Running Head: IT AND DECISION MAKING 1 7 IT AND DECISION MAKING Comment by Lawrence Gross: See instructions no running head required Stage 1: Analysis and System Recommendation on MTC Joshua D. Musick IFSM 300 Professor: Lawrence Gross March 31, 2019 University of Maryland University College Introduction The reports shows the progress which the MTC company has managed to achieve in the last year years of its operation. The company has relatively succeeded in the IT consulting field and this can be measured by the number of clients it has managed to serve. The company management believes that success in information technology can only be realized through the identification of best talents within the consulting field and having a preference for best operation practices (Adler, 2007). Undoubtedly, the company exist in a competitive field and the IT world is equally demanding and harsh to any laxity in operation structure. The MTC structure of hiring process is responsive to technology compared to the manual hiring process. This report puts together the evaluation, analysis, and recommendation on how MTC can use technology to bring the existing gaps. Use of Information technology Comment by Lawrence Gross: Your paper does not adhere to the prescribed outline. The organization strategy The MTC Company has plans to provide good consultation services for its clients. To achieve its objective the company, needs to get the best workforce on its projects in order to give the client companies evidence-based recommendations (Orges Ormanidhi, 2008). The company services are highly affected by the ever dynamic technology and, therefore, the company management appreciate the need to improve and use trending technologies to develop methods and practices in its operation and business (Wei zheng, 2010). The hiring structure considers the emerging trends despite the fact that the company is still using manual hiring structure. The MTC needs to advance and improve the its hiring process by ensuring it is technology-driven. An IT based hiring system positively affect the company structure and ensure consulting company have best practices in the market. Competitive advantage MTC operate in business field which is highly competitive. The company faces competition from Hewlett Packard and Booz Allen Hamilton who have already robust IT domain. Developing a better hiring process will push MTC to higher competitive levels and increase its attractiveness in the industry. Information from the hiring system will make the company make informed decisions in placements of new workers (Michael E Porter, 1985). The hiring system will make MTC identify and attract talented workers hence foot off the competitors. Continuous update of the business concept will help the company reduce threat of substitution (Wei zheng, 2010). It also boost the position of the company in market. Strategic objectives.

1. Running Head: IT AND DECISION MAKING
1
7
IT AND DECISION MAKING
Comment by Lawrence Gross: See instructions no running
head required
Stage 1: Analysis and System Recommendation on MTC
Joshua D. Musick
IFSM 300
Professor: Lawrence Gross
March 31, 2019
University of Maryland University College
Introduction
The reports shows the progress which the MTC company has
managed to achieve in the last year years of its operation. The

2. company has relatively succeeded in the IT consulting field and
this can be measured by the number of clients it has managed to
serve. The company management believes that success in
information technology can only be realized through the
identification of best talents within the consulting field and
having a preference for best operation practices (Adler, 2007).
Undoubtedly, the company exist in a competitive field and the
IT world is equally demanding and harsh to any laxity in
operation structure. The MTC structure of hiring process is
responsive to technology compared to the manual hiring
process. This report puts together the evaluation, analysis, and
recommendation on how MTC can use technology to bring the
existing gaps.
Use of Information technology Comment by Lawrence Gross:
Your paper does not adhere to the prescribed outline.
The organization strategy
The MTC Company has plans to provide good consultation
services for its clients. To achieve its objective the company,
needs to get the best workforce on its projects in order to give
the client companies evidence-based recommendations (Orges
Ormanidhi, 2008). The company services are highly affected by
the ever dynamic technology and, therefore, the company
management appreciate the need to improve and use trending
technologies to develop methods and practices in its operation
and business (Wei zheng, 2010). The hiring structure considers
the emerging trends despite the fact that the company is still
using manual hiring structure. The MTC needs to advance and
improve the its hiring process by ensuring it is technology-
driven. An IT based hiring system positively affect the company
structure and ensure consulting company have best practices in
the market.
Competitive advantage
MTC operate in business field which is highly competitive.
The company faces competition from Hewlett Packard and Booz
Allen Hamilton who have already robust IT domain. Developing
a better hiring process will push MTC to higher competitive

