Stephen Gall

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Program

MGMT 3102: The Dynamics of Change

Walden University

Professor Art Johnson, Instructor

May 27, 2006

Moving to Service-based Security and Software Applications for Data and Information Management

Problem Statement

This proposed solution addresses the following issues:

1/ We must get a handle on electronic intrusions and ensure our own network security. There is a growing demand on IT resources to ensure a secure network, yet we have not reached an adequate confidence level.

2/ We must reduce our IT costs, which are too high and growing too fast:

• Maintaining software and perform upgrades, including version control and compatibility issues
• Managing our network and intranet
• Maintaining a fully-staffed IT department
• Managing the computing requirements of a fully-dispersed workforce

3/ We must address vendor lock-in in regards to our data and information. Every time IT updates a system or implements a new software version, we must undergo a data conversion analysis and data conversion project, which creates risk to our data integrity.

4/ We must address the needs of our expanding mobile workforce by providing a collaborative workspace that extends beyond our corporate office walls and takes advantage of new technologies and devices. Our recent survey discovered that the workforce (including partners, consultants, and third-parties requiring access to our data) is increasingly working ‘off the internal network’ with laptops and devices, and requires a web-based solution that is not in place today.

We are under increasing pressure to provide remote access and functionality to our applications, data, and information. Also, our users do not want to download files to their laptops when they leave the office on travel or to work off-site. They continually ask IT to provide remote access to the network. We will not be able to scale our current solution for much longer. Finally, we need a technology solution that allows us to implement much better search tools.

Business Need and Market Drivers

Discussion

We are facing communication channel and content management issues as the environment grows increasingly more complex. If we want to realize a strategic advantage in this environment we must move to adopting edge technologies that will allow us to build, integrate and manage new data and dynamic information systems. We need a technology solution that allows us to move our islands of data away from proprietary database and document formats. We must address the growing demand for information in video. We also need to provide better search results that span the entire spectrum of corporate information resources.

Today, our software and information systems strategy is based on the client/server model that is thirty years old. This model does not scale well in a world of wireless networks, VoIP, distributed networks with low-cost data storage, open-source operating systems, open-source data standards, desktop alternatives, as well as real-time (transaction based) media using the Internet. Our organization needs to take advantage of technologies that leverage this new distributed internet model. Most importantly, these internet technologies can greatly help us reduce IT costs and better meet our needs.

Recommended Change and Goals

The following strategic goals and changes are recommended:

1. Outsource security activities to a vendor that specializes in secure network access. Specifically, engage a partner to manage our VPN (virtual private network) access to our own (and other) networks [Browne, 2001]

2. Lease, instead of purchase, our software applications. We can begin the transition from the managed applications model and move to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. [Pallatto, 2005] [Blozan, 2005]

3. Switch to a common data format. Use XML exclusively to structure all data and information
4. Create and manage collaborative workspaces using Web 2.0 technologies such as RSS [Kirkpatrick, 2006], wikis and weblogs [Wood, 2005] [Hall,
2002]

Discussion

The major change that allows us to implement service-based software applications and new web-based technologies will be our adoption of a standardized data and information format using XML. Although this data formatting model has been slow to gain acceptance, today it is becoming the overwhelming choice as a method to manipulate and share data and information. Advances in network architectures, faster broadband, and decreased costs of storage capacity have removed the final barriers to its adoption.

Alignment with Organizational Strategy

We have two important strategies which this change recommendation addresses:

• To use IT solutions to gain a strategic market advantage
• To use third-party providers for processes and activities that are not strategic to our business model

Discussion
We want to be enabled by software, however, we do not want to be in the software business. We envision the following organizational advantages by moving to a service-based model:

• We will not need to purchase software upgrades to our current applications, or require versioning and configuration of Microsoft Windows
• We will reduce the burden of our InfoSEC (information security) team when responding to network security issues and alerts
• We will not need to maintain the configuration and security of personal computers, which today takes up a great deal of IT staff time
• We can reduce the size and complexity of our data center
• Employees will not be required to use an office computer located in one of our facilities in order to access corporate applications, data and information, because they will be able to work from any location where internet access is available

