ICT Assignment: Strategic Planning Based On Information & Communication Technology

Question

ICT Assignment Task:

PART A
INSTRUCTION: Answer ALL questions

Question 1
Choose FIVE (5) articles related to strategic planning, which were published in between 2015 - 2021. In 400 – 500 words, write a paper that addresses the following areas: -

1. Definition of strategy, planning and strategic planning.
2. Comparison between strategic planning and conventional planning.
3. ICT Strategic Planning
4. The elements for a successful ICT strategic planning process.

Question 2
Consider the following scenarios and discuss how the Information Communication Technology (ICT) strategic planning process could be initiated in order to help an organisation meet its business objectives.

1. XYZ is a small and growing company that experiencing severe quality problems. In the past, the company had very favourable statistics and key indicators, i.e. sales, inventory turns, days sales outstanding, and profits relative to the competition but recently, the company is losing its competitive edge in the marketplace and is gradually falling behind as sales and profits were on the downwards trend.
2. The business department in ABC company was frustrated with Information System (IS)/ Information Technology (IT) response. The departments did not feel that the IS/ IT department was responsive to the business. Response for any changes requested by the business was extremely slow. The business applications simply could not keep pace with the changes in the business.

Question 3
Many managers find it is very difficult to formulate an information technology strategy. Provide THREE (3) possible reasons for this. Suggest TWO (2) guidelines to deal with these difficulties.

PART B –
Instructions:-
You are required to work in a group of two to three students to develop an ICT Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027 based on the selected industry. After submitting the strategic plan (report) to myPLS, you have to do a 10-minute presentation to the class. The report is worth 40%, and the presentation is worth 10% of the total grade for this course.

Questions/ Tasks:-
Referring to a business sector of your interest, e.g. banking, university or healthcare, select an organisation with several legacy systems that hold historical transactions. Due to legal requirements, it is required to maintain access to the information system even though it is hard to maintain due to lack of expertise with skills in the outdated technologies.

Consider you are the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the company, develop an ICT strategic plan to position the future growth of the company while maintaining security over the next five years focusing on the following IT critical matters:-

1. Infrastructure
2. Data management and Privacy
3. Governance
4. Customer Relationship Management
5. Risk Management/ IT Policy

The development of your ICT strategic plan should incorporate the features of innovation, planning and implementation of a revolutionary organisation in 2027.

Answer

ICT Assignment Part A
Answer 1:
a- A strategy is particularly an action plan which is designed for achieving long term aims. The major art behind preparing, planning and directing specifically takes to attain more than an organisation’s goals. Business strategy can particularly be understood as one of the courses of actions or even set of directions that work towards assisting the entrepreneurs in achieving their business objectives (Rachid, & El Manouar, 2017). In the long run, such objectives are nothing but a master plan that an organisation implements for securing a competitive space in the tight packed competitive space. A strategy is utilized for attracting customers and thereby strengthening the performance for achieving goals.

On the other ground, planning entails minute step by step escalation of business activities along with the methods of attaining those particular goals in business space (Mirtsch, et al., 2021). A plan is regarded as a written document that sheds a light upon the company's core activities and how it plans to achieve that goals.

In addition to the same strategic planning is an organizational process for defining a particular strategy, direction or even making decisions for allocating the company’s resources to pursue a particular strategy in the long run.

b-

Strategic Planning	Conventional Planning
One of the clear cut and significant differences between strategic and conventional planning is that conventional planning has to be detail oriented for looking towards issues based upon the present understanding or the inside out mindset (Hanlon, 2019).	Whereas on the distinct basis strategic planning needs an understanding of the current time situation and nature of the problem exposed (Hendra, et al., 2021).
Strategic planning is regarded as one of the utmost necessary procedures which must occur to keep the organisation in the state of prosperity.	Conventional planning initiates with the basic purpose of identifying the initiative
Are more tactical and analytical in nature	Where as they usually invest in low risk return options.

