CMGT 578 Education Specialist |tutorialrank.com

CMGT 578 All Assignments (May 2020)
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CMGT 578 Week 1 Leveraging Technology to Drive Competitive
Advantage (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 2 Aligning IT Strategy to Organizational Vision and
Goals (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 3 Short-range Strategic IS Plan (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 4 IT Budget (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 5 Intermediate Strategic IS Plan (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 6 Signature Assignment: Long-range IT Plan
Focusing on Innovation (2 Papers)
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CMGT 578 Week 1 Leveraging Technology to Drive
Competitive Advantage (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 1 Leveraging Technology to Drive Competitive
Advantage
For this assignment, you’re a senior IT manager. Reynolds Tool & Die
has decided on a set of competitive advantages it would like to pursue.
The company has asked you to provide a 2-page executive memo
outlining how you believe the company can leverage IT to achieve as
many of these advantages as possible.
Carefully read the Course Scenario.
Read and complete the Week 1 Assignment Instructions.
Use the below executive memo template.

Save your executive memo as a Microsoft® Word document. You can
copy and paste the template into a blank Word document and then
include details.
Format any sources you include according to APA guidelines.
Submit your assignment.
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CMGT 578 Week 2 Aligning IT Strategy to
Organizational Vision and Goals (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 2 Aligning IT Strategy to Organizational Vision and
Goals
For this assignment, you will return to the course scenario involving
Reynolds Tool & Die.

Senior leadership has asked for a detailed analysis of the current IT
infrastructure with an emphasis on how well it’s supporting the
company’s stated mission and vision.
You will analyze the Reynolds Mission and Vision statements listed in
the course scenario, and then write a 3- to 4-page analysis assessing the
company’s current IT strategy, including existing hardware, software,
licensing agreements, etc., and aligning strategy components to
organizational vision and goals.
Carefully read the Week 2 Assignment Instructions.
Aligning IT Strategy to Organizational Vision and Goals
To complete this assignment, rereadthe course scenario involving
Reynolds Tool & Die. Analyze the Reynolds Mission and Vision
statements listed in the course scenario, and then write a 3-page analysis
assessing the company’s current IT strategy (including existing
hardware, software, licensing agreements, etc.) and aligning each
strategy component to Reynolds’ organizational vision and goals. The
result will be a detailed analysis of how well the company’s existing IT
infrastructure is supporting the company’s mission and vision.

Your headings for this assignment should include:
Business Vision and Goals
Outline the goals and vision for the business. (You will find them in the
course scenario.)Remember that this is not a strategic plan, so your
assessment won’t need to address every single aspect of the company’s
vision and goals. Instead, you’ll be analyzing IT components in the
context of the company’s vision and goals.
IT Internal Analysis
You may want to review the assessment you produced in Week 1’s
assignment and expand on it here, in the Week 2assignment. Be specific
when analyzing hardware, software, licensing, and external services. For
example, how old are the company’s servers, switches, routers,
desktops, etc.? Is the company current in terms of operating systems,
security patches, etc.? What enterprise business applications are in use,
such as accounting packages, CRM, ERP, etc.? Are they all current? Are
their licenses current? What external services, if any, is the company
using? Is the company using managed services, cloud computing, mobile
technology, etc.?

How the IT Infrastructure and Organization Can Be Optimized to
Achieve Business Goals
Explain how the IT function within Reynoldsis achieving or can achieve,
with changes you suggest, the stated goals of the business as described
in the first heading. For example:
If one of the company’s goalswas to rate high with customers
consistently on customer service, you would explain how the current call
center infrastructure could produce lower wait times, achieve 99.9%
uptime, etc. Perhaps you would also explain how the addition of a
mobile app could enhance the customer experience by enabling timely
feedback, finding nearby retail shops, etc.
If one of the company’s goalswas to grow revenue by 10% annually, you
would explain how the current CRM or ERP software is helping to
achieve that goal by helping to target new customers and achieve faster,
better production.

