IFSM 300 Information Systems in Organizations

Stage 1: Strategic Use of Technology

Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC)

IFSM 300 Information Systems in Organizations

01/25/2023

Introduction

Maryland Technology Consultants is an accessing firm that specializes in providing Information Technology (IT) solutions to clients. The firm uses proven methodologies to deliver measurable results and enhance business performance. The provision of IT consulting and outsourcing services will be the main topics of the Business Analysis and System Recommendations (BA&SR) report on MTC's commercial zone. Therefore, the report aims to create a strategic plan for implementing an onboarding program or recruiting system to enhance MTC's recruitment procedure. The report will employ a four-stage strategy to accomplish this goal. Each of them examines a different portion of the study. The report will emphasize providing exceptional consulting guidance and advice to its customers by hiring highly qualified experts and keeping up to date with cutting-edge business technologies and innovations.

I. Strategic Use of Technology

A. Business strategy

IT can revolutionize the manufacturing industry and transform business operations. Utilizing technology plays a critical role in trade and economic growth and can aid MTC in boosting its business progress through new contracts and partnerships (UMGC, 2023). The usage of IT also broadens MTC's reach because it is no longer constrained by geographical region. By utilizing IT, MTC can assemble a group of international consultants that can help American onsite teams via remote study and evaluation. This can be one of the company's strategies. Additionally, IT enables more efficient identification of potential business partners in other countries or continents.

B. Competitive advantage

The Manufacturing Technology Corporation (MTC) operates in a highly competitive market, facing competition from both large-scale IT consulting organizations and smaller companies with specialized skill sets, as well as small to mid-sized businesses. MTC is concentrating on its hiring method to draw top IT experts with in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge technology and an inventive strategy for problem-solving for customers in order to acquire a competitive advantage (Amadeo & Rasure, 2022). The organization is aware that many applicants utilize online forms and anticipate a simple and quick application procedure in the current digital era. MTC has implemented an integrated hiring and retention strategy to fulfill this expectation, including a new IT solution. The candidate monitoring and hiring procedure is improved overall by this technology, which monitors the process more effectively than the manual method. The system also has a tool for managing business activities, simplifying management (David & David, 2016). The recruiting and recruitment procedures are streamlined by a piece of software called the applicant tracking system. Online processing allows the monitoring system to manage business operations and gather data, giving MTC a competitive edge over its main competitors.

C. Strategic Objectives

MTC intends to compete with more prominent companies for new IT Consulting projects by offering highly qualified IT consultants. MTC will be likely to do this in order to boost its effectiveness.

Strategic Goal	Objective	Explanation
Increase MTC business development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT consulting.	Look into prospective business opportunities. Think about taking on one contract as the prime contractor and collaborating with at least two big firms as a subcontractor.	This statement suggests that the person or company should research different business opportunities and consider taking on a contract as the primary contractor while working with two other larger companies as subcontractors. This could involve partnering with larger companies to bid on and complete a project, with the primary contractor taking on the lead role and the subcontractors providing additional resources and expertise. This strategy could potentially help the primary contractor gain experience and credibility in the industry while also leveraging the resources and reputation of the larger firms.
Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis support to MTC's onsite teams in the U. S.	Over the next twelve months, increase overseas hiring and bring on six research analysts.	Online applications will be accepted from candidates worldwide, resulting in a spike in the number of international applicants. As a result, hiring managers would have the chance to track candidates' progress for these roles, identify key research competencies, and evaluate resumes in light of those competencies. By looking at the applicant pool, recruitment agencies can quickly assess how many candidates are required to fulfill a goal.
Continue to increase MTC's ability to provide high-quality consultants to quickly awarded contracts to best serve the client's needs.	Enlarge the hiring market. Over the next five months, five exceptionally talented talent acquisition specialists with at minimum five years of fast-paced experience in the industry should be employed.	To implement the new hiring strategy successfully, hiring qualified recruitment agencies used to demanding work settings is vital. They ought to know about hiring personnel after winning contracts.
Increase MTC's competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and innovative solutions for its clients.	Create a culture within your firm that will draw in and keep talent. Reward staff members every quarter and acknowledge their contributions. Make use of MTC's advantages to expand your clientele and gain more market share.	Rewarding top achievers will result in happier, more productive workers and lower turnover rates. Customers will value and appreciate MTC's qualities, resulting in new contracts and collaborations.

