The company shares and uses
large number of data related to the development of seeds and bio chemical products. The data
sharing takes place among the various centres of the company on regular basis and these data
are further subjected to assessment. The sharing of the data and the mission critical
information requires that the network is secure, robust, up and running.
Engeo
On the other hand, Engeo is somewhat in the better situation. The company is spread across
United States and New Zealand where there is presence of appreciable communication
infrastructure from the government’s side. The company is using the email and office
installed computer networks to conduct the business operations. The company has basic
communication infrastructure in place that caters to the need of the staff members in all the
offices. When the company provides services to the clients, it generates data on large scale
that requires transfer and assessment. The current network needed to be more secure to
ensure that the data is not stolen by the competition or other parties. The presence of a secure
network is a necessity. Particularly after the recent advancements in the technology, the
company is open to new form of threats that might impact the everyday functionalities. The
company also requires presence of infrastructure that can help it in easy sharing of the data
with the clients and the office staff members. The company has currently traditional
communication infrastructure in place which only caters to the basic communication needs.
Proposed Network Improvement
The current network infrastructure of both the organization requires appropriate tools and
techniques that can assist them in improving the business operations. The improved network

and communication ensures that the processes in the business operations are fast tracked and
the elements are managed faster. There are various layers in the network that are represented
by the OSI model which should be understood in context of these organizations to understand
the need (Handel and Sandford, 1996). The sub-sections below explain the Open Systems
Interconnect Model which has seven layers in ascending order:
 Physical Layer: This is the lowest layer in the OSI model and is associated with
transferring and receiving the bit stream that are raw. Some of the activities that are
conducted by this layer are data encoding, attaching physical medium, and others. This layer
modifies the data received from the computer which is in the form of 1s and 0s. It decides
over the number of pins to be used, signal state, selection of digital or analog signalling,
physical medium to use, and others.
 Data Link Layer: This layer engages in transferring the data frames between the nodes and
during this process it ensures that the layer above it gets better transmission on the link and
that too without any possible error. The support that are provided by the data link layer are
establishing the link and terminating, framing the traffic control, framing sequence in which
the data framing will be transferred or received, acknowledging the action, delimiting,
checking errors, and managing which media should connect.
 Network Layer: This layer is concerned with controlling the subnet operations and
determines the path that should be considered depending on the situation of the network. The
activities that are handled by this layer are routing, controlling subnet traffic, fragmenting the
transmission frame and re-assembly of the unit at the other station, address mapping, and
subnet usage accounting (Sallings, 1987).
 Transport Layer: This layer focus on error-free delivery of the messages and without any
loss or duplication. It ensures that its next layer does not face any issue in data transferring

among the peers. The activities handled by this layer are message segmenting, message
acknowledging, traffic control, and multiplexing the sessions.
 Session Layer: This next layer ensures that sessions are established among the stations.
The activities performed are establishing the session, and supporting the session.
 Presentation Layer: This next layer ensures that the formatting of the data that will be
shown at the application layer. This layer can also be called as the translator in the overall
network. The activities conducted by the presentation layer are translating the character code,
converting data, compressing data, and encrypting the data.
 Application Layer: This is the top layer which interacts with the users. There are varieties
of functions performed by this layer and some of them are accessing the remote files and
printers, sharing and redirecting the resources, managing the network, and others (Wetteroth,
2001).
The layers discussed above will be the working of the current network for both the
companies. As it has been stated earlier that both the organizations have branches far and
wide, therefore it in a way both has similar need as per the network and communication is
required. The use LAN cannot be the solution. Therefore, considering the need of both the
organizations, the VPN has been suggested which uses the internet network to help establish
private network between two entities.
There are various VPN elements that will be used to connect all the company units together
on the network. Some of the VPN are the associated technology, securities, and tunnelling.
Due to the global presence of both the organizations, it has become a necessity for them that
they have fast, reliable, and secure method for communication with the offices that are
located anywhere in the world. Interestingly, these two companies could have used WAN