3. levels and increase its attractiveness in the industry.
Information from the hiring system will make the company
make informed decisions in placements of new workers
(Michael E Porter, 1985). The hiring system will make MTC
identify and attract talented workers hence foot off the
competitors. Continuous update of the business concept will
help the company reduce threat of substitution (Wei zheng,
2010). It also boost the position of the company in market.
Strategic objectives
The table below review the company goals and the objectives
needed to reach the goals and ways of achieving the new hiring
structure.
Company Goal
Objective
Explanation
Increase the company business development through new
contracts in the IT consulting
The management needs to improve the existing contract
proposal to get 4 big projects within the next two years.
An improved hiring structure will make the MTC company
establish a competent consultant team which can deal with new
contracts secured by the company (Michael E Porter, 1985).
When a company has competent team, it can deliver to client
preference.
Build a consultant team which can work internationally to give
remote analysis and research support to the company onsite
teams in America.
Improve and intensify international recruiting efforts and recruit
10 research analysts within one year
The developed and improved hiring structure should allow
suitable job applicants to apply for the MTC jobs from
anywhere round the globe and this increase the number of
international applicants.

4. International recruitment process enable recruiter to check
application for the position proposed keenly, identify the
needed research and analysis abilities needed (Michael E Porter,
1985).
Online recruitment structure have screening ability for resumes
for the preferred skills. The recruiter (MTC) can quickly view
many applicants and determine when to put addition recruitment
efforts to meet the set objectives.
Continually increase MTC ability to provide high quality
consultative services to meet the clients’ needs.
Give high quality consulting services to the company clients
within the stipulated contract period. Comment by Lawrence
Gross: Not time bound or measurable.
An improving hiring structure will give the company the need
human resource for flexibility and agility to move the work to
fields where they can deliver to the maximum (Raymond E
Miles, 1994).
Improved workforce or a working time with the right skills can
deliver the required service faster and efficiently compared to a
team which is incompetent or a team which lack the basic skills.
Increase the company competitive advantage in the IT
marketplace through increase reputation for retaining and hiring
IT consultants who are exception in innovation and creative
solution to the clients.
Work with other consultant in different nations who can do
remote research and carry out the data analysis to support the
onsite team in America.
Companies which use the tradition hiring process rely on luck
and intuition instead of data and they end up getting not so
competent workforce. Moreover, the use of traditional
recruiting process is time-consuming in amassing documents
and analyzing them.
For competitive advantage recruiters can assume use of software
and analytics tools (Michael E Porter, 1985).
Increase the company competitive advantage in the IT
marketplace through increase reputation for retaining and hiring

5. IT consultants who are exception in innovation and creative
solution to the clients.
Decision making Comment by Lawrence Gross: Does not
adhere to the prescribed outline.
Information is important in the decision-making process in
any company. The use of IT allows relevant data to flow from
the top management to operational manager for decision
formation in the management structure.
Role
Management level
Decision concerning hiring system
The use of IT in decision making Comment by Lawrence
Gross: The titles should adhere to the outline table in the
instructions.
Executive managers
Key decision are made by the company CEO supported by the
IT hiring system.
Top
The Chief Executive officer consult and lobby for IT consulting
contracts. Comment by Lawrence Gross: This should
identify the decisisons the executive will be positioned to make
armed with the information derived from the proposed solution.
The IT hiring system provides the needed information of the
workers skills and majority of the application are sent online.
Middle Managers
Middle
The MTC human resource manager makes decision on the right
candidate who passed the interview.
Even when the HR manager is not in the interview, he or she

6. can make informed decision because the hiring system give data
and information on the job description and the qualification of
the candidate plus the scores in an interview.
Moreover, the online or IT based hiring system is effective in
interdepartmental organization in sharing data.
Operational Managers
Operational
He or she can track the candidate progress through the hiring
process right from their departments using the IT hiring
structure.
The working of the operation manager is possible because
hiring process and volume is improved. Document scanning
enable the manager to control the hiring process effectively.
Conclusion Comment by Lawrence Gross: Premature for
conclusion
The use of IT based hiring process can increase the MTC
quality of hiring. The data-driven recruiting process help the
company in allocating hiring budget. For instance, for the
company to spend it resources wisely it need to track the source
of hire, determine the recruiting channels to bring qualified
candidates. Moreover, IT based hiring system increase
efficiency and productivity. For example, the HR manager can
track the number of emails send and exchanged to see at which
stage can be stage of hiring process need improvement. The
increase in efficiency increase competitive advantage. Finally,
IT is important in hiring decisions. For example, companies can
select best candidate based on structured interview and
assessment scores.
References
Adler, L. (2007). Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-