Table 1: Differences in Two Planning

c- An information technology or strategic plan is majorly known for aligning technology with the company’s current business goals levelling up their contribution to the organisation’s strategic objectives (Ptitsyna, et al., 2019). For the ICT systems to be fully integrated across each departments an organisation should permit and look for wider management of the ICT environment. The information and technology planning is perhaps one such discipline with the information systems domain that is concerned and fully stressed at making the planning process for investment more flexible and quick.

d- The successful strategic plan is a continuous framework developing plan that keeps the organisation in a beneficial state. The following are the elements for a successful strategic planning process:

• Defining the vision of the firm.
• Creating the mission statement
• Setting clear cut objectives
• Developing the strategy
• Outlining the approach
• Getting down to tactics

Answer 2

1. As per the given scenario, XYZ is one such company that had been experiencing quality issues. The company however in its past times was considered to be a favourable one which has now however deviated from its current space owing to issues unknown. Thus, it can be added that the company required some sort of enhancement in its procedures for excelling in the long run's competitive space along with keeping its operations in an ever-flourishing state.
   As a matter of known fact, ICT is known for improving business efficiency. In the past times, companies effectively looked upon the IT organisations as one of the finest reactionary costs centers. For instance, the IT support is known for enhancing the digital experiences in the current time period to no end. Thus, for the company in question, the same strategy can be utilized for boosting its internal communications (Piotrowicz, & Kedziora, 2018). With correct ICT technology and strategy in place, much more efficient scheduling of manpower and other jobs can be looked upon by the firm. As mentioned, the company in this particular case was also losing upon its sales and profits via facing downward trend, therefore it can accordingly be analysed that some where or the other the employees of the mentioned firm were lagging behind in their held-on skill sets. Therefore, XYZ with the assistance of core ICT can proceed towards providing ongoing training to their employees for excelling in the long race. With the advent and rise of telecommunications and other video conferencing facilities, the employers can of the firm can thereby take the initiative of bringing all of their employees together under one roof as per their conveniences and at a much lesser cost when weighed against the traditional methods (Bigdeli, & Motadel, 2019). All the same, this methodology would also open the lines of communication between the managers and staffers.
2. In the modern environment information and communication technology basically includes and takes note of every digital technology which assists individuals, businesses and organisations in utilizing information (Hickman, & Akdere, 2019). In the depicted scenario as mentioned the ABC company was quite frustrated with its information system and information technology responses. The system was not responsive towards the business. Thus, it can be analysed that either the business was running at a high-end level of their was some internal failure with the system from the initial stages.

Thus, with the inclusion of ICT in a business it can be analysed that the technology makes the business even more efficient to respond back to the needs and requirements of the customers. In the mentioned organisation the response rate was witnessed to be quite slow and hence it can be analyzed that ICT can assist the business organisation via its activities like research and feedback on the issues being faced (Lokuge, & Sedera, 2019). The technology can be utilized for optimizing and thereby automating certain internal processes for reducing delays and other human errors. Moreover, as the mentioned organisation was struck in the situation was quite some time as of now it can be added that strategic planning from the initial stages was required in the matter. In this regard, ICT can speed up the business process via providing range of IT software and thereby reducing operational costs maxmimzing the revenue of the business to another end.

Answer 3
In the leading edge, environment strategies happen to be the major game changer for a business to proceed further in the direction of success. A business lacking the clear cut direction of strategy may but only find it exceptionally difficult to find its pathway somewhere near the controlling system (Yuan, et al., 2020). Without timely and accurate management of the information in hand, it is next to impossible for assessing the progress of the strategy and its implementation efforts. As far as the case of information technology is considered it is to be mentioned that as the business world continues to progress towards betterment it had been witnessed that the ICT technology is but only a major fuel for levelling up business operations and keeping it with pace to assess the progress of the implementation strategy. However, as the time is limited another crucial thing which has also been brought to notice is the failure of managers in implementing the strategic plans. Few of the reasons for the failure of strategic plan may thereby include the following:

