Portfolio Project IS/IT Case Study

The portfolio project for ISM 6026 is to develop a case study (similar to what we have been doing in class) and critique the case. The portfolio project will consist of two parts: part one is the case study narrative itself; part two is your analysis of the facts of the case.

Approximate length should be about 4000-5000 words (e.g., about 16-20 typed pages) for the case study narrative itself (e.g., Part I of your project). This length is exclusive of the title page, tables of contents, any reference pages, and transcripts of interviews. The case study must be a thorough and rigorous study of the use (or lack thereof) of information systems in an organization.

Your first step in developing the narrative description of your case project is to select your target organization and secure their cooperation. I suggest you offer to provide the organization a copy of your case study analysis and critique as an incentive to allowing you access to the organization: rather like getting a semester consultant for the price of their time. Your target organization should be of sufficient size (i.e., number of employees and dollar volume) that justifies a case study analysis of their information system/technology activities.

Hint: that means your cousin’s one person, home mailing operation is not a satisfactory target organization; nor should you personally be anything other than a passive participant in the case study activities. If you choose an organization with which you are, or were, affiliated, then you may not have been a participant in the decision processes involved in your case study. Further, you must provide sufficient data from your interviews and your references to justify the material in your case study. That means you cannot just make up the details of the case based solely, or even significantly, based on your own recollections.

Second, you must begin to reconstruct the scenario of the organization and its actions. This means searching for information on the organization and the competitive environment in which it operates. For example, if you are writing on the introduction of a new customer relationship management system for a brokerage firm, you would need background material on CRM, SEC constraints, customer demands, and desires, etc.

Third, you must conduct interviews with all the relevant personnel in the organization. I would expect that to include a minimum of three people. You want to make sure that your description of the organization and its environment, problems, opportunities, and actions is accurate and not just the biased impressions of one or two individuals.

An attachment to your case study write up should be the interviewquestions (structured or unstructured) you asked each person in the organization and a transcript of their responses. This transcript may be edited for brevity, but should include all relevant responses.

When you are finished with your fact finding, data digging, and interviewing, you should write a narrative description of the information you collected (e.g., Part I of your portfolio project). Remember, this is 16-20 pages in length, not including title page and table of contents. You might use the following as a very rough general guideline for some of the sections you could include in your case narrative. Pick the writing style manual with which you are most comfortable. Opening Paragraph: emphatically state the situation and any problems. Background/Context for the firm; the case participants; the industry Situational description.

portfolio project /issue narrative – this should be the majority (> 60%) of Part I Conclusion including any questions The narrative should succinctly but completely (avoid unnecessary detail) describe the organizational environment (e.g., the context), the personnel involved, the policies and procedures involved, and the actions performed (this assumes there is some question or controversy involved) and the reasoning for same. The case study narrative portion of your project should be similar in length, content, and detail to the case studies used in class.

For the second part (so indicated clearly and distinctly by headings and in your table of contents) of your portfolio project after you have completed your case study narrative, you should analyze and critique the situation and any decisions involved in the systems project described in part one of your project.

The length should be similar to the length of the other case analyses you have written for this course. Remember, this case study should show the knowledge you gained through this course and others you have taken, plus any relevant experiential knowledge. You should make sure to ground your analysis in the material from the course (e.g., the textbook, readings, lectures, etc.) This project is worth 40% of your grade in this course. Please put the effort into the case that is reflective of that fact and shows what you have learned.

Should it be necessary to return your portfolio project for corrections of any type, there will be a 15% reduction in your portfolio project grade. This applies for each time your project is returned. However, your grade will be recorded as an “I” until such time as you complete your portfolio project. The MBA program has a requirement that the minimum grade allowed for a portfolio project is a 70 for the student to graduate. See the ISM 6026 portfolio project grading rubric for more details as to the expected grading items.

September 27, 2017

Role of Joint Ventures in Profitability Strategies

From this case study, we can understand the Importance of Joint Ventures for two different countries to keep their brand reputation and earn profits rather than competing in line with their business objectives.

Abstract

The logistics operations in India is gearing up in India due to many reasons like FDI, Increase in Manufacturing inline with Make in India Initiatives etc., which has created a tremendous demand for trucks, tippers with wide range of capacities, models etc., In this case study Eicher which is an Indian Company based out of Gurgaon which has a strategic alliance with Swedish based truck manufacturer Volvo in capturing business demand in India with technological and strategically aspects by protecting their individual business objectives and profitability getting ahead of competition.

