Information Systems Strategy for Security Service Limited

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Security Service Limited
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Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..............................................................................................................................4
Identification of the values that SSL obtains from its current portfolio of......... information
systems 4
Evaluation of the techniques that may be used in assessing future IS investments.............4
Construction of an IS strategy that is supportive of its business strategy and the benefits
that it would derive from this...............................................................................................5
Strategic potential for greater investment in information systems and technology............7
Could the business process re-engineering be a useful tool in maximising the potential of
IS and IT within the company?.............................................................................................8
The current location of IS functions within SSL. The best location for IT services in the
future................................................................................................................................... 8
The best location for IT services in the future......................................................................9
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 10
References..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
A security company named security services limited will be discussed in that following
report. Security Service Limited is a private company of the U.K. The company basically deals
with the security services to the clients, business and the public. There are many other
services provided by the SSL which include growth in the original core business, acquiring
start-up businesses, and finally merging with the various other similar companies. The
report follows various discussions about the company.
Several services offered by SSL are:
Money handling
SSL provides armoured transport for transfer of a substantial amount of cash and cheques
between various businesses and banks and vice versa.
Security services of businesses
SSL also provides highly competent security guard service for the business, installing various
security devices inside the buildings and continuously monitoring them.
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DISCUSSION
Identification of the values that SSL obtains from its current portfolio of
information systems
Following are the values that SSL obtains from its current portfolio of information systems:
1. Cost Minimization
SSL accurately costs the standard services offered and also any additional service if
offered. As the domestic security division failed because of the inadequate costing,
therefore the cost and maintenance of the domestic security division are monitored
at the local level. Little current coordination is provided by the divisional head Office
in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
2. Operational work/data
As the recently established division of SSL failed, new operational strategies are
implemented to expand the customer base. The existing systems are going through
maintenance. The home office service division makes sure that all the contractual
arrangements are adhered to.
3. Decision making
The HOSD division is responsible for making all the important decisions for all the
divisions of the SSL. The division was established around three years ago. Successful
transformation of information from one device to another is helpful in decision
making of this division.
Evaluation of the techniques that may be used in assessing future IS
investments.
There are several techniques they may be used in accessing future IS investments, some of
them are listed below:
1. Research and development
SSL can research on various new technologies and implement them on their existing
technologies, for example instead of assigning security guards, artificial intelligence
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could be used. For example, the security cameras can be made smart so that the
cameras capture the smart images (Burrough, et.al, 2015).
2. E-Commerce
As the private transport division of the SSL has a separate marketing team, it
requires a lot of labour and cost to endorse the services of SSL. SSL can switch to e-
commerce for acquiring more customers. And the sales department can also hire
employees, who can manage the e-commerce website of SSL, which will help in
acquiring more profits (Laudon and Laudon, 2011).
3. Digital marketing
Digital marketing is also one of the many techniques which can be used for earning
profits.All the services provided by SSL can be published on the website and an
enquiry form can also be generated (Hevner and Chatterjee, 2010). The customers
can contact the sales department through their phones and the required service can
be fulfilled by the production team. The digital marketing can be profitable for the
customers who don’t stay near to the office of SSL (Melville, 2010).
Construction of an IS strategy that is supportive of its business strategy and
the benefits that it would derive from this.
Taking reference from the Ansoff matrix and Skimming strategy and combining both
the strategy a new strategy can be implemented by SSL.
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Figure 1https://www.google.com/url?
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Skimming strategy is the strategy where the price of a technology product is
deliberately kept until some other organization produces the same technology. Once
the same technology with different organization comes in the market the price of
the technology is reduced (Bélanger and Crossler, 2011).
Market Penetration
When the products with existing technologies are launched in the existing market,
market penetration stage is mentioned. The purpose behind launching these
products in the markets is to improve the brand name of the company, where the
prices of the products are deliberately kept low so that customers buy low priced
products. SSL can launch the existing CCTV cameras which contain the old
technology, but they can make some changes in the appearance of the products,
such as the colour of the CCTV could be experimented or the price could be reduced
for the CCTV (Ghemawat, et.al, 2010).
Product development
In this stage, new techniques are developed and these technologies are launched in
the existing market. SSL can change the technology introduced in the older CCTV's.
For example, the old CCTV's could not detect the faces of the visitors who were
captured in the camera, thus making it difficult for the investigators to identify the
persons (Meskendahl, 2010). New technology can be developed by linking the
CCTV’s with artificial intelligence where, if the investigators wish to find the details
about the person in the CCTV, the details of the person could be assessed through
the video recording of the camera itself. When this technology is introduced in the
existing market the price of this technology is kept high and hence more profits can
be claimed before other companies target the same technology.
Market development
This stage comprises of the old technology which is introduced in the new market. If
the older version of the CCTV is launched in the new market, many profits can be
earned through old technology, because that technology is not yet introduced in the
new market (Teece, 2010).
Diversification
This is the stage where new technology is introduced in the new market. Whenever a
new technology is introduced in the market, the price of the product is kept high
because of the research and development work. The initial costs of the product
manufacturing and the research and development costs have to be remunerated.
After that, the products price is reduced (Feldmann, 2013).
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Strategic potential for greater investment in information systems and
technology
Information services are slowly merging themselves into e-commerce businesses. All
the offline data is slowly shifting into the online databases. This has increased the
efficiency of the work assigned, the work has become easier and less time-
consuming. The cost of the business has also drastically reduced due to the
information services.
There are six basic strategic business objectives and the information sources cover all
the strategies:
Excellence in operation
Due to information service, the efficiency of the work has been increased. This
increases the productivity of the SSL.