• Incompetent management: Inadequate or incapable abilities of the managers are few of the common causes of strategy implementation failure. Where without the support of the organizational team members implementing a successful strategy but only becomes difficult as without the core support the tactic works towards becoming difficult in the long run (Farrukh, et al., 2020). Organisational members having implementation responsibility must also hold sufficient knowledge and skills to clearly implement strategy. Thus, it can be added that lack of competent management is crucial where the whole organisation and especially the managers are affected to the greatest extend once the strategies are not implemented as they were intended to be.
• A vague and bogus strategic direction: Successful formulation of strategy along with its implementation initiates with a strong and clear-cut vision from the top management. A strategic vision is responsible for throwing light on the future state of the firm in the long run. Without the key vision even the managers, in the long run, move ahead in the wrong direction facing lack of clarity (Park, & Mithas, 2020). Thus, it can be added that clarity between the organizational head is one of the core reasons why a firm lag behind.
• An inadequate strategy: Often it has been witnessed that the information technology system and strategy of a firm is not in line the vision and mission statement of the firm. Therefore, it can be stated that an inadequate strategy is also one of the major barriers coming in the pathway of correct strategy formulation.

All the same, as these pitfalls may seem to come in the direction of strategy formulation, an organisation holding tight towards its goals may also be able to overcome the tight packed scenario with few managerial guidelines to walk in the direction of success. Few of the tactical strategies are to deal with the situation are as follows:

• Having a clear communication atmosphere. Clear cut communication takes note of every individual in an organisation. This communication should begin from the junior employees and must take consideration of every individual till the senior level. Thus, it can be stated that clear communication can work towards successful strategy formulation in the long run.
• Another guideline to deal with the situation would be the formulation of a proper implementation plan. Lack of proper vision and implementation plan is one of the greatest barriers towards successful strategic formulation. Thus, it can be added that proper implementation plan drafting can be one of the crucial saviors for managers to keep the organisation in an excelling position.

PART B
Introduction
In the modern era of the business space, a strategic plan happens to be a written document which pick points the way forward to a business organisation. An ICT plan on the same ground lays down both the company's goals and thereby explains as to why they are important. A strategic planning process also assists in uncovering the ways a particular member's performance can be enhanced (Globocnik, Faullant, & Parastuty, 2020). Every business owner in the long run requires to be capable for making these kinds of distinctions as the landscapes is constantly changing and is also faster than before. The following report aims to discuss about the same taking consideration of the Mubadala Petroleum.

Background: The initial strategic planning process is one of the most time-consuming periods in a business organisation. As the world of business continues to progress towards betterment it has been witnessed that a strategic plan is highly capable of doing what typical and focused operations are unable of doing. A good strategic plan would reconcile the corporate vision for a company to the greatest extend besides building an identifiable overriding factor that provides an organisation something specific to work towards (Yeniaras, & Kaya, 2021). In the long run, this is also regarded as the driving critical success factors that keeps the company and its team strongly focused towards the goals of the company. As strategic planning happens to be exceptionally crucial it can be added that the need for it particularly arises to keep the business in an ever-flourishing position as outlined in the report below.

Organisation vision, mission and objective
The organisation that is being considered for this particular assessment is Mubadala Petroleum. The company in the long run happens to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Investment Company built on the success of the previous investments in he oil and gas sector in general. The organisation in the long run works towards developing, managing and operating projects that are distinguished by the highest technical and other safety standards with a specific focus on the Middle East, Russia, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

In the long run’s competitive space Mubadala Petroleum is focused towards achieving its objective of pursuing production in 10 countries and thereby generating strong financial returns for the company (FADILAH, 2018). It works towards managing assets and operations at every stage of the upstream value chain that has its primary focus on the production and exploration in the eastern hemisphere. In the year 2018 Mubadala Petroleum was marked for producing around 360000 barrels of oil that was equivalent on a per day basis working on the basis of interest across the universal portfolio.