D. Decision Making

Data tracking capabilities are among the most crucial features of information systems. The fact that an info system turns data into specific information is vital to comprehend. The ability to make decisions can be strengthened by using upgraded information just after data has been converted into knowledge.

Role	Level as defined in Course Content Reading	Example of Possible Decision Supported by Hiring System	Example of Information, the Hiring System, could provide to Support your Example Decision
Senior/Executive Managers (Decisions made by the CEO and the CFO at MTC supported by the hiring system)	Strategic level	Promote emerging markets that you are considering joining.	You should specify how many experts you will need because you will be working with a new arrangement.
Middle Managers (Decisions made by the Director of HR and the Manager of Recruiting supported by the hiring system)	Managerial level	There are various phases involved in allocating budgets and resources.	According to the contract terms, candidates might be chosen by hiring managers and the director of the headquarters office.
Operational Managers (Decisions made by the line managers in the organization who are hiring for their projects supported by the hiring system)	Operational level	Work at a different location with workers moving from one area to another.	All qualifications and certificates necessary for the new post will be confirmed through the system's verification procedure.

References

Amadeo, K, and Rasure, E. (2022, January). US and World Economies, What is Competitive Advantage? https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-competitive-advantage-3-strategies-that-work-3305828

UMGC (2023). Business Strategy. Retrieved from https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/umuc/tus/ifsm/ifsm300/2228/learning-resourcelist/business-strategy.html?wcmmode=disabled

David, F., & David, F. R. (2016). Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach, concepts, and cases. Pearson–Prentice Hall. Retrieved from https://gibsoncollege.edu.et/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Strategic-Management-Concepts-and-Cases-15th-Ed.-by-Fred-R.-David-and-Forest-R.-David.pdf

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Stage 3: Requirements-3 pages

Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study and reviewed the feedback received on your Stage 1 and 2 assignments.

Overview

As the business analyst in the CIO's department of Maryland Technology Consulting (MTC), your next task in developing your Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) Report is to develop a set of requirements for the hiring system.

Assignment – BA&SR Section III. Requirements

The first step is to review any feedback from previous stages to help improve the effectiveness of your overall report and then add the new section to your report. Only content for Stage 3 will be graded for this submission. Part of the grading criteria for Stage 4 includes evaluating if the document is a very effective and cohesive assemblage of the four sections, is well formatted and flows smoothly from one section to the next. For this assignment, you will add Section III of the Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) Report to your Sections I and II. In this section you will identify requirements for the new hiring system. This analysis leads into Section IV. System Recommendation of the BA&SR (Stage 4 assignment) that will analyze a proposed IT solution to ensure it meets MTC's organizational strategy and fulfills its operational needs.

Using the case study, assignment instructions, Content readings, and external research, develop your Section III. Requirements. The case study tells you that the executives and employees at Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) have identified a need for an effective and efficient applicant tracking or hiring system. As you review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to assist in your analysis. In particular, look for information in the interviews to provide stakeholder interests and needs.

Use the outline format, headings and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below.

III. Requirements

A. Stakeholder Interests – Review the interest or objectives for the new hiring system for each stakeholder listed below based on his or her organizational role and case study information. Consider how the technology will improve how his/her job is done; that is, identify what each of the stakeholders needs the hiring system to do. Then to complete the table below, use information from the stakeholder interviews and identify one significant challenge or problem for each stakeholder related to the current hiring process (not their future expectations). Then explain how a system could address their problems. Do not define what that position does in the organization. (Provide an introductory sentence for this section, copy the table below and complete the two columns with 1-2 complete sentences for each role in each column.)