7. Based Hiring to Build Great Teams . New York : Wiley
Publishers .
Michael E Porter, V. E. (1985). How information gives you
competitive advantage . Harvard Business Review , 1-24.
Orges Ormanidhi, O. S. (2008). Porter's model of generic
competitive strategies. Business Economics, 43(3), 55-64.
Raymond E Miles, C. C. (1994). Organizational strategy,
structure and process. New York : McGraw-Hill .
Wei zheng, B. Y. (2010). Linking organizational culture,
structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating
role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research,
63(7), 763-771.
Running Head: IT AND DECISION MAKING
1
7
IT AND DECISION MAKING
Introduction
The reports shows the progress which the MTC company has
managed to achieve in the last year years of its operation. The
company has relatively succeeded in the IT consulting field and
this can be measured by the number of clients it has managed to
serve. The company management believes that success in
information technology can only be realized through the
identification of best talents within the consulting field and
having a preference for best operation practices (Adler, 2007).
Undoubtedly, the company exist in a competitive field and the
IT world is equally demanding and harsh to any laxity in
operation structure. The MTC structure of hiring process is
responsive to technology compared to the manual hiring
process. This report puts together the evaluation, analysis, and

8. recommendation on how MTC can use technology to bring the
existing gaps.
Use of Information technology
The organization strategy
The MTC Company has plans to provide good consultation
services for its clients. To achieve its objective the company,
needs to get the best workforce on its projects in order to give
the client companies evidence-based recommendations (Orges
Ormanidhi, 2008). The company services are highly affected by
the ever dynamic technology and, therefore, the company
management appreciate the need to improve and use trending
technologies to develop methods and practices in its operation
and business (Wei zheng, 2010). The hiring structure considers
the emerging trends despite the fact that the company is still
using manual hiring structure. The MTC needs to advance and
improve the its hiring process by ensuring it is technology-
driven. An IT based hiring system positively affect the company
structure and ensure consulting company have best practices in
the market.
Competitive advantage
MTC operate in business field which is highly competitive.
The company faces competition from Hewlett Packard and Booz
Allen Hamilton who have already robust IT domain. Developing
a better hiring process will push MTC to higher competitive
levels and increase its attractiveness in the industry.
Information from the hiring system will make the company
make informed decisions in placements of new workers
(Michael E Porter, 1985). The hiring system will make MTC
identify and attract talented workers hence foot off the
competitors. Continuous update of the business concept will
help the company reduce threat of substitution (Wei zheng,
2010). It also boost the position of the company in market.
Strategic objectives
The table below review the company goals and the objectives
needed to reach the goals and ways of achieving the new hiring
structure.

9. Company Goal
Objective
Explanation
Increase the company business development through new
contracts in the IT consulting
The management needs to improve the existing contract
proposal to get 4 big projects within the next two years.
An improved hiring structure will make the MTC company
establish a competent consultant team which can deal with new
contracts secured by the company (Michael E Porter, 1985).
When a company has competent team, it can deliver to client
preference.
Build a consultant team which can work internationally to give
remote analysis and research support to the company onsite
teams in America.
Improve and intensify international recruiting efforts and recruit
10 research analysts within one year
The developed and improved hiring structure should allow
suitable job applicants to apply for the MTC jobs from
anywhere round the globe and this increase the number of
international applicants.
International recruitment process enable recruiter to check
application for the position proposed keenly, identify the
needed research and analysis abilities needed (Michael E Porter,
1985).
Online recruitment structure have screening ability for resumes
for the preferred skills. The recruiter (MTC) can quickly view
many applicants and determine when to put addition recruitment
efforts to meet the set objectives.
Continually increase MTC ability to provide high quality
consultative services to meet the clients’ needs.
Give high quality consulting services to the company clients
within the stipulated contract period.