The intimacy of the customer and the supplier
As the communication between the customer and the company increases, it
becomes easy to understand the needs of the customer. The customers across the
countries can also be linked to SSL resulting in increased customers (Hall, 2012).
Improvement in decision making:
With the help of accurate and timely information, there is no need to make decisions
based on luck, forecasts. These decisions lead to underproduction and losses.
Competition
Linking with IS leads to competitive advantages and also helps in understanding the
market requirements closely.
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Could the business process re-engineering be a useful tool in maximising
the potential of IS and IT within the company?
The concept of reengineering is defined as the process of reconstructing the company again.
As it is said that every coin has two faces, re-engineering can be advantageous as well as it
can be disadvantageous in many ways. The advantages of reengineering include
experimenting with the new and larger sections of the information services where the new
scope of technologies can be defined (Ozcelik, 2010). On the contrary, is the experiments
are unsuccessful, the company can face loss instead of profits. It is a risk in considering the
process of reengineering. It requires a new and innovative idea to maximize the potential of
IS in the organization. To accomplish these goals new technologies are needed to be
investigated. The inflexibility in the older information systems decreases growth and
increases the competitiveness of the organization.
Thus, somehow the business process reengineering will be beneficial for SSL organisation
because new use of IT and IS tool will increase the productivity level of the organisation as
well as the performance of the employees could be optimized. The improved quality of the
services will create better customer satisfaction that will result in the great success of the
SSL organisation.
The current location of IS functions within SSL. The best location for IT
services in the future.
The current of IS function in SSL organisation will include all its division where the
standalone PC's, computer programs, software and telecommunication are used to utilize
the Information system facility that is helping in transferring the information in fast and
accurate manner but there are some divisions in which there is lack of information system.
The company should focus on that area for effective utilization of IS and IT system because
they are helpful in expanding the business operations
Private transport division
This division is utilizing the information system in an effective manner through a network of
the operating system that includes computer-based financial ledgers, AutoRoute, end-user
development and a spreadsheet to complete the business operations. Job costing for the
new contract is required to have an effective information system in that area.
Business security division
The sales section of business security division is increasing the use of information system to
operate sales related functions like they are recording the sales data and sending its
monthly sales figures through the floppy disk to its headquarters. The sales section also
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using a standalone pc based tracking and marketing system. The financial section of that
division running its operations through the use of financial ledgers and journals and that
information is distributed in the head office of SSL. The head office is needed to expand the
use of information system to save time and cost of operations. The standalone PC is useful
in payroll processing of this section.
Home office services division
This division highly utilizing the computers for completing the business function on
computer-based and network-based platforms like pc running routing and financial and
budging ledger, rostering software. The IT experts are working in that division to operate the
business process.
The best location for IT services in the future
The head office and headquarters of SSL are not capable to receive the soft copy of data
they are depending upon the traditional manual system to receive the information. Other
divisions of SSL are utilizing the information system effective but they send the information
through the manual system which requires higher cost and time. The SSL organisation
should adopt new technology of information system to increase the use of information
technology which consumes less time and cost and ensures the smooth functioning of the
organisation.
The IT department of the SSL is old fashioned and not reliable as well as not updated as per
the requirement of the changes. The SSL organisation should hire new IT experts rather than
depending upon inexperienced people to operate the information system devices. They
should give attention to the development of IS and IT system to achieve competitive
advantages as well as to achieve business objectives effectively. today in this competitive
digital world a company is required to have sufficient IT resources to save the cost and
energy of the people working in the organisation so the focus should be given in the area to
ensure the company's growth in the market.
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Conclusion
The report defines how SSL can improve using IS. SSL is a highly profit earning company. But
the service provided by SSL is limited. The recently developed division, domestic security
division faced losses and failed principally because of the inadequate financial controls. This
may have happened because SSL doesn’t use IS to monitor the costs and markets globally.
The coordination between the regional offices can be coined as one of the main reasons for
their profits. They provide security services for domestic purposes as well as business
purposes. There are various values which define the scope of SSL. Future IS investments in
SSL has also been mentioned.
References
Bélanger, F. and Crossler, R.E., 2011. Privacy in the digital age: a review of information
privacy research in information systems. MIS quarterly, 35(4), pp.1017-1042.
Burrough, P.A., McDonnell, R., McDonnell, R.A. and Lloyd, C.D., 2015. Principles of
geographical information systems. Oxford university press.
Feldmann, C., 2013. The Practical Guide to Business Process Reengineering Using IDEFO.
Addison-Wesley.
Ghemawat, P., Cassiman, B., Collis, D.J. and Rivkin, J.W., 2010. Strategy and the business
landscape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Hevner, A. and Chatterjee, S., 2010. Design research in information systems: theory and
practice (Vol. 22). Springer Science & Business Media.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2011. Essentials of management information systems. Upper
Saddle River: Pearson.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management Information Systems: Managing the
Digital Firm Plus MyMISLab with Pearson eText--Access Card Package. Prentice Hall Press.
Melville, N.P., 2010. Information systems innovation for environmental sustainability. MIS
quarterly, 34(1), pp.1-21.
Meskendahl, S., 2010. The influence of business strategy on project portfolio management
and its success—A conceptual framework. International Journal of Project Management,
28(8), pp.807-817.
Ozcelik, Y., 2010. Do business process reengineering projects payoff? Evidence from the
United States. International Journal of Project Management, 28(1), pp.7-13.
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Teece, D.J., 2010. Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long range planning,
43(2-3), pp.172-194.
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