Project Management: IBM AUS Change Management Strategies Analysis

This project management assignment focuses on change management within IBM AUS, a global technology leader. The paper begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction highlighting the impact of external and internal environments on organizations, with a specific focus on IBM AUS. The assignment utilizes PEST and SWOT analyses to assess the organization's environment and identify gaps, leading to a change proposal in the human resource department, including software upgrades and infrastructure changes. The discussion details the PEST analysis, covering political, economic, social, and technological factors impacting IBM AUS, and a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The change proposal outlines the need to manage the workforce and improve employee performance, detailing the implementation of new HR software and infrastructure changes. The project also addresses preparedness and readiness for change, evaluating available resources and decision-making processes. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of human resource changes for IBM AUS, driven by political and economic factors, and recommends clear strategies, effective communication, and skilled teams for successful change management. References are provided to support the analysis.

Running head: Project Management
Project management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
PEST Analysis of IBM AUS.......................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................6
Change Proposal..........................................................................................................................7
Preparedness and Readiness for change......................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Executive Summary
The current assignment focuses on the importance and significance of change management in the
organization. The paper suggests how change management is assessed within the organization
and the benefits of implementing change within the organization. IBM AUS (Australia) being the
global leader in technological sector, however faces inevitable issues from external environment.
The organization aims at incorporating changes in human resource department in order to
improve the performance of the organization.

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Introduction
In the contemporary business world, organization faces tremendous impact from the
external and internal environment. In order to gain competitive advantage and cope with the
economic challenges organizations incorporate innovations and changes within the organization.
The chosen organization for the assignment is IBM AUS, International Business Machines. In
order to perform change management in the organization, the organization needs to perform
macro and micro analysis. The assignments analyzes the organization’s environment to
determine the gap through PEST and SWOT analysis. Through analyzing the factors the change
is proposed in the assignment (Al-Dmour et al., 2017). The paper depicts all the necessary
factors for the change management in order to effectively incorporate the change in the
organization. The paper also focuses on preparedness and readiness for change in the
organization. At last a relevant conclusion and recommendation is drawn from the above
analysis.
Discussion
PEST and SWOT Analysis are the tools which is used to analyze the external and internal
factors of the organization. It helps the organization to perform necessary change which is
required in the organization to gain competitive edge and increase the performance of the
organization IBM.
PEST Analysis of IBM AUS
The PEST analysis is a marketing tool which is comprised of political, economic, social and
technological factors.
Political Factors:

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The political climate has a great influence for IBM AUS Company, this factor deals with
all the effects of government and political issues. It is evident that due to Donald Trump war, the
IBM AUS employees from all the world were shifted to their respective countries. The Trump
trade war with China is likely to hurt the US technology giants.
Economic Factors:
The economic growth is stable and there is rapid growth of the developing markets. The
economic growth is a good opportunity for IBM AUS to develop their operations and bring
innovativeness in the organization (Noe et al., 2017). The rapid growth in the developing
markets is the factors which is coherent with the information technology firms and especially
through the market penetration strategy. The other economic factors such as limiting H1B work
visa program by the Trump administration.
Social Factors:
It is stated that due to good economic growth, there is a rise in purchasing capabilities of
customers. This is a good opportunity for IBM AUS to penetrate in new markets since, the target
customers are increasing capable of buying the IT products high sales revenue is expected. On
the other hand there is rising use of customer service in order to evaluate the business and the
product quality. It states that IBM AUS has good growth opportunity which are based upon
customer service, market penetration, online services and innovation.
Technological Factors:
Due to emerging technologies, there is massive competition in the market. Each and
every organization aims innovation and creativeness within the organizational operations. IBM

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AUS is abundant with technological advances and therefore, has got good opportunity for
innovation and creativeness within the organization.
SWOT Analysis
Strength:
The company has global recognition and is recognized as global leader in technology
solution and products. The company has highly skilled workforce and huge number of
employees in the organization. The strategic imperatives include mobile, cloud computing, social
and security businesses. The list of clients of IBM AUS includes the most successful enterprises
in the world. The research and development of IBM AUS is huge and well facilitated and is
highly commixed towards innovations and creativeness in the organization.
Weakness:
IBM AUS represents slow growth in core business units and therefore is confined to
single area of expertise. IBM AUS has faced bard value drop since 2016 due to government
litigations and interferences (Doppelt 2017). Due to the political instability the number of work
force has been increased in some countries and the management is unable to handle huge number
of workforce. It has also been noted that Lusacell has filed case against IBM AUS claiming that
the company makes fraudulent misinterpretations. This is due to the bad performance of the
employees and managers and allegedly defective system.
Opportunity:
The company has good opportunity to bring efficiency in data analytics, cloud-based
solution and software. The company has good opportunity to expand its business due to massive