Look at Amazon’s vision statement as an example: “Our vision is to be
earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people
can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
There’s a lot of IT potential there. Now take the Reynolds Tool & Die
vision statement and explain how the IT infrastructure and organization
can help achieve the company’s vision.
As you develop your analysis, remember that the current IT assessment
may not support the goals and vision. You may have to suggest certain
changes in the IT organization and infrastructure to achieve the
organization’s goals and vision.
Use at least one other reference in addition to the class textbook when
writing this paper.
Review the Course Scenario.

Save your alignment assessment as a Microsoft Word document.
Ensure that you have included in your Word document the headings
listed in the Week 2 Assignment Instructions, and that you have
included the appropriate content under each heading.
Format any sources you include according to APA guidelines.
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CMGT 578 Week 3 Short-range Strategic IS Plan (2
Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 3 Short-range Strategic IS Plan
For this assignment, you will write a 3-page short-range strategic IS plan
for Reynolds Tool & Die that includes a summary of where the company
wants to go (its goals) and where it’s capable of going right now (based
on its current IT infrastructure). Then you will recommend specific
purchases and strategies necessary to make its IT function capable of
supporting the company’s goals. Your plan should address outsourcing
and the facilitation of business expansion into new markets, new
regions, and new countries.

Note that outsourcing can be either local, onshore, or offshore. For
example if you have been using your own trucks and employees to
deliver goods, but you want to expand into other states, you may use
onshore outsourcing to UPS in those other states to deliver your
products. In IT, hiring consultants to help with a project is outsourcing
that function locally or onshore. Having an IT development team in
Mumbai would be an example of offshore outsourcing.
Short-range Strategic IS Plan
For this assignment, you will produce a 3-page short-range strategic IS
plan for Reynolds Tool & Die that includes a summary of where the
company wants to go (its goals) and where it’s capable of going right
now (based on its current IT infrastructure). Then you will recommend
specific purchases and strategies necessary to make its IT function
capable of supporting the company’s goals. Your plan should address
outsourcing and the facilitation of business expansion into new markets,
new regions, and new countries. The most important partof your
strategic plan is outsourcing.
To complete this assignment, review the course scenario. Pay special
attention to Reynolds’ plans for a joint venture with an automotive parts
manufacturer in Mexico and the acquisition of a light aircraft parts

supplier in Canada. The short-range strategic plan you create will assist
Reynolds in realizing what, ultimately, is a rapid expansion of their
business.
Your headings for this plan should include:
What Functions Will be Outsourced
Develop an outsourcing plan. You may decide to outsource all elements
of IT for this expansion. This would include a managed services
contract, which would cover all hardware platform management,
perhaps an entire data center, and an internal and possibly external Help
Desk. Or, you may decide to outsource only certain key elements of the
IT expansion, such as the Help Desk or the data center. Whatever
decisions you make in terms of functions to outsource, support your
decision by describing how your decisions will benefit the business.

Risk Mitigation and Outsourcing
Because of the expansion into any international market,senior
management will require a risk mitigation plan for outsourcing IT.
Under this heading, you should address outsourcing risks such as
security, data ownership, an exit strategy for an outsourcing contract,
etc.
Will you choose an outsourcing company based in an international
market? What are the risks associated with that choice? If you outsource
IT to a domestic (assume U.S.) company for the international expansion,
what are the assurances that you, as a senior IT manager, would need to
be comfortable with this type of scenario? For example, IBM has a
significant managed services portfolio internationally though, obviously,
IBM is a US-headquartered company. Are there risks associated with
this solution?
Benefits of Outsourcing as a Short-Range Strategic Plan

Explain the benefits of outsourcing as a short-range strategic solution for
market expansion. The topics you cover in this section should include
any economic benefit you anticipate.Forexample,explain that a benefit is
an increased ability to deploy solutions in a timely fashion, orit will
provide better security (if applicable), etc. Tie your IT strategic
outsourcing plan to the organization’s expansion strategy. Be specific
when you explain how your plan will support the expansion strategy.
Include at least one reference in addition to the class text for this
assignment.
Use the Instructor-provided memo template, below.
Include at least one reference.
Save your plan as a Microsoft Word document.

Format it according to APA guidelines.
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CMGT 578 Week 4 IT Budget (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 4 IT Budget
Part 1
Create a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet proposing the Reynolds Tool
& Die company’s IT operations’ annual budget including maintenance,
licensing, and any proposed new investments, such as hardware,
software, cloud services, and/or outsourcing.