Introduction:

Objectives of the case study:

To understand the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Industry trend in India.

How Indian companies are trying to come up with the Increasing demand in line with increasing the market share.

How strategically the foreign companies are entering into Indian markets either Individually or in association with Indian companies.

The Association of Eiche and Volvo (VE Commercial vehicles) in meeting the demand of trucks in India and how it leads to mutual benefits.

Need of the Study:

Any business if it has to grow irrespective of Industry or the nation is purely based on the trends in the industry and increase in economy of the particular country/nation. Indian GDP, Per Capita Income is increasing as the Industrialization is growing as a part of Make in India or the Government initiatives like foreign policy, Industrial Policy, Foreign Direct Investment etc., lead to tremendous change and demand in Indian Supply Chain, Warehouse Management, Logistics and allied segments and Industries and Heavy and Normal commercial Vehicles and one of the key components in transportation etc., Based on above mentioned reasons I felt there is need and because of my interest I have selected this case study for assessment on how Volvo has streamlined their business in India after series of concerns, issues and damages etc.,

The scope of the Study:

The Scope of the study is confined to Eicher which is one of the leading truck manufacturers in India and the Volvo which is a Swedish truck manufacturing company and the scopes here is further confined to the trends in the market and their business growth etc., which will not speak about the key strategies and decision-making, key points in alliance and the financials.

Limitations:

The major limitation is the data availability. The major data analysis is purely based on the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of Volvo and Eicher inline of their association to tap Indian Market as per increasing demand. The financials, top line, bottom line, legal terminologies, etc, were not discussed or not evaluated which is a limitation while arriving for the conclusion and writing suggestions and recommendations. The time is one more constraint along with the getting the data from companies associates and even from the market.

Research Methodology:

The case taken in this study is how Volvo has resolved its issues while entering into Indian market which came with a plan of penetrating into the Indian market and the methodology used in this study is:

Primary data & Secondary data was collected from the websites of the Volvo & Eicher Companies. The merging business-related data is been collected from different articles and the theoretical part of data pertaining to business metrics has been collected from academic and other books. The SWOT analysis was the technique used in this case study to arrive at a conclusion and to give suggestions and recommendations.

Data Analysis & Interpretation:

SWOT Analysis & PESTLE Analysis:

Strengths:

Eicher:

Eicher is an Indian Company which has its presence in the automobile business since 1948 which entered into Heavy trucks business in 1986 with vast experience on Market.

Infrastructure facilities: Recently Eicher has built world-class facility at Gurgaon which is built on green concepts where there are maximum resources which are renewable. It’s based on Mantra “Maximum utilization of available resources”

Availability of resources: There is the availability of wide range of resources like Manpower, Infrastructure, Government subsidies etc., which will help them to expand.

Volvo:

Financially Strong: Volvo has Invested Rs.1083 Crore in India on VECV (Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles) which has given a boost to Eicher to get set and go.

Technology: It took 7 years for Eicher to build a truck and the cost Implication is Rs 25 Crore after association with Volvo Eicher has Managed to produce trucks with the very low process. The technology and changing demands and needs of the market helped Eicher and Volvo to capture the market. The vehicles from 6 ton capacity to 40 ton capacity with the latest technology were made to cater the needs of the Industry in India.

Weakness:

Eicher:

Technology: Eicher has got experience in service and retail model business of Automobile and it has no R & D facility and even the latest technology to build high-end commercial vehicles.

Expansion: The commercial truck manufacturing and selling business are viable only if the business is carried out in more than one country whereas Eicher don’t have operations other than India.

Financial: Eicher cannot afford to build high-end trucks and sell them within India and even expanding business across the horizons which is an obstructive aspect of Eicher.

Volvo:

They don’t have an understanding of the needs of the logistics, warehousing, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, power etc. in India which is a demand.

The cost Implications will be more if they have to start from scratch.

The government policies on FDI & may change because it is a political area and the Investment etc., will go on the toss.

Opportunities:

Eicher:

Eicher can improve technologically as they are associated with world No. 2 truck manufacturer Volvo and the strategies and the mode of operandi can also be Improvised.

