CIS 499 Information Systems Capstone

Project Deliverable 1: Project Plan Inception

Systems Capstone

Introduction

ABC Corp is million-dollar company which deals in data collection and analytics. The company has grown in last two years and is expected to grow rapidly in next 18 months. The company’s most important assets are information and is important function for the organization and it has to be dealt with very carefully and negotiated in the authority protocols, which furthermore, should be in accordance with the latest outlays and regulations that are laid by the authorities and well established codes of conduct and dealing with information. The aim of the paper is to research the current state of organization in terms of its business processes, IT alignment, personnel and outsourcing activities.

Background information of company

The aforementioned organization also deals with the information basics and the dealings of various outlays of structured information and collects records for further development. The company deals in collecting and analyzing web data with the use of various web analytics tools. A while ago expressed companionship furthermore deals with the information basics and the dealings of diverse costs of sorted out information and accumulates records for further change. The association has been working together of social affair data which is in a way amazingly helpful for the further progression of the operational structure data and securities (Loftus, 2012).

For the past 2 years the company has been in business of collecting data which is in a way very useful for the further development of the operational system data and securities. The data is collected to practice current trends, insecurities, business information for their clients. The company has seen a tremendous growth in business in past two years and is expected to grow by 60% in next 18 months. The company is using some information systems that help them in deadline with day to day business needs. Traditional as well as latest methods has been implemented and adopted in order for the data collection to be up to the mark with the synchronized and differential development techniques, which is best done with the help of web analytics. The company needs to upgrade its IT infrastructure and physical infrastructure. The company is looking forward for an information system that will handle increased business needs of the organization (Loftus, 2012).

Details of business

The whole business process of the company revolves around the collection and development t of data, and the process is very intricate in nature, which has a minimal margin of errors and the processing of data can only be done in a proper and fool proof manner, if the integrated units of the system are working in a perfect sync and each and every element is giving out the best in efficiency.

The company develops web analytics which is a tricky situation as far as the developmental techniques and implementation of all such techniques is concerned. Web analytics take into account several trends and curves as well as findings of the website development business, and the whole set of this data is very important for the very existence of such a business and it should be provided at each end of the elemental node. Information flow is carried out by using a perfect systematic adjustment between machines and personnel (Loftus, 2012).

Acknowledged and moreover latest frameworks must be executed and gained set up for the data get-together to be reliant upon the engraving with the synchronized and differential headway systems, which is best done with the support of web examination. Data sorting out and data progression is a system which is fast expecting control over whatever feasible industry, out and significant and orderly the restriction is stretching because of the passageway and vicinity of a couple of contenders and the exact vicinity of the developmental fundamentals, which are broad in nature, and all the new competitors are speedy setting aside a few minutes with the latest examples.

Outsourcing and off shoring activities

The company as is a data collection and analytics company have lot of outsource and offshore in order to have skilled pool of resources and save cost. The company is currently outsourcing all legal activities to an outside law firm which handles the entire contract that they have to maintain with their clients. This also includes description of regulations for maintaining data privacy of the clients and information collected over web.

Other than this, the development work is offshore as nowadays, it is a very well-known fact that the majority of personnel who are coming up and excelling in the field of Information Technology are from Asian countries, such as China, India, Pakistan Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia, who have a great amount of competition in the market by offering IT related services at the bare minimum costs, which has benefitted IT and related businesses all over the world and this trend has propelled outburst in the global outsourcing scenario, wherein big western corporations are now “looking east” for gaining benefits of the low cost services and the same trend is followed by the above mentioned organization. The company is going on same footsteps and have all its information systems developed from companies that belong to these countries. The company looks ahead to offshore further IT work.