Ensure that your spreadsheet looks similar to the sample shown in page
2 of the Week 4 Assignment Instructions document, with your own
numbers filled into the cells.
Save your IT budget as a Microsoft Excel document.
Part 2
Part 1: Spreadsheet
The example spreadsheet that begins on page 2 is a rough suggestion of
an annual, itemized budget. You will create your budget in Microsoft
Excel. Your budget headings may vary, but your budget needs to be as
specific as possible. Within each category, you should include purchases
for the IT strategic plan. For example, if, as the CIO, you are
contemplating moving applications to a cloud solution, your budget
needs to reflect that process. If you are implementing or expanding
VMWare as a virtualization solution, your budget needs to reflect those
purchases.

The actual numbers can be approximate. A little research can point you
in the right direction. For example, desktops run about $200-$300. You
can use approximate figures for items such as licenses, maintenance
agreements, servers, etc. Just make sure you have some justification
(i.e., references) for the numbers you use.
Part 2: Executive Summary
Your executive summary needs to explain your budget. Possible
headings include:
Predictable Annual Expenditures
Simply put, fixed operational expenditures keep the lights on. They are
mainly hardware and software maintenance items, licensing, etc. These
are expected costs of doing IT business. If, however, you are purchasing
more hardware or software that will require additional annual
maintenance and license agreements, you’ll need to defend those
purchases and the annual expenditures that will remain for the company.

New Purchases
Any new purchases you recommend need to be justified. Why are you
purchasing them? What benefit do you expect from the purchases?
You’ll need to justify the purchases relative to the previous Week’s
assignments—Reynolds’ business situation and goals.For example, how
will a new investment in hardware, software, or services achieve a
competitive advantage for the company? What do you think the
company needs to purchase to achieve its expansion goals? How much
will outsourcing cost?
Special Projects and Long-term Strategic IT Investments
As CIO, you need to look at technologies in the context of long-range
strategic planning. Think of this section as your wish list. The
investments in this category may not help the organization achieve its
short-range goals, but they’re considered a long-term investment in

innovation to remain competitive. For example, a manufacturing facility
may consider artificial intelligence and robotics as a long-range plan.
Create a 1- to 2-page executive memo defending your budget choices in
terms of innovation and efficiency.
Use the memo template provided below.
Include references in the memo as necessary.
Save it as a Microsoft Word document.
This is a two-part assignment. For this assignment, you are the Chief
Information Officer, or CIO, of Reynolds Tool & Die. To complete this
assignment, you will:

Create a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheetproposing the Reynolds Tool &
Die company’s IT operations’ annual budget, including maintenance,
licensing, and any proposed new investments, such as hardware,
software, cloud services, and/or outsourcing.
Create a 1- to 2-page executive summary defending your budget choices
in terms of innovation and efficiency.
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CMGT 578 Week 5 Intermediate Strategic IS Plan (2
Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 5 Intermediate Strategic IS Plan
For this assignment, you will write a 3-page intermediate strategic IS
plan for Reynolds Tool & Die. Outline an IT strategy to support the
upcoming merger and acquisition planned by the company. Your plan
must address timelines, systems integration, and change management.
Note that systems integration does not necessarily mean building
integrations to move data between systems. You will likely be making
decisions on which systems to keep (the parent company’s or that of the
company that is acquired) and how to consolidate the data, get buy in
from the users, get them trained and using what to them will be new
systems. You may keep some of Reynolds’ software and some of each
of the new companies’ software. It depends on your analysis.

Also note that you will need to review your Week 4 IT budget as this
merger and acquisition may require additional purchases and may make
some other purchases not necessary.
Intermediate Strategic IS Plan
For this assignment, you will construct a 3-page intermediate strategic IS
plan for Reynolds Tool & Die. You will create an outline detailing a
comprehensive IT strategy (not just purchases) to support the upcoming
merger and acquisition planned by the company. Your plan must address
timelines, systems integration, and change management.
In this assignment, you will be leading the IT transition team and once
the merger and acquisition are completed, you will serve as the senior IT
manager for the new organization that has absorbed the aircraft part
manufacturer. You will also be the person working with your
counterpart in the joint venture with the company from Mexico, butyou
will not have any managerial or supervisory role there. Assume the
merger/transition announcement is made in the first quarter. Systems
integration needs to start in the second quarter, and then must finish by