10. An improving hiring structure will give the company the need
human resource for flexibility and agility to move the work to
fields where they can deliver to the maximum (Raymond E
Miles, 1994).
Improved workforce or a working time with the right skills can
deliver the required service faster and efficiently compared to a
team which is incompetent or a team which lack the basic skills.
Increase the company competitive advantage in the IT
marketplace through increase reputation for retaining and hiring
IT consultants who are exception in innovation and creative
solution to the clients.
Work with other consultant in different nations who can do
remote research and carry out the data analysis to support the
onsite team in America.
Companies which use the tradition hiring process rely on luck
and intuition instead of data and they end up getting not so
competent workforce. Moreover, the use of traditional
recruiting process is time-consuming in amassing documents
and analyzing them.
For competitive advantage recruiters can assume use of software
and analytics tools (Michael E Porter, 1985).
Increase the company competitive advantage in the IT
marketplace through increase reputation for retaining and hiring
IT consultants who are exception in innovation and creative
solution to the clients.
Decision making
Information is important in the decision-making process in
any company. The use of IT allows relevant data to flow from
the top management to operational manager for decision
formation in the management structure.
Role
Management level
Decision concerning hiring system
The use of IT in decision making
Executive managers

11. Key decision are made by the company CEO supported by the
IT hiring system.
Top
The Chief Executive officer consult and lobby for IT consulting
contracts.
The IT hiring system provides the needed information of the
workers skills and majority of the application are sent online.
Middle Managers
Middle
The MTC human resource manager makes decision on the right
candidate who passed the interview.
Even when the HR manager is not in the interview, he or she
can make informed decision because the hiring system give data
and information on the job description and the qualification of
the candidate plus the scores in an interview.
Moreover, the online or IT based hiring system is effective in
interdepartmental organization in sharing data.
Operational Managers
Operational
He or she can track the candidate progress through the hiring
process right from their departments using the IT hiring
structure.
The working of the operation manager is possible because
hiring process and volume is improved. Document scanning
enable the manager to control the hiring process effectively.
Conclusion

12. The use of IT based hiring process can increase the MTC
quality of hiring. The data-driven recruiting process help the
company in allocating hiring budget. For instance, for the
company to spend it resources wisely it need to track the source
of hire, determine the recruiting channels to bring qualified
candidates. Moreover, IT based hiring system increase
efficiency and productivity. For example, the HR manager can
track the number of emails send and exchanged to see at which
stage can be stage of hiring process need improvement. The
increase in efficiency increase competitive advantage. Finally,
IT is important in hiring decisions. For example, companies can
select best candidate based on structured interview and
assessment scores.
References
Adler, L. (2007). Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-
Based Hiring to Build Great Teams . New York : Wiley
Publishers .
Michael E Porter, V. E. (1985). How information gives you
competitive advantage . Harvard Business Review , 1-24.
Orges Ormanidhi, O. S. (2008). Porter's model of generic
competitive strategies. Business Economics, 43(3), 55-64.
Raymond E Miles, C. C. (1994). Organizational strategy,
structure and process. New York : McGraw-Hill .
Wei zheng, B. Y. (2010). Linking organizational culture,
structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating
role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research,
63(7), 763-771.
Maryland Technology MTC
Case Study
12/
5

13. /2018
1
Maryland Technology
Consultants, Inc.Maryland TechnologyConsultants (MTC) is a
successful Information Technology consulting services firm that
utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve
measurable results for its customers. Its customer base includes
small to mid-tier businesses, non-profit organizations and
governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels.
MTC feels strongly that its success is dependent on the
combination of the talent of
itsIT consultants, the best practices MTC employs, and a
dedication to delivering truly beneficial IT solutions to their
clients.
Corporate Profile
Corporate Name: Maryland TechnologyConsultants,Inc.
Founded: May2008
Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland
Satellite Locations: Herndon, Virginia; Bethesda,
Maryland Number of Employees: 450
Total Annual Gross Revenue: $95,000,000
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO):Samuel Johnson
Business Areas
MTC provides consulting services in the following areas:•
· Business Process Consulting -Business process redesign,
process improvement
• IT Consulting -IT strategy, analysis, planning,
systemdevelopment, implementation, and network support
• IT Outsourcing Consulting –Requirements analysis; vendor
evaluation, due diligence, selection and performance
management; Service Level Agreements
Business Strategy
MTC's business strategy is to provide extraordinary consulting

14. services and recommendations
to its customers by employing highly skilled consultants and
staying abreast of new business
concepts and technology and/or
developing new business concepts and best practices of its
own.
Excerpt from the MTC Strategