MITS4001 Business Information Systems: SSL Strategic IT Alignment

This report analyzes the IT infrastructure and strategy of Security Services Limited (SSL), a major provider of private security services in the UK. It identifies the value derived from SSL's existing information systems, including their role as a support system, contribution to operational processes, and steering the organization towards its goals. The report highlights the lack of a coherent IS strategy within the company and proposes a framework for designing one, emphasizing critical success factors, value chain analysis, and IT planning processes. It also evaluates the strategic benefits of IT investments for SSL, focusing on customer engagement, supply chain streamlining, and core competency enhancement. Furthermore, the report examines the decentralized IT management structure at SSL, advocating for a centralized approach to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers.

Running head: BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Business Information Systems
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

1BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Question 1:
Identifying the value which is derived by the SSL by usage of the existing information
system, is considered to be imperative for the classifying the applications process and the
peoples which are already existing in accordance to the Ward and the Griffith Matrix. The IT
physical resources of the SSL mainly consists of the PCs, IBM AS/400 minicomputer and the
WAN connectivity. Besides this the software of the firm includes the Pegasus payroll package,
budgeting & costing software, routing and rostering software, and productivity type packages
[1]. The IT human resources is associated with including the ex-policeman working at the
Private Transport Division, the 24-year-old Business Computing Graduate working in the
Business Security Division, the hybrid manager, four programmers, the analyst/ programmer, six
data entry clerks, a system analyst, and two computer operator systems.
The 1st value which is provided by the IT resources of the SSL includes acting as a
support system. The assets which are seen to eb falling under this category is associated with
different kind of software which are responsible for making it possible for the business functions
to run.
Another value is associated with including the contributions related to the
operationalization of the Process of SSL along with the activities. For example the auto route
application which is seen to be running in the computers of the transport department that the
Private Transport Division is having and this is associated with helping in the planning and
scheduling of the routes for the purpose of optimizing the operations of the business [2].
Additionally the LAN networks are associated with helping in the maintenance of a seamless
communication.

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Steering of the organization towards the realization of the set of goals and objectives is
another value. For example the productivity package of the business in the personal computers of
the Home Office Services Division which is associated with helping in the determination of the
productivity level of the companies and how the productivity can be bolstered. Additionally the
IT experts are also associated with holding of strategic and operational value for the company as
they are responsible for improving the company’s operational efficiency.
The growing pace of the technology is one of the major reason lying behind the need of
investing upon the infrastructure by the SSL. In addition to this there also exists a dire need of
establishing certain matrices for the purpose of evaluating the investments upon the information
systems [3]. One of the metric is associated with including the payback period for the purpose of
assessing how long it would be taking to recuperate the financial resources which has already
been invested upon the IS.
Question two:
Considerably it can be stated that many parts of the company is seen to be having a lack
of a coherent IS strategy which is considered to be the deficiency that might be very severe for
the competitiveness and the sustainability of the organization. For this reason there exists an
essential need of constructing an IS strategy which would be providing support the entire
business strategy [4]. One way of designing the IS strategy includes the analysis of the critical
success factors. This would help in establishing every departments and business units IT needs.
Improper addressing the needs would lead stalling of the business operations, so the critical
factors needs to be identified for each and every department which would be helping in
determination of the areas which needs IT investment.

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Second of all is the conducting of an analysis of the value chain which helps in the
identification of the Existing IT capabilities along with the assets offering a competitive edge.
Once identified the IT assets which are rare along with being unique and valuable, would make
SSL capable of using the insights so as to determine areas requiring IT investments.
Additionally the analysis of the value chain is also helpful in knowing the capabilities
having a lack but are important for efficiency improvement. This analysis is also helpful in
pointing out the needs related to investments upon the infrastructure for digital communication,
helping the organization in improving the core competencies. Determining the IT planning
process acts as an integral section of the process of designing the IT strategy [5]. The
organizations structure is a matrix where the business heads are having the complete charge of
the departments. But the IT planning is associated with acting a strategic function due to which
the middle out or the innovative planning process would be working very well for SSL. Followed
by this it would also be helping in the determination of the fact that if the strategy is short term or
long term and if it is aimed at serving the external and the internal business needs.
Success in establishing the IT strategy would be bringing a lot of benefits, one of which
is associate dwith including the business capability improvement. One example is the hampering
of the communication by the existing IT strategy. Additionally the IT strategy would be helping
in removal of the hurdles along with the enhancement of the capabilities. The new founded
efficiency would also be helping in bringing down of the operational cost due to the removal of
the duplication of the functions which in turn would eliminate the need of keeping six data entry
clerks in the payroll system.
Followed by this is the gaining of competitive advantage without any kind of rivals as the
IT would be helping in taking of improved decisions helping the firm in taking advantage of the