Mission: The company’s mission in the competitive space is to be regarded as Abu Dhabi’s strategic international oil and gas company that is focused towards delivering the sustainable financial performance with an optimised portfolio across the value and energy chain.

Vision: Finding close cues with the company's mission statement the vision of the company, in the long run, is to be enhance player that is focused on managing assets and operations on a global basis finding itself in the top-notch positions. The company was majorly created to advance the values held in Abu Dhabi at the core of the everything. Thus, it can be stated that the company happens to be quite focused at every single operation they tend to do.

Drivers for change
Change management is regarded as one of the most crucial strategies for ensuring that the transformation on the business ground is successful. Companies that are operating in the modern spaces are but only increasingly finding themselves in managing more employees, customers and products (Galli, 2018). Nevertheless, in the modern business environment management of strategies are also exceptionally important for keeping the business in an ever growing and flourishing state all together.

Any kind of drastic upheaval in the organisation can formulate structured change management plan to be difficult. In the long run, employees may even turn out to be reluctant to try different thing for keeping the business going (Rosenbaum, More, & Steane, 2018). However, it is solely the responsibility of the business owner in this regard to make the implementation of the strategy such a smooth onboarding process that it but only brings in excellence in itself for having the ability to change an organisation and thereby become a critical element for its survival and success factors as well.

Throwing light in the case of the Mubadala petroleum company it is to be mentioned that the company operates in one of the major countries of the world. AS UAE already has abundance of petroleum outlets in its vicinity in the long run the company may be but only a victim of strict competition to move its operations further. However, with its enhanced operations team and clear-cut vision and mission statements it has been witnessed that the company in this regard has been capable of moving forward in the direction with a top notch and well-maintained reputation to create and dominate the competitive space with full on ease.

Nevertheless, in the long run, the need for change arrives time and again that but only energies the employees to take the initiative of moving forward in the direction of success. However, the support from the employer in this regard is also a crucial quality which cannot be overlooked. Thus, it can be outlined that the drivers for change are as follows:

• The need for constant and continuous progress for keeping ahead in the race
• Outsourcing strategies and thereby making sure that the change is desirable and necessary
• The need for minimising disruption to the greatest level possible.

The implementation plan of the company in question is however required to be strong enough not only for excelling in the long run but also for getting end to end support from employees at every end. The strategy that is initially developed by the company may get constant and timely revokes from every end in case it is not worthy or beyond the understanding level of the employees. Specially when considering the scenario of the Mubadala Petroleum company it can be added that as UAE happens to be the abundance ground for petroleum and its products it is all the more exceptionally important for the company to keep its employees well-knit. Therefore, keeping the looked upon thing in consideration it can be added that the current time drivers for change for the company happens to be quite crucial.

ICT strategic themes and ICT capabilities (and resources)
In the current time working space there happens to be exceptional focus upon technologies and trends. It has been witnessed that it is often all the more valuable to step back and thereby make sure that one can see forecast of what is going to happen to the business in the upcoming months and time period (Saudi, 2021). The year 2020 has already showed every sector the correct pathway of digital transformation and information technology in this regard where mastery services are but only leading the practices in corporate innovation. Thus, it can be stated that rather than stressing on discrete technologies in the current time period the themes must be designed to assist the organisations focus on the bigger and greater picture for advancing their digital strategies in the direction of overall digital transformation.