Implementation Steps and Key Milestones

General Implementation Plan

1. Assign a project manager to manage the technology selection and transition process, vendor selection process, and implementation process
2. Prepare an initial cost assessment and budget

Security Plan

1. Prepare a security needs analysis which identifies the various networks that require security and the type of security that is required
2. Prepare and update a list of users by job role and name, and requirements for access to the various networks (for assigning security access levels)
3. Create a security matrix for assigning access to data and information based on our data governance program
4. Research and identify the leading security vendors, then create a RFS (request for service) and ask the leading vendors to respond with an initial estimate of recommended services and costs. Select a vendor.
5. Work with a consultant or the vendor to create a transition plan. (This activity will be done in conjunction with our infoSEC team)

Software Services Plan

1. Have SalesForce.com [SalesForce, 2006] present aproduct demonstration onsite for the executive and management team
2. Identify the major application services vendors in the application categories that match our application requirements
3. Prepare a SaaS analysis, transition plan, and project plan

XML Transition Plan

1. Create an XML schema library based on our data dictionaries and documentation schemas, including managed spreadsheets and forms
2. Determine which data and documents to transition to the new format
3. Implement this schema-based format for service-based applications and documents prepared using the new collaborative workspace solutions

Collaborative Workspace Plan

1. Develop an RSS strategy [Kirkpatrick, 2005]
2. Implement various solutions such as wikis and weblogs in a ‘sandbox’ for demonstrations, training, and practice
3. Demonstrate the new functionality to our user community and encourage users to begin using these tools

Issues and Implementation Barriers

1. This plan will require careful transition management planning especially by IT
2. Unit managers will need to be kept abreast of impacts to their specific applications and how any changes will affect specific business requirements and specifications for new software improvements or changes
3. Users will need to understand how they will actually gain functionality from these new tools

Communication and Monitoring Plan

Part of the proposed solution will be used as a key component of the communication mechanism. From the internal web site, a link will be provided to a weblog, where daily posts discussing the project as it progresses will be made. Employees will be encouraged to post comments. There will also be a link to a primary wiki, which will be the main portal to project plans, files, resources, milestones and mission statements, and other project-related collateral. All deliverables will be accessible from the project wiki.

The senior project manager or representative shall also hold a series of demonstrations for each business unit, where new security measures and practices, training of new software interfaces, and the use of collaborative workspaces will be discussed.


Bibliography

Brian Browne, Cindy Lewis, Rich Hamilton and Woody Weaver, "Best Practices For VPN Implementation," March 2001, Business Communications Review, [http://www.bcr.com/management/management_strategies/best_practices_vpn_implementation_20010301662.htm]

John Pallatto, "SaaS Emerges as Long-Term Rival to Packaged Software," May 2005, eWeek.com, [http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1820691,00.asp]

Nick Blozan, "Service-Oriented Architectures and Software as a Service"
05/2005, ebiz, [http://www.ebizq.net/hot_topics/soa/features/5899.html]


Marshall Kirkpatrick, "Using RSS to SMS for rapid notification of emerging information" MobileActive.org, 2006, [http://www.mobileactive.org/node/1521]

Marshall Kirkpatrick, "Introduction to RSS Syndication, 2005, Marshall Kirkpatrick's weblog, [http://marshallk.com/introduction-to-rss-syndication/]

Lauren Wood, "Blogs & Wikis: Technologies for Enterprise Applications?" The Gilbane Report: Volume 12, Number 10, March 2005, [http://gilbane.com/gilbane_report.pl/104/Blogs__Wikis_Technologies_for_Enterprise_Applications.html]

Michael Hall, "Give Your Users the Power of the Press With Weblogs and Wikis", 12/2002, Intranet Journal, [http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200212/ij_12_16_02a.html]

SalesForce software home page, 2006, [http://www.salesforce.com/]

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