Eicher can expand its business in other parts of the world as they have expertise in maintaining retail business in Automobile Industry along with service centers.

Volvo:

Volvo can get exposure and expertise in Indian Market.

Volvo can sell its vehicles like trucks and buses in India with low cost in India.

It can have trusted service centers in India as it is in association with Eicher.

Threats:

Eicher:

If Volvo gets market leader position in India it will have a wide range of opportunities and which may affect the market presence of Eicher.

As Volvo is Investing on Eicher in terms of technology, etc. and Eicher is providing only Infrastructure facility may lead to misperceptions.

Volvo:

Eicher can adopt the technology, mode of operandi etc., from Volvo and can Start its own manufacturing and produce high-end commercial vehicles at low cost.

Volvo has already Invested Rs. 1083 Crore in India as a part of Joint Venture / Strategic Alliance and if anything goes wrong there may be so many legal consequences which will lead to stake of Brand Reputation etc.,

PESTLE Analysis:

Political:

The Political stability and if the government is firm on its policy on foreign direct investment etc. will give a positive wave to this alliance.

The legalities and the inconsistency in Politics and the governments at the state level and central level may lead to unnecessary obligations.

Economical:

As the economy, GDP & Per Capita Income grows the earning capacity Increases which lead to business transactions at various levels which is a boost to Industry.

Social:

The people in India are emotional and sentimental and as Volvo is a foreign company it always has to ensure that the emotion of Indians is been taken care of Business at various levels like Promotional activities, designing the product etc.

Technological:

Volvo may be very strong in Technology but the Roads and Infrastructure challenge any technology which means the technology has to be customized as per the requirements and Infrastructure of India and the locations.

Legal:

The constitution of Indian and the legal framework of India is a typical framework which will give results often after postmortem of the issue.

Volvo & Eicher has to focus more on a legal framework which has to be in long-term relationship in line with their respective business needs and objectives.

Environmental:

The Eicher Plant at Gurgaon is strategically located where the climatically it is a cool place and the chance of natural calamities are low. The connectivity to different parts of the country and logistically to the ports and other means of transport is good.

Findings:

Swedish based company Volvo is the second largest manufacturer of trucks in the world after Daimler which is from Germany has tied up with Indian truck manufacturer Eicher to expand their Business in India by Investing Rs. 1083 Crore which is equal to 50% share.

Volvo has contributed and brought their advances technology in Manufacturing, Warehousing, Retail and after-sales service in Eicher in India.

Volvo is clear in Expanding its business India and on the other hand, Eicher is keen on and working towards expanding its business through exports to other nations keeping India as a base.

VECV Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles has Invested Rs. 1300 Crore on New facility which is been set up in Pithanpur, Madhya Pradesh which has got the capacity of making 100000 Engines/ Year out of which the target is to export 30% of the engines to Europe. The VEVC has also Invested Rs. 1200 Crore on Body Shop plant to make closed body trucks.

The growth rate of VEVC is consistent by recording 27 % growth every year. The VEVC has crossed the turnover of Rs. 5443 Crore with a cash surplus of Rs. 700 Crore recording net profit of Rs. 366 Crore.

The exports of 4% were recorded for neighboring countries like Srilanka, Nepal, Bangladesh & Bhutan whereas 12% exports were to Southeast Asia, West Asia & Africa.

Conclusion & Recommendations:

Joint venture will always have tricky issues as there will be an alliance of two businesses with two philosophies. VEVC has to concentrate more on Management principles: Convergence, Complementaries, Compatability, and the Commitment. Now VEVC stood as 5th Largest commercial Vehicle manufacturer at the Global level and they have to strive hard to keep this alliance alive and expand strategically t other locations as they have reached only 50% of the targeted exports.

September 13, 2017

Regenersis needs to increase the number of technical employees to increase the customer satisfaction and sales

Title: Regenersis needs to increase the number of technical employees to increase the customer satisfaction and sales

1: Executive Summary: Employing more and more technical experts within organizations who have the ability to appreciate and recognize the requirements and the need for increasing the attention of the customers and thus the provision of better services, has been the only measure for the companies to improve the overall sales and the productivity of the business. The better workforce can enhance the overall feasibility of the business. Thus this segment of the report shall produce an overview of what actually the report implies to the readers and what might be the implications of this report.