Considering the case of the Mubadala Petroleum company in this regard it can be outlined that the themes which would work well for the organisation are as follows:

• Digital frameworks initiating from DIY to the off the shelf platforms and accelerators: In the past years there was quite little known about the digital transformation or even the proven approaches to guide the organisations and their transformation journey for themselves. However, as the world continues to progress towards betterment it has been brought to notice that digital transformation is working wonders for the organisations and thereby taking them towards success in the long run. The mentioned theme would provide the organisation a well knitted eco system approach which would be crucial to determine what an organisation wants to review the full functionality of the offer (Marchão, Reis, & Martins, 2020). Ideally, the mentioned solution and theme happens to be the core platform of undertaking innovative approaches for taking the advantage of the DNA elements. Moreover, it would also work towards guiding the Mubadala petroleum company against the one size fits all sizes approach in the long run. The industry-oriented platform and its extensions would but only provide the firm the opportunity to choose the exact elements and components the firm needs to evolve and develop over the time period. Moreover, the particular theme would also stress upon the company’s mission and vision to let the organisation focus upon its continuous journey rather than being particularly destination focused.

Roadmap and ICT initiatives
ICT strategy is one of the strongest approaches to create a capability for the maximum and sustainable value for a particular organisation in the long run. The ICT strategy is implemented utilising a roadmap that documents the steps, deliverables along with the timeline of the project in a full-fledged manner. In the long run, when viewed practically the roadmap towards successful implementation may not be as easy as it seems but yet once the initiatives are but, in the place, the ICT plan is bound to bring in success for the organisation.

The initiatives which the Mubadala Petroleum company should take in this regard are as follows:

• The major key to alignment of business towards the ICT is designing the ICT as per the business requirements rather than addressing the business requirements as and when it comes.
• Making sure that the maximum revenue earned by the company is spent on value creation rather than activities not bringing in the company the required profits.
• The IT strategy works towards setting a clear-cut direction for the company
• Drafting a clear-cut cost and budget initiative for networking software servers with the required employees of the company.

Thus, keeping the aforementioned initiatives in consideration it can be stated that existing application and infrastructure serves and full-fledged communication once included in the IT document can prove to be handy and will also show out reach of the strategy the business tend to walk upon.

In particular, the information and communication strategy cover all and every sorts of technology management which even takes note of cost management, human capital management, vendor risk management along with the management of hardware and software. Therefore, it would not be wrong enough to state that executing the strategy requires a strong and an exceptional IT leadership as well. As Mubadala Petroleum company has already made its position strong in the UAE market it can be outlined that in the long run, the company requires exceptionally focused implementation plan to keep its ICT strategy in promising position.

ICT Governance
ICT governance in particular can be described as one of the exceptional frameworks for organisational structure, leadership and business processes, compliances, and standards. These ensure that the company’s IT supports and thereby enables the achievement of its objectives and strategies.

All the same, the effective components of ICT governance in this regard of the Mubadala petroleum company would be as follows:

• Value delivery: Here, the company has to assure that the value being delivered by the firm to its target audiences either remains in a flourishing state or even unaffected state once the drafted strategy is implemented.
• Strategic alignment: In this regard, the company requires to assure that the ICT strategy is aligning with the core mission and values of the company.
• Resource management: Here, the company needs to take effective steps for managing its human and financial resources in an effective manner for ensuring the timely delivery of its ICT objectives.

Figure 1: The Planning Process

(Source: self-created)

The ICT strategic plan for the upcoming 5 years is further represented in the picture below:

Elements	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
ICT infrastructure	Gap analysis treatment	Training for the year loT system	Staff engagement plan	Risk Mapping of loT	Monitoring the documentation of loT
Upgrade Internet	2000 Mbps	Discovering mission and vision-built internet strategy	Developing the beta version according to applications	Develop wireless frame and other visual concepts	Complete planning related to internet marketing
MPLS	Developing core LSR	Enhancing the previous version	Working upon non MPLS network	Working upon LER	Enhancing the same previous version
Budget	$200	$350	$420	$510	$625

Table 2: 5-year plan for ICT Development

(Source: self-created)

Conclusion
In the end it can be concluded that ICT planning is exceptionally crucial for an organisation as it is responsible for showing the clear-cut direction to an organisation besides outlining its measurable goals. In the long run it can also be one of the most useful tools for directing the day to day decisions as described in the aforementioned scenario of the Mubadala petroleum group.

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