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number of employees. IBM AUS is planning to invest $100 million in order to expand its global
consulting business.
Threats:
IBM AUS has number of competitors such as AMAZON, Accenture, Microsoft, Oracle
and SAP. Due to global economy disturbances the company faces problems with labours and raw
materials. Due to fluctuation in currency, it affects their earning per share and revenue.
Change Proposal
According to the above external and internal analysis it is fund that the company is
required to manage its workforce and their performance in the organization. Due to haul of US
policies by Trump, there is abundance of employees in all the sectors of IBM AUS and to recruit
potential employees in the organization (Bratton and Gold 2017). Therefore, the performance of
the employees is observed to be declining and the management finds it difficult to take control
over all the employees. Therefore, in order overcome the obstacle the organization has initiated a
change plan in the infrastructure layout and upgrading high-level HR software in the
organization. The human resource software include Talentsoft Software, Human resource
information system and Greenhouse software Franco et al., 2016.).
The people who are responsible for the project are project manager, design engineer,
implementation manager, training lead and functional manager.
The time required to complete the project is five weeks. Each engineer is required to work 40
hours per week for the first three weeks of the project. Later the requirements is then scaled to
five hours for each engineer in the fourth week. The design engineer will be released from the

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project after the fourth week (Taras 2017). The training lead is required to perform for 15 hours
for the first week and then during week, 40 hours of training is required.
Table1: The change management table

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The change is required to manage abundance of workforce in the organization. The change also
helps to evaluate and keep a track of the performance of the employees. Overall the change aids
the management to manage the human resource activities.
The objective of the organization is to foster innovation and drive skilled and competent labour
in the organization. The proposed change will help to achieve the organizational objective.
What to
Change
How to
Change
Who are
responsible
for the
change
Time for
change
Cost of
Change
Change
preparedness
Software
upgrade
project
(Technological
changes)
Upgrading the
human
resource
software and
change in
infrastructure
layout for new
equipment.
Project
manager
Operation
manager
and human
resource
manager
One year
February
2019 to
January
2020
Staffing-
$1000
Consultation-
$500
Technology
(software)-
$10,000
The total
cost- $11,500
All the employee
needs to process
their updated data
and the company
must be ready
with technical
requirements.
Change in
infrastructure
layout for new
equipment.
Renovating
the
infrastructure
of the
company
especially the
human
resource
department
Project
manager
Operation
manager
and human
resource
manager
One year
February
2019 to
January
2020
Staffing-
$1000
Consultation-
$500
Constructors:
$ 1200
The total
cost: 2700
WHS policies
and OHS policies
to maintain safety
environment for
construction.
The employees
are given another
place for their
safety and to
continue the
work process till
the work is
completed.

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Software Project Upgrade Resource Histogram
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Timeline
Work Hours per Week
Design Engineers (2 employees)
Implementation Manager (1 employee)
Training Lead (1 employee)
Preparedness and Readiness for change
The organization readiness for change can be determined by estimating the available
resource and how fast the management takes appropriate decisions and actions for implementing
the change. The organization has adequate staff and required skills of sets. The funding for the
change is also estimate and the organization have sufficient amount of fund for successfully
accomplish the project. For IBM AUS there is no need to outsource any kind of external resource
expect some equipment (Cascio 2015). The Software Upgrade project requires internal resources
and all the executives have plans to execute the project within the timeframe. Since, the change
is internal, the organization does not require any kind of approval from government or any
regulatory compliances which makes the project more feasible. This also fosters readiness and
execute quick action plan for the project without any external interference. Since, the project will
be located in the same infrastructure and the resource will be remained in the current workplace,
the implementation is easier. All the above factors makes the organization prepared for the
expected change in the organization.

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Conclusion
It is inferred from the above analysis that IBM AUS requires human resource changes in
the organization. Due to political and economic factors which is observed through the analysis,
the management of IBM AUS aims at improving the performance and effectively manage the
abundance of workforce within the organization. It is observed that the performance of the
employees has been decreased over the years and thereby the management is facing difficulty in
managing all the aspects of the human resource of each member in the organization. Therefore,
bringing innovation through technological advances is beneficial for the company.
The company aims at upgrading their human resource software using advanced software
such as human resource information system, Talentsoft software and Greenhouse software. The
software helps the management to achieve their organizational goals that is incorporating new
skills and competencies within the organization. This change initiative helps the company to
increase its productivity and provide good customer service within the organization. This
initiative also helps the organization to maintain productive, skilled and competent workforce
who can give their best in the organization.
Recommendation
1. The following recommendation will act as a map and precaution for the management to
effectively execute the change management plan in the organization.
2. It is recommended for the management to form clear and well-defined strategy in the
organization.
3. The management should effectively communicate the change within the organization by
creating effective communication pan in the organization.

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4. The team must be highly skilled and competent who can carry out the project with
minimum errors.
5. There must be strategic orientation and direction to proceed with the project and powerful
management system.
6. The whole organization must be well-aware of the change that will be taking place in the
organization so that the employees can provide relevant suggestions and recommendation
for the project. Moreover, this improves employee engagement within the employees in
the organization.
7. It is recommended that while the project, the management must maintain diversified
work culture and stress-free environment for the employees.
8. The timeline must be followed strictly and the task must be complete according to the
proposed timelines in order to avoid unnecessary delays in the project.