(wide area network) to facilitate the communication. WAN could be maintained with the help
of leased lines and it could provide faster service than the one proposed (VPN), and it will be
more secure (Cristina Ledesma, 2004). However, the user of leased lines can be very
expensive and also if the work force is mobile, as it is in the case of both the companies, then
connecting will be cumbersome. On the other hand, the use of public network will save lot of
costs, but it can be comparatively slow but secure if handled appropriately.
The diagram below shows the proposed virtual private network for both the organizations:
In this network, there will be a main LAN which will be the headquarters of both the
companies. After that, the rest of the LANs will be other offices, facilities, and the mobile
workers. Both the company will use the combination of two types of VPNs, and they are,
remote access and site-to-site networks. The remote access will be used by the employees
who will work on the survey site in the case of Engeo and in the agricultural fields in the case
of Monsanto. The site to site virtual private networking will be for all the fixed sites spread
across United States and New Zealand for Engeo, and across the world for Monsanto.
There are numerous benefits associated with the implementation of the Virtual Private
Network such as it increases the connectivity for an organization across many geographic

area, substantially reduces cost incurred in facilitating networking in comparison to the
traditional WANs, improves work productivity, brings simplification in the network, secure
data and information transfer, and others (Caskey, 2006). However, these benefits can only
be attained if the VPN is secure, reliable, scalable, and the company has placed right network
and policy management.
Both the companies will be transferring data over the public network due to their spreading;
therefore it is important that the connection is secure. Given below are some of the ways that
will be used for these companies to ensure that the connection and the data are secure:
 Data Confidentiality: This is the critical support which is provided by the VPN services
with the help of encryption. The encryption of data is conducted with the help of various
protocols such as IPsec, PPTP, and L2TP. IPsec refers to the Internet Protocol Security which
is considered as the best data encryption module and it uses tunnel and transport. PPTP uses
40 and 128 bit encryption.
 Data Integrity: VPN ensures that along with data being encrypted, it has reached the
destination without getting tampered. Whenever it is identified that the data has been
tampered, then the data will not reach the destination and it will be dropped.
 Data Origin Authentication: VPN identifies the source from where the data has originated
to ensure that the source is not a spoof.
 Anti-Replay: VPN identifies whether the coming packet has been replayed and drops it.
 Data Tunneling: This is done to ensure that the identity of the device is hidden which is
engaging in generating the traffic. In this method, the entire packet is covered in another
packet and is then sent over the network. There are three protocols utilised in this, namely,
passenger, encapsulating, and carrier protocol.

 AAA: This method can be used by the company’s employees’ personal computers or
laptops that have pre-configured VPN client software. There are three things that are done
when a connection is requested by a computer to the remote network. The first is
authentication, in which who is connecting is identified. The second is authorization in which
things that is allowed to that computer is identified. The third is accounting, in which what is
done by that computer on the network is identified (Daruwalla et al, 2004).
 Nonrepudiation: This is about inserting digital signature to the data sent by the user to
ensure that the user does not deny in later stage that he or she has not sent the data. This will
be mostly used for financial transactions in the case of both the companies.
Required Resources for the Implementation
The implementation of the above suggested network infrastructure for both the companies to
ensure seamless and secure communication will require certain resources. The primary is the
time and budget which will be used to implement the required hardware and software. Here,
certain VPN products have been suggested for both the companies and all will be from Cisco.
The various components to be implemented are:
- Desktop software client
- NAS, Network and Policy Management
- VPN server and Hardware
- VPN Concentrator
- VPN Enabled Router
- Cisco VPN Clients and Firewall

Change Management and Impact of the Changes
The implementation of the network will require that the changes in the infrastructure are
made. Here, both the organizations are bigger in size and, therefore at once installation might
bring disruption which will stall operation for certain period of time. Considering this aspect,
phased implementation has been suggested for both the companies which will be done based
on the Kotter’s eight step change model (Appelbaum et al, 2012). The successful
implementation in one phase will be taken forward to another part of the organization. The
suggested change is likely to ensure that the data transfer is secure among the various
facilities. Moreover, the data transfer will be faster.
Conclusion
Considering the overall assessment of the organization and the suggested improvements for
both the organizations, it can be stated that the new system will be less costly and will be
more secure and beneficial. However, it is important that the implementation is done with the
help of expert individuals who have appreciable understanding of this network.

References
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