2: Introduction to the plan: Application of the Regenersis process within the telecom industry shall be described in the report. Importance of the Regenersis process to improve the overall performance of the business shall be produced in this project plan. To endow with this process of Regenersis and installation of antivirus needful for improving the overall performance of the business, this project plan shall disclose the materiality of installing new technological applications and system software etc.

3: Identification of the problems and issues: This segment of the project plan shall contain a brief synopsis of the major problems on this ground. Lack of training provided to the employees is often indicated as the problem encountered in the field of IT. As a result, that directly affects the customer base. Recruitment of experts in this field could have been a new tool to resolve these problems. This segment, however, shall reproduce a clear identification of the problems and issues.

4: Effective implementation plan: Each and every project shall possess a plan that decides on how to terminate the entire project on time. This implementation plan shall define effective policies to eradicate the problems faced by email threats and potential threats. The implementation plan shall reciprocate with the following elements:

Who – Who shall be responsible for implementing the plan?
What – What areas are to be covered in the implementation plan?
Where – Where will be the plan executed?
When – When shall the plan execute or time frame of the implementation plan
Why – Reasons for adopting this plan
How – How will be plan be implemented?

5: Application of the case study briefs: Representation of some real world examples relating to the Regenersis process shall be overviewed. Some real world cases in the telecom and IT sector shall be produced.

6: Conclusion & Recommendations: This section of the project plan shall mention several strategies that could have been implemented to prove the effectiveness of this plan within global telecom businesses.

September 13, 2017

Management of email threats and validation of potential threats

Title: Management of email threats and validation of potential threats

1: Executive Summary: In this segment, the author would just try to reflect the rationale for selecting this topic and what has made the researcher focus on this given topic. The executive summary would also confer to the elaboration of the topic in details as well as would contain a detailed elaboration of the steps that would have been already taken to execute the entire report.

2: Introduction to the report: This particular segment would produce a synopsis of how the organization is facing email threats and how the entire organization is meeting up with potential threats from the email threats and what are the issues that are originating within the business due to lack of expertise in managing the cyber crime efforts diligently.

3: Recognition of the issues met in the business: This section of the report shall produce a synopsis of the problems that are being identified within the organization. The problems identified with the email threats must also acknowledge how that is increasing the threat levels for the company as well as the technical managers and the experts to deal with the end users or the consumers. The report shall also refer to the reasons behind what has actually made effective to give rise such issues within the management? This section shall also refer to how the management is meeting issues to communicate effectively with the consumers.

4: Implementation Plan

Each and every project shall possess a plan that decides on how to terminate the entire project on time. This implementation plan shall define effective policies to eradicate the problems faced by email threats and potential threats. The implementation plan shall reciprocate with the following elements:

a) Who – Who shall be responsible for implementing the plan?

What – What areas are to be covered in the implementation plan?
Where – Where will be the plan executed?
When – When shall the plan execute or time frame of the implementation plan
Why – Reasons for adopting this plan
How – How will be plan be implemented?

5: Effective measures were taken by the management to eradicate the problems: This segment shall give a brief idea about what measures can be management take to witness eradication of the email threats that has hampered the entire operational systems at the management.

6: Conclusion: Conclusion shall comprise of the brief justification of the topic referring to the cases where the management shall end up with the implementation of the plans so as to ease off the challenges.

7: Recommendation: Recommended policies and strategies that could be adopted by the organization to sustain the industry with effectiveness.

September 8, 2017

Running Head: Genpact should find leadership skills while recruiting

Genpact should be able to find leadership skills in managers

Need of Leaders for way forward

A well-defined, well-coordinated and dedicated leadership team is essential for the smooth functioning of operations for any organization. The success of an organization depends on the attitude of which the employees are led i.e by efficient leaders who possess the skill set to stay poised at the time of emergency and act instantly. It will directly motivate the employees to work better and function better. Thus, enabling everyone to deliver results on time and in return keep the work progressing letting the organization to grow to create more opportunities. A company will grow if the employee grows which is linked to their performance and attitude they display along with the urge to learn and develop themselves for higher positions.