November 30 in order to be prepared forthe year-end accounting
procedures.
Headings for your intermediate strategic information systems plan
should include:
Current Assessment of the Merger/Acquired Organization
You’ll need to assess and analyze the IT operations and infrastructure of
the organization you are about to merge with and/or acquire. This
assessment should include hardware, software, and IT personnel.
IT Intermediate Strategic Plan

Based on your assessment, you are to propose an intermediate strategic
plan for systems and IT organization integrations. Address these
questions:
Which organization’s IT assets will become the primary enterprise IT
solution, and why? Will you integrate the merger/acquisition target into
your systems, or will the merger/acquisition IT platform become the
primary solution? Your assessment should guide you in this decision.
What will you need to perform the successful integration by theend of
the third business quarter? Will you need outside integrators to assist?
Will you need a supplemental budget for new hardware and software, as
this merger probably wasn’t included in the annual budget? How
involved will the merger/acquisition IT organization be involved in the
integration, and will you retain their present IT management structure to
lead them?
End of Plan and Change Management
An intermediate strategic plan is analogous to a project in that it has a
finite life span. Address how you will wrap up the integration;
specifically, what your new IT organization structure will look like, how
you will deliver services to the new company, and what change

management processes you will employ to deliver those services and
address cultural changes and potential conflict within the new
organization. Remember, there will be new users who will need to learn
entirely new processes and tools as the new company moves forward.
Ensure that you include the headings contained in the Week 5
Assignment instructions, and that you include content for each section.
Consider adding tables and/or bullet lists in the plan where appropriate.
Format your plan according to APA guidelines.

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CMGT 578 Week 6 Signature Assignment: Long-range IT
Plan Focusing on Innovation (2 Papers)
CMGT 578 Week 6 Signature Assignment: Long-range IT Plan
Focusing on Innovation
For this assignment, you will write a 3-page proposal detailing how you,
as a senior IT manager, plan to create a culture of innovation in IT
operations and integrate IT innovation into long-range strategic
planning. The audience for this plan is senior leadership. Your proposal
should include recommendations for specific technology innovations,
and include how you expect these innovations to drive business success.
For this assignment, you’re a senior IT manager at Reynolds Tool &
Die. You have been asked to write a 3-page plan detailing how you will
create a culture of innovation in IT operations and integrate IT
innovation into long-range strategic planning. Your proposal should

include recommendations for specific technology innovations, and
explain how you expect these innovations to drive business success over
time.
This assignment requires you to analyze the company’s goals; analyze
how IT innovation can contribute to those goals and how the current
environment might be able to support innovation. After you have
completed your analyses, you will synthesize all of this information into
a long-range IT plan focusing on innovation. Specifically, your plan
needs to address two things:
What IS innovations can you propose that align with the strategic long-
range plans of both IT and the organization?
How can you create a culture of innovation within your IT organization?
Headings should be as follows:
Long-range, Innovative Solutions Planning

Consider this a wish list. What innovative technologies will you propose
to help Reynolds accomplish its long-range goals? For example, does
artificial intelligence have a place in the organization? Big Data? What
about next generation cloud technologies? How will mobility (related to
mobile devices)fitinto your planning?
Creating a Culture of Innovation in the IT Organization
In order to implement creative solutions, you need an innovative team.
Going forward, you’ll want to hire the right people and train them the
right way.You already have staff who have been doing things a specific
way, and you need to create a culture of innovation throughout the
organization. How will you do that? Some areas to address are:
IT Staffing and Training

Does your current staff have the right skill sets? What skill sets will they
need to add in order to be innovative? What are the potential budget
considerations for ongoing training?
R&D
Can you make the case for research and development (R&D) within
Reynolds’ IT organization? R&D isn’t synonymous with product
development; it’s a function tasked with pursuing forward-thinking,
innovative strategies, even strategies that the business doesn’t expect to
pay off in the short termbut hopes will pay off eventually in the long
term.
Format your proposal according to APA guidelines.

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