High level steps to be followed while implementing IT

Organizations can start with analyzing their business objective followed by IS

strategy in terms of various information systems that they require. In the final
step actual IT solutions based on requirements can be deployed.

Approach at organization level:


We can apply IT applications to industries by following a stepwise approach
identifying the gaps in processes and filling those gaps with IT. We are trying to
build a framework, which can be applied to manufacturing as well as services
industry.

1. Identify the business you are in.

This part will explain what is the value offering by the
organization. The value offering can be a product or a service,
which will address specific customers, needs in the market. Market
forces will play a significant role in deciding whether the
organization should go for cost-leadership or differentiation. In the
subsequent steps we will try to analyze how effective
implementation of IT can help any organization achieve these
goals.

2. List down all the processes performed by the organization.

Various activities performed by organization can be listed down
and classified into primary and support activities. Primary
activities will be the ones, which directly affect business, and
support activities will be those activities, which will help primary
activities. For an industry like cement, primary activities will be
low cost transport and efficient logistics and support activities will
be procurement management, financial accounting etc. For an
industry like e-commerce, primary activities will be warehouse
Business Strategy
Analyze current business objectives
and direction of the organization
IS Strategy
Based on the business direction,
analyze what is required in terms of
Information Systems
IT Strategy
This is 'how' part of the strategy. i.e.
to look at the technologies that are
required for the implementation of IS
strategy laid down for achieving the
business objectives
management; logistics and support activities will be customer
profiling, data analytics. Existing frameworks can be used to
categorize processes.









McFarlans Grid



Value Chain Analysis


3. Identify critical success factors (CSFs).

CSFs are performance factors based on critical business processes
as discussed in point 2. For examples discussed in point 2, CSFs for
cement industry will be cost of transportation, cost of warehouse
storage and for e-commerce will be delivery time, date etc.
Factory Strategic
Support
Turn
around
Potential Strategic Impact
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Any affect on performance of any of the CSFs will directly have an
impact on business. If companies can improve their performance
on CSFs, it will help them in both short term as well as long term.
IT applications such as automation tools, ERP, CRM etc can be
deployed as per the requirement.


4. Implementation of solutions.

After deciding on what applications the organization is going to
implement, it has to work on deployment. The deployment process
can be divided into following 3 broad categories. Each of these
activities will be headed by different group of people, which
require clear delegation of tasks.



Launch
Plan
Development
Implemetation