Role	Specific problem related to the current hiring process	How a technology solution to support the hiring process could address the problem
1. CEO
2. CFO
3. CIO
4. Director of Human Resources
5. Manager of Recruiting
6. Recruiters
7. Administrative Assistant
8. Hiring Manager (Functional supervisor the new employee would be working for.)

B. Defining Requirements – The next step is to identify the essential requirements for the information system. In addition to the stakeholder interests identified above, review the Case Study, especially the interviews, highlighting any statements that tell what the person expects or needs the system to do. User requirements express specifically what the user needs the system to do . This can be in terms of tasks the users need to perform, data they need to input, what the system might do with that data input, and output required. System performance requirements express how the system will perform in several performance areas and security . As a member of the CIO's organization, you will use your professional knowledge to Identify 5 User Requirements (including one specifically related to reporting) and 5 System Performance Requirements (including 2 security-related requirements). Refer to Week 5 content on requirements; security requirements are covered in Week 6. Additional research can expand your knowledge of these areas.

Once you have identified the 10 requirements, evaluate each one using the criteria below and create 10 well-written requirements statements for the new hiring system.

The requirement statement:

· Is a complete sentence, with a subject (system) and predicate (intended result, action or condition).

· Identifies only one requirement; does not include the words "and," "also," "with," and "or."

· For User Requirements, states what tasks the system will support or perform.

· For System Performance Requirements, states how the system will perform.

· Includes a measure or metric that can be used to determine whether the requirement is met (time or quantity), where appropriate.

· Is stated in positive terms and uses "must" (not "shall," "may" or "should"); "the system must xxxx" not "the system must not xxx".

· Avoids the use of terms that cannot be defined and measured, such as "approximately," "robust," "user friendly," etc.

· Is achievable and realistic; avoids terms such as "100% uptime," or "no failures".

For a full requirements document, there will be many requirement statements; you only need to provide the number of requirements identified for each category. Do not provide generic statements but relate to the needs of MTC to improve its hiring process.

(Provide an introductory sentence, copy the table, and complete the Requirements Statement and Stakeholder columns. No additional information should be entered into the first column, Requirement ID.)

Requirement ID# only	Requirement Statement	Stakeholder (Position and Name from Case Study that identified this requirement)
	User Requirements – (What the user needs the system to do)
EXAMPLE	The system must store all information from the candidate’s application/resume in a central applicant database. EXAMPLE PROVIDED – (Retain text but remove this label and gray shading in your report)	Recruiter – Peter O’Neil
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.	(Reporting- Output of organized information retrieved from the system—replace this statement with a specific reporting requirement)
	System Performance Requirements – (How the system will perform)
EXAMPLE	The system must be implemented as a Software as a Service solution. EXAMPLE PROVIDED – (Retain text but remove this label and gray shading in your report)	CIO – Raj Patel
6.
7.
8.
9.	(Security- replace this with a specific security requirement)
10.	(Security- replace this with a specific security requirement)

Formatting Your Assignment

Consider your audience – you are writing in the role of an MTC business analyst and your audience is MTC and your boss, the CIO. Don’t discuss MTC as if the reader has no knowledge of the organization. Use third person consistently throughout the report. In third person, the writer avoids the pronouns I, we, my, and ours. The third person is used to make the writing more objective by taking the individual, the “self,” out of the writing. This method is very helpful for effective business writing, a form in which facts, not opinion, drive the tone of the text. Writing in the third person allows the writer to come across as unbiased and thus more informed.

· In Stage 3, you are preparing the third part of a 4-stage report. Use the structure, headings, and outline format provided here for your report. Use the numbering/lettering in the assignment instructions as shown below.

III. Requirements

A. Stakeholder Interests

B. Defining Requirements

· Begin with Sections I and II, considering any feedback received, and add to it Section III.

· Write a short concise paper: Use the recommendations provided in each area for length of response. It’s important to value quality over quantity. Section III should not exceed 3 pages.

· Content areas should be double spaced; table entries should be single-spaced.

· To copy a table : Move your cursor to the table, then click on the small box that appears at the upper left corner of the table to highlight the table; right click and COPY the table; put the cursor in your paper where yo