Strategic IT Alignment: Analyzing Information Systems at SSL Business

This report assesses the information technology infrastructure of SSL, utilizing the Ward and Griffith Matrix to understand the value of its existing information systems. It identifies gaps in SSL's IS strategy, emphasizing the necessity of strategic IT planning for organizational sustainability and competitiveness. The report also evaluates the process of resource channeling to determine if IT investments bring strategic benefits, stressing the importance of investments that enhance customer engagement and supplier relationships. Furthermore, the analysis reveals a lack of centralized IT management within SSL, advocating for strategic IT investments across various divisions to improve efficiency and reduce costs, and highlighting the need to integrate IS strategy with broader strategic objectives to optimize business operations.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS
Information Technology for Business
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

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Question one:
The usage of the Ward and Griffith Matrix helps in understanding the values which the
Information System of SSLs existing portfolio is having. This is generally done by classifying
the applications of the information systems as well as the peoples and the processes which are
seen to be existing in the system. There exists numerous physical resources which are associated
with including the WAN connectivity, the IBM AS/400 and the PCs. This Resources are also
assisted by some of the software which includes the following:
 Productivity type packages;
 Pegasus payroll package
 Routing and rostering software,
 Budgeting & costing software.
Additionally there exists some IT human resources as well along with the software who are
involved in the process of SSL and this includes the following:
 One ex-policeman who is in-charge of the Private Transport Division,
 A 24-year-old Business Computing Graduate in charge of the Business Security Division,
 A hybrid manager,
 Four programmers,
 The analyst/ programmer,
 Six data entry clerks,
 A system analyst, and
 Two computer operator systems.
The human resources along with the software and other resources is associated with putting
forward of certain values which are important for SSL and this includes the following:

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Values put forwarded by the IT resources used by the organization. This type of resources are
associated with supporting the system and involves the various kind of software which have been
listed above.
The value that are put forward by the process operationalization and the activities is also
important for example the option of auto route which the transport department computers are
having. This auto route option is responsible for the route scheduling and planning helping in
having an optimized operation for conducting the business (Seok & Nof, 2018). In addition to
this another example is the LAN network which is associated with helping in providing of
connection in a seamless manner.Another major value is associated with including the process of
directing the entire organization so as to set the goals and objectives and one such example is
associated with including the PCs of the Home Office Service Department which are associated
with the usage of the productivity packages.
The increased speed of the technological growth, helps in putting forward of the needs
related to the investments which needs to be made by SSL along with the needs related to the
certain matrices establishment for the purpose of evaluating the investments which are to be
made. An example of the metrics which is to be established is the payback time (Mithas & Rust,
2016). This is mainly associated with including the time that is needed so as to recuperate the
already invested financial resources.
Question two:
The analysis of the entire organization helps in identifying the fact there exists certain
organizational sections which needs to be addressed as they are lacking the IS strategy which
would be appropriate for them and this in turn turns out to be very severe in terms of the
organizational sustainability and competitiveness (Freitas, Monteiro & Costa, 2018). Because of

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this there is an essential need of planning a IS strategy which along with being necessary also
needs to be analyzed so as to determine the important success factors (Qamar et al., 2016). By
this way the needs of the business units and the other departments can be established in terms of
the IT. In case when the IT needs are not addressed in a proper way then it would lead to delays
in the operations of the business and this acts as the main reason for proper determination of the
needs related to the IT investments.
Followed by the IT investments analysis is the analysis of the value chain in a proper way
and this is to be done so as to determine the capabilities of the IT systems which are already
being used by SSL. Once the process of identification is completed, the areas which needs
investment would be identified and this mainly includes the IT assets which are rare and unique.
The analysis is also helpful in identification of the lacking capabilities which are important for
making of efficiency improvements. Additionally, the analysis points out the needs of the IT
infrastructure as well which are responsible for helping in making of improvements in the
organizations core competencies (Soomro, Shah & Ahmed, 2016).In addition to all the above
stated facts one of the integral part of organizational success is associated with including the
determination of the process for making of IT related plans as well as the structure of the
organization. This is a matrix which is seen to be associated with including business heads who
would entirely in-charge of the department.
The Successful establishment of the IT strategy would be leading to putting forward of
different kind of benefits and one of the example is associated with including the business
capabilities which would be greatly improved (Kavanagh, Rochford & Bussa, 2015). The
analysis of the entire system helped in identification of the fact that there are many improper IT
strategies for example the hampering of the communication. The implementation of the IT