A problem regarding the lack of leadership:

For any organization or company the success of the company majorly is in the hands of the manager who leads the whole team. Lack of leadership qualities leads the project to be a failure and loose fame and confidence in performance of the individuals of the team. The manager is not fair in judging the capabilities of the individual performance due to factors like lack of communication, micromanagement, unclear expectations, intimidation and also the poor people skills. Not taking proper feedback from the team members leads to improper decisions which results in the failure when there are projects to deliver and being too friendly may affect the result of the project. There is no motivation from the manager fail to give credit to the employee. When a project was assigned the team members skills should always simplify the project for that recruitment process was hurried which resulted in failure of the project.

Company Profile:

Genpact is the information technology service company which began in 1997 and was one of the business unit in general electric. The company efficiently provided services business process services. The company managed services like financial and manufacturing business. The company became independent and started to serve clients outside general electric and worked very efficiently and helped in the growth of the company. The number of employees working in the company has been increased drastically. The company became publicly traded company and Genpact G satnad for generating business impact. It works on both industry solutions and enterprise solutions where in industry solutions deals with automotive, capital markets, energy, insurance, media and entertainment, telecommunications, hospitality and the enterprise solutions deals with aftermarket services, reengineering services, media, digital, analysis and research, human resource services, risk management services and many more. The company is mainly working on lean digital and its impacts in present business in all aspects.

Action defined

To tackle the problem. It should first be thoroughly assessed on whether the problem is lying in the manger because of the many team members or the manager themselves are incompetent. If there are many team members then potential managerial team members should be made managers and the work should be equally divided so that the manager will be able to give enough time to all the members. The managers should be given required trainings to improve their skills of handling a team /projects and people.

Upside/Downside

By having a good manager, it might be an investment to the company’s requirements and benefits in many ways. A good manager helps in guiding the knowledgeable workforce in a correct path. A well-trained and good manager should have an ability to motivate team members to be able to bring better outcomes. A realistic goal can be set by a well-trained manager, which helps in increasing the effectiveness and productivity of the company. This also enables a good relationship with the clients, which helps in bringing more projects to the company. A good manager can balance the work load by managing the time and making proper use of the available resources. A good manager will act immediately, by taking correct decisions and will be able to handle any type problem. A good manager learns from his failures, rather than being disappointed. The only Downside is to recruit a good manager by paying him with a good salary and also it might take longer time to recruit one.

Results defined

Promoting potential people will inspire people to stay with the company and to grow within. It will motivate employees to work better. Every team member may get more time from the manager thus improving the overall performance and also this will help the team members in learning the other managing skills from the manager for their better future. A good manager can be seen as a role model by the team members. A good manager is one who praises in public and criticizes in private.” Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.” A good manager can handle a stressful situation by taking all the responsibilities in successful completion of project.

Recommendations

Genpact should scrutinize eligible managerial candidates from the employee population and necessary training should be given to them to make them feel confident about themselves and about the challenges they would be facing in the future. Training the subordinates will improve employees faith in the organization and would want to stay with the organization and grow within thus positively impacting the performance. “Learning is something that never ends, does not have a finish point and is something never regrettable “.

Case Study

Amazon Inc founded in 1994, faced a similar issue where in lack of proper leadership team led to them losing a lot of their projects /business. They then analyzed the defaults and trained the eligible employees to take over major responsibilities which brought a rejuvenated spirit in the employees to function better. Alongside, they hired young individuals with similar thought process to mentor the existing employees and together they worked towards improving the overall quality to become one the most leading e- commerce websites today.

Implementation Plan

Genpacts implementation should begin to analyze the job roles to be filled, and make a list of the number of employees required to work for each job role. The company need to make an analysis of the alignment of the number of managers for the number of employees and which role needs to be downsized so that the desired results could be achieved. If there is a short fall of leaders, the eligible employees should be given needed training, interviewed and promoted to new roles.

Genpact should also post the job ads on the web and encourage the current employees to refer some good candidates who would be a best fit to the required roles.

Conclusion:

It is rightly said that the organization which treats their employees well are popular in the market and mostly amongst its customers as they would have a lot of “work of mouth “ advertising will be directly beneficial to the organization. When hiring an employee the organization should assess them and check if they possess the leadership qualities the company runs upon. Time and again providing extra training to trusted employees on their skill set will further increase their trust in the company and would make their long term plans to stay and grow within the organization thus inspiring themselves and others.