Technology in Management the Fargus Essay

The modeling environments was so accurate it could deliver results that aligned at a 95% accuracy rate with the actual results achieved. Another advantage was the use of knowledge management to orchestrate multichannel selling, marketing and service scenarios across the client's specific requirements and needs. The analytics and knowledge management systems were also combined successfully to create a constraint-based engine as well. All of these factors were critical to the success of the system.

The cons of this modeling approach were the lack of precision on pricing ands the ability to model the more finely-tuned aspects of the programs. There was not enough data to create a profitability measurement and the use of constraint modeling at times could leave out the more unpredictable aspects of the marketing mix. While the virtual marketplace proved effective for testing message, media and defining audience, it lacks the precision necessary for making long-term, highly expensive strategic decisions over time.

In the case of the Brain Behind the Big, Bad Burger the pros are the exceptional control over the analytics and multitude of variables the company found to be predictive of food purchases. The differentiating aspects of the burger, including its size, a $7M ad budget, and over positioning against competitors, worked because Hardee's concentrated on executing the strategy to the precise requirements of the given target market served. The fact that the depth of analytics and data captured led to a very precise execution strategy greatly helped the product to succeed as well.

The cons of this approach are the unpredictability of results and the lack of control over the specific variables, in addition to there being no assurance the correlations and data factors are still true. There is a significant risk that the data will also not reflect the current economic and weather-related factors as well, and the sheer size of the burger and it connoted unhealthy contents. The models designed did not check on the level of relative health; that could have derailed the entire project quickly if it had not been taken into account. The analytics did not take into account consumer behavior as well as they could have.

5: Discuss the problems and possible solutions in terms of human vs. machine centered design, socio-technical factors, impacts of computerization on the workplace, deskilling, retraining, change management, employee involvement, commitment, resistance. . . For a high-impact system implementation in a small enterprise conducted in a manner that is technically correct but inappropriate for the company culture. Many bad effects follow the implementation including very high personnel turnover.

Even the most state-of-the-art technologies can't compensate for an organizational culture not capable of changing to adopt it and get the most value for the information and insights it can deliver. One of the most fundamental aspects of effective change management is in changing the technologies involved to match user's requirements, not vice versa (Benamati, Lederer, Singh, 13). This fundamental principles is what guides the best overall implementations of human vs. machine-centered design and also guides the best alignment of socio-technical factors to the needs of professionals using these systems as well. The overarching need is to ensure any technology devised is capable of accentuating the innate strengths of a given employee and team, not forcing them to change how they work to just take advantage of the technology itself (Bordum, 249).

Even if a given technology is exceptional in its ability to align with user's needs, if the cultural fit is weak or non-existent, the entire implementation will fail. Studies indicate that even when a senior executive is leading the change management strategy, it is still flawed at the cultural level, leading to rejection by the majority of those affected by the new system (Benamati, Lederer, Singh, 12). There needs to be a very high level of congruence and support for the program itself, and the technology needs to play an enabling role overall to the development of entirely new IT and process strategies. When the technology is considered more important than the culture, IT projects often fail (Eastman, McCarthy, 510).

6: Design an Enterprise Architecture and Infrastructure for Org X

[Information on Org X: what they do, how they do it, where they do it, their current IT architecture and infrastructure and their long and short-term business strategy.]

Design an IT architecture and an infrastructure for Org X that will support their current operations and that will cost effectively scale to encompass their mid-term vision for the organization (as expressed above).

Structure your answer under five separate headings (bullet points are better than long, rambling narrative):

1. Strategic goals

2. Business requirements (from strategic goals)

[Use the Hardware/Software/Network/Data analysis framework from the textbook for 3 and 4.]

3. Architecture (high level specifications to satisfy business requirements)

4. Infrastructure (high-level suggestions for implementation of the architecture -- " that is types of hardware and software required. Note that you do not have enough information to give detailed specifics. The answer to this question will be in the form of suggestions OR questions that need to be answered to make the implementation determination.)

5. Discussion of how the final infrastructure satisfies both the current and mid-term IT requirements of the organization. List and justify all key assumptions.

Enterprise Architecture for Org X

Strategic Goals:

The following are the strategic goals for Org X:

1. Create a state-of-the-art manufacturing system for creating customized tablet PCs

2. Define a series of supply chain and production processes that allow for greater flexibility in meeting user requirements

3. Define an e-commerce platform that will scale to meet global selling requirements

Business Requirements:

1. The ability to manage a highly diverse supply chain and coordinate to specific customer requests for unit definitions to individual bill-of-materials requirements

2. Track the cost per order and profitability per order

3. Optimize inventory turns through an automated system of inventory and supply chain management

4. Index customer satisfaction to product quality levels

Architecture:

1. Built on Oracle database 11i with extensions for J2EE application development

2. Architecture supports Web extensions through Oracle iStore

3. Web-based development supports the creation of personalized user experience on the site

Infrastructure:

1. Supported by a bald server running VMWare for virtualization across a multitenant cloud architecture

2. Supported with VMWare security and fault tolerance management

3. UNIX operating system configured for fault tolerance and multitenancy on Exalogic blade servers

Discussion:

The overall structure of this platform and applications are designed to ensure scalability of online configuration sessions on tablet PCs and handheld devices. The Oracle databases back-end is used for tracking customer activity in addition to managing the supply chain components and integration points throughout the system architecture. VMWare is used for scaling the application for cloud-based use, ensuring it can be multitenant when needed. The overall architecture is also designed to deliver a personalized, configurable user experience on any compatible platform or device.

Works Cited

Ball, Leslie D. "IT Education Success Strategies for Change Management." Information Systems Management 17.4 (2000): 74-7.

Benamati, John, Albert L. Lederer, and Meenu Singh. "Information Technology Change: The Impact on IT Management." The Journal of Computer Information Systems 38.4 (1998): 9-13.

Bordum, Anders. "The Strategic Balance in a Change Management Perspective." Society and Business Review 5.3 (2010): 245-58.

Eastman, Doug, and Claire McCarthy. "Embracing Change: Healthcare Technology in the 21st Century." Nursing management 43.6 (2012): 52.

Hellstrom, Andreas, Svante Lifvergren, and Johan Quist. "Process Management in Healthcare: Investigating Why it's Easier Said than done." Journal of Manufacturing…