Aligning IT Strategies to Business Strategies (115 points)

Delta Corporation has been very impressed with the progress it has made with its new product line and the new marketing approach that you recommended and instigated. As a result, it is now considering expanding this approach for its other product lines, providing them with the ability to market and sell all of its products online. However, it has not considered the implications for its IT department in developing this type of plan. As the Social Media Marketing Consultant, you are familiar with integrating business and IT strategic planning. They have called upon you to provide advice. You need to:

Explain what the company needs to consider if it is going to move to a more on-line approach for its sales and marketing activities. In particular, describe the consequences for its IT department and why they need to be involved in the planning phase.

Given the likely increase in costs associated with this move, you need to outline the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of outsourcing the IT maintenance and development.

Outline some strategic technology trends that the company may wish to monitor and consider for the future.

• Finally, research a company in Saudi Arabia and discuss whether they were able to align their overall strategy and their IT strategy. If they were successful discuss how they managed this alignment and what benefits they gained from doing so. If they were not so successful, explain how and why you felt that occurred.

Cost reimbursable contract calculation.

A contract calls for a total payment of $800,000 with a guarantee. Essentially the contractor is guaranteed to make at least $200,000 above his costs. If the contractor can demonstrate his costs exceed $600,000, the project will pay the difference, with a $50,000 ceiling on the overage. The contractor demonstrates he spent $623,000. How much (gross) must the project remit to the contractor?

Another option for the same contract has the contractor guaranteed to be paid his costs plus 20%, for costs that exceed $600,000. With the same initial assumption—guarantee of $800,000 gross payment (no requirement to itemize costs), but if the contractor can show that costs exceed $600,000, the project will pay $800,000 plus the costs that exceed $600,000, plus 20% of those excess costs, with a ceiling of $900,000 gross. The contractor demonstrates he spent $623,000. How much (gross) must the project remit to the contractor?

Under option 1.b, at what dollar amount of total costs would the contractor be assuming all of the excess costs beyond that point?

In which option did the project assume more of the risk of a cost overrun? Explain.

A project to put on a major international sporting competition has the following major deliverables: Sports Venues, Athlete Accommodation, Volunteer Organization, Security, Events, and Publicity (which has already been broken down into pre-event publicity and post-event publicity.)

Prepare a WBS for any single major deliverable on the list. Remember the 100 percent rule, and number your objectives.

Aligning IT Strategies to Business Strategies

Delta Corporation has been very impressed with the progress it has made with its new product line and the new marketing approach that you recommended and instigated. As a result, it is now considering expanding this approach for its other product lines, providing them with the ability to market and sell all of its products online. However, it has not considered the implications for its IT department in developing this type of plan. As the Social Media Marketing Consultant, you are familiar with integrating business and IT strategic planning. They have called upon you to provide advice. You need to:

• Explain what the company needs to consider if it is going to move to a more on-line approach for its sales and marketing activities. In particular, describe the consequences for its IT department and why they need to be involved in the planning phase.
• Given the likely increase in costs associated with this move, you need to outline the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of outsourcing the IT maintenance and development.
• Outline some strategic technology trends that the company may wish to monitor and consider for the future.

Finally, research a company in Saudi Arabia and discuss whether they were able to align their overall strategy and their IT strategy. If they were successful discuss how they managed this alignment and what benefits they gained from doing so. If they were not so successful, explain how and why you felt that occurred.

In your paper, you should include your identification and analysis of the central issues related to your topic, your evaluation of the alternative perspectives related to your topic, and a description of your current stance on the issue you have chosen.  In writing your paper, it is important for you to include your own opinions (supported by references) regarding the topic you have chosen.  For example, if you choose to write about a firm that is facing law suits regarding diversity issues from its employees, I would expect you to offer your opinion regarding actions the firm might take or might have taken that would have helped avoid the law suit and then provide support (with references) for your recommended approach.  As a rule of thumb, I expect that you will devote about one third of your paper to your critical analysis of the issue you choose.  In other words, don’t just write 5 pages that only describe the actions of a firm or other organization/profession/government without critically assessing those actions. 

Information in the text of your paper must be properly cited using the method that is used in The Pitney Bowes Case: A Legacy of Diversity Management in the textbook.  Do not include any footnotes at the bottom of any of the five pages of your analysis.  In preparing the paper you should avoid using more than three direct quotes and no quote should be longer than one or two sentences.

Robert Asen warns us not to see “a particular person, place, or topic as necessarily defining the limits of a counterpublic” (“Seeking the Counter” 426).  Yet over the last several weeks, we have looked at counterpublics that seem focused on either categories of people or particular issues.  Does that make us guilty of “reductionism”?  That is, have we overlooked important aspects of what makes a public “counter” in order to fit them into categories?  Is there a difference between counterpublics that focus on people and counterpublics that focus on issues?  What particular challenges do counterpublics that form around the exclusion of research and dicussion of medical issues from larger public spheres?

Remember, you can discuss any or all of the questions posed in the module or you can discuss something else that you found interesting in the reading.  Discussion posts should be your original ideas that identify important concepts from the readings.  You shouldn’t quote or paraphrase extensively, except to point out what aspect of the articles you are commenting on.  Discussion posts should deal with the course reading for each week, and not general observations on the public sphere or material you have read in other classes.  Material quoted from the readings should total no more than 10% of a discussion post and should include an accurate reference to the source (author and page number).   Original posts should explore an issue in some depth, so they should be at least 200 words.