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strategy in a proper way is associated with helping in the removal of the process responsible for
the duplication of the functions.
The Implementation of the proper IT strategy is also helpful in gaining of a competitive
advantage and the reason behind this is that IT is very helpful in providing assistance in the
process of decision making (DeLone & McLean, 2016). The improved decision making would
be enabled by usage of the newer opportunities. Additionally the new ideas of the unit managers
are also responsible for bringing of lot of improvements in the entire process along with which
the IT usage would also be responsible for helping in having an efficient communication which
would be happening by making use of proper mediums (Ghaffarianhoseini et al., 2017). This in
turn is associated with elimination of the longer waiting time along with the risks which are
faced due of the seizing of the deal by the competitors because of the longer waiting time.
Question three:
There is an essential need of evaluating the process of channeling of the resources in a
proper way and this in turn would be helping in appropriate determination of the fact that if the
investments which are to be made upon the IT would be bringing certain strategic benefits or not
for the organization (Sennewald & Baillie, 2015). Due to this reason the IT investments are to be
made in a proper way which would be helping SSL in gaining the capability of delivering the
values which would be high quality along with having an unique nature. The investments upon
the IS would also be helping in making of improvements in the process related to engaging the
customers so as to help in inspiring the business loyalty.
Suppliers are also seen to be associated with acting as an integral part of the SSL. The
existing infrastructure of the SSL is not at all associated with providing support to the suppliers
mainly the ways of communication. The existing IT infrastructure is not at all associated with

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supporting the process of facilitating the process of communication with the suppliers and this
can be better understood by making use of an example that is the longer waiting time for taking
follow ups related to the payments. The process of taking follow ups is seen to be difficult,
lengthy as well as strenuous in nature (Peltier, 2016). This type of problem can be easily
eliminated if there exists a State-of –Art documentation system, which would be helpful for the
suppliers while taking urgent follow-ups of important transactions. In addition to this this
systems presence would also be associated with eliminating the need related travelling to the
SSL office so as to take follow-ups. IT investments would be highly responsible for streamlining
of the different kind of operations of supply chain process.
Along with all the other advantages discussed above the process of Business Re-
Engineering would also be acting as one of the useful means by which the potentials related to
the IS and the IT would be Maximized (Falkenberg, Hesse & Olivé, 2016). The BRE is also
responsible for establishment of the newer ways by which it would become easy for the
organization to add new values into the business processes. The VIRO analysis highlights the
facts that the processes which are valuables along with being non-imitable are also rare in nature.
Question Four:
After analysis of all the IT functionalities of the organization, SSL it can be stated there is
an absence of a central management and all the functionalities are dispersed all across the
various functional units. For this reason there exists an essential need of making IT investments
upon certain divisions of the organization. This is better understandable from an example of the
Domestic Security Department of SSL (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Besides all this the
discrepancies which are seen to be existing amongst the IT professionals in another reason which
is responsible for highlighting the absence of a proper and centralized management information

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system in SSL. The transport department fo the SSL is managed by one of the ex-policeman
which in turn puts forward the fact that the policeman is having experience but is lacking proper
training for managing the IT resources in a proper way. Besides this the Hybrid manager who is
seen to be well experiences in managing the IT as well as the finance is in charge of the Home
Office division of SSL which is also seen to be endowed by the programmers as well as by the
IT experts who are seen to be present in the same department (Theorin et al., 2017). The startups
of the organization related to the Security segments along with the process of taking over of the
other companies associated with providing of similar services and the existence of the core
business functionalities are seen to be responsible for helping the organization in growing.
SSLs current situation depicts the fact that the organization is not capable of functioning
in an optimal way by making use of the existing IT infrastructure which is responsible for
serving the goals and objectives of the organization. This is the main reason which has led to a
need of exploring the IT as well as the IS needs which in turn is responsible for helping in
determination of the areas requiring investments so as to facilitate the growth of the organization
in the future (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Besides this the operations management department are
in need of a centralized management system which would be associated with providing of
assistance in the process of making improvements in the efficiency of the organization along
with being indulged in the process of making contributions so as to reduce the costs.
Additionally the interweaving of the various components of the IS strategy with the other
strategic objectives is responsible for acting as one of the major way of injecting the culture
which helps in leveraging the IS so as to optimize the business operations.

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