Personnel & system status

The company possesses strong personnel who are dedicated for providing and handling services and issues related to information system in the company. The company personnel list is provided below

CIO (Chief Information Officer): CIO is responsible for formulating strategic goals of the company and defines a plan for aligning the strategic goals with information technology in the company.
DBA (Database administrator): The database administrator manage database employed in the company. He is an experienced database developer in MySQL and core responsibilities include Database development, management, maintaining security, monitoring, and optimization are responsibilities of DBA.
Project Manager: The project manager is responsible for managing the IT projects. HE is the person who heads all in-house projects and deals with projects heads of the companies to whom the projects are outsourced.
HRM (Human resources manager): HRM is responsible for maintaining the human resource of the company as well as Information technology.
Chief finance officer: Chief finance officer is responsible for all budgeting and financial planning for IT projects.
Software Engineers: The Company employs five software engineers for handling in-house development activities.

Data collected by company

Data is a critical capacity for any association and it must be managed painstakingly and arranged in the power conventions, which besides, ought to be as per the most recent expenses and regulations that are laid by the powers and settled sets of principles and managing data. (Shokrey, 2011). The previously stated association additionally manages the data rudiments and the dealings of different expenses of organized data and gathers records for further improvement. The organization has been doing business of gathering information which is in a manner extremely handy for the further advancement of the operational framework information and securities.

Specifically, data is collected for their client that further helps them in making various decisions based upon analysis. For the purpose, company is collecting following type of information by using web analytics and other tools (Shokrey, 2011).

Visitors information: The visitors coming on any website are tracked with the information about their IP addresses, visiting time and other details
Number of hits: Some of clients’ needs to track the hits they received from their clients are also observed.
Tracking repeat visitors: Tracking repeat visitors by storing the details on how many times a visitor visits etc.
Customer feedback: Customer feedback is also taken as a part of the company of client that will help them in improving their services.
Customer behavior: There are number of clients who are interested in knowing behaviors of the customer for setting target markets, product niche etc.
Details about web pages: Details about page including page response time, frequency, site overlay etc. are some other types.

Details of information system

The company is currently using web analytics tools and some information system to process data collected through web analytics tools. The company is using different web analytics tools and data processing information system for storing, processing, retrieving and analyzing information. The information systems used by the company are listed below (Farney, 2013):

Decision support system: The system helps the management to take decisions based upon the input provided from various web analytics tools. The system works on MySQL database and is developed in PHP. The system is based on graphical user interface where users are provided with drag and drop facility to facilitate ease of operation. The company uses proper authentication mechanism for ensuring security. Client server architecture is used where are clients are authenticated and can only access the information by login to system.
Management information system: The system helps the company in managing the different resources and information in a right and balanced way. Same configuration as that for DSS is used for MIS.

Security maintenance

Security is maintained though proper authentication mechanism. All authenticated users are given login ID and passwords through which they can access company’s database. The company also employs biometrics for authenticating server area. Physical security has also been employs at main gates.

Following configuration is used for both the systems:

Hardware requirements

Memory requirements are RAM, a minimum of 64 MB
A minimum of PIII Supported Motherboard + 568 MHZ Pentium Processor is required.
Hard Disk, a minimum of 40 GB SATA.
Any Normal keyboard and mouse.
A 1024*768, true type color- 32 Bit Display is required.

Software requirements:

Windows XP Professional or updated versions are required as operating system.
PHP editor (notepad ++) for frontend.

Installation requirements

Xampp 1.6 software, which is included server info given below -

+ Apache 2.2.3

+ Zend Optimizer 3.0.2
+ SQLite 2.8.15

+ phpMyAdmin 2.9.1.1

+ “MySQL 5.0.27
+ Open SSL 0.9.8d

+ “FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.20

References

Shokrey, N. (2011). ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF VISITORS ON PAGE VIEWS WITH GOOGLE ANALYTICS. International Journal of Web & Semantic Technology, 2(1), 14-32. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1102/1102.0735.pdf

Farney, T. (2013). Web Analytics Strategies for Information Professionals: A LITA Guide. Journal of Library Innovation, 4(2), 149-150.

Loftus, W. (2012). Demonstrating Success: Web Analytics and Continuous Improvement. Journal of Web Librarianship, 6(1), 45-55. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19322909.2012.651416#.U1FlrlWSy8Y

Elias, (2011). Learning Analytics: The Definitions, the Processes, and the Potential. Retrieved from http://learninganalytics.net/LearningAnalyticsDefinitionsProcessesPotential.pdf