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new opportunities [6]. The business unit manager having the new idea would be associated with
improving the value proposition would also be capable of having immediate communication with
the headquarters instead of going through a longer process of waiting and at that time some other
organization might be associated with seizing that particular opportunity.
Question three:
When SSL decided to channel more resources to the IT department they would be having
the need of evaluating the fact that if the IT investments are having a strategic benefit for the
organization in terms of the divisional and the company wide perspective. Being in the security
service industry any kind of failure would be responsible for losing customers[7]. Due to this the
there is a need of IT investment which would be associated with making the business capable of
deliver value which are unique. The IS investments would be helping in improving the customer
engagement along with inspiring the business loyalty as well.
The SSL suppliers acts as an integral part of the business operations and the existing IT
infrastructure is not associated with facilitating the trust and the communication with the
suppliers, for example if the supplier of the security office division wants to take a follow up of
their payment then it would be very difficult for them as well as strenuous [7]. But with the
presence of the State of Art document system would be helping the supplier a lot and would also
eliminate the need of making them visit so as to take follow up. Investment in the IT would also
be responsible for the streamlining of the supply chain process along with helping the
organization in differentiating its own products from the others [8]. Another strategic potential is
the opportunity for enhancing the core competencies which acts as a source of the competitive
advantage.

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Re-engineering of the business would also be associated with maximizing the IS and IT
potentials. This would also help in the establishment of the ways by which the value would be
added to the business processes [9]. The VRIO analysis of this is associate with pointing out the
fat the processes which are seen to be valuable along with being rare and non-imitable and the
reason behind this is that they are associated with acting as the source of the competitive
advantage. The analysis would also be helping in establishing process which are capable of
accruing the values if they are improved by means of making IS investments. This would also be
acting as instrumental in the process of identifying the processes which should eliminated or can
be merged.
Question four:
There exists a particular predominate fact whenever the IT functionalities are considered
at the organization SSL and the function is seen to be distributed all across different functional
units without any kind of existence of central management from the headquarters [10]. From this
it can be stated that there exists no doubt that some of the divisional areas such as the domestic
security division is not having any kind of IS investments whereas the headquarters office is also
seen to be lagging behind the home office service division. In addition to this the discrepancy
existing in the IT personnel between the different divisions of the organization is associated with
pointing out the fact that there is a lack of a centralized IT management [11]. However the
private transport division is seen to be managed by an ex-policeman who is seen to having an
experience but lacks proper training related to the IT and the home office division is well
endowed with the IT experts by taking into consideration the presence of the hybrid manager
who is having the IT as well as financial experience along with the two programmers. Besides
this the disintegration existing in the way by which is IT is managed is seen to be stemming from

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the ways by which the company has grown over the years. The firm is also seen to have grown
from the organic growth which is due to the original core business and the startups in relation to
the security segments along with taking over and merging with the companies who are associated
with providing of similar services.
The current state of the organization is depicting the fact that the IS of the organization is
not working in an optimal way for serving the objectives of the firm and for this reason it needs
to be explored so as to determine a suitable location for the IT services in the future [12]. Taking
into consideration the operations of the management of the IT Infrastructure there exists a
centralized management system which would be helping in making improvements if the
efficiency along with being associated with making contributions in the process of reducing the
cost [13]. The reason behind this is that each of the department would not be requiring the hiring
of technician. Considering the IS strategy it can be stated that it is best to consider this as a
strategic function which is to be carried out by the executives existing in the top levels. In
addition to this it is also essential to intertwine the components of the IS strategy with the other
strategic objectives as this acts as the only way of injecting the culture of leveraging upon the IS
so as optimize the business operations [14]. In addition to this the database administration should
also be managed from a central location and the only system which is to be decentralized in the
functions related to the support from the user.

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[7] R. Klahr et al., “Cyber Security Breach Survey 2016,” 2016.
[8] Kamesh and N. Sakthi Priya, “Security enhancement of authenticated RFID generation,”
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[9] L. Kappelman, E. R. McLean, V. Johnson, and R. R. Torres, “The 2016 SIM IT key issues
and trends study,” MIS Q. Exec., 2016.
[10] ISO/IEC, “ISO/IEC 27000 Information technology - Security techniques - Information
security management systems - Overview and vocabulary,” ISO/IEC, 2014.
[11] Computer Security - ESORICS 2014. 2014.
[12] Z. Tari, “Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing,” IEEE Cloud Comput., 2014.
[13] J.-M. Brook, S. Field, and D. Shackleford, “The Treacherous 12 Cloud Computing Top
Threats in 2016,” 2016.

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[14] D. Harris, “Security,” in Handbook of Human Factors in Air Transportation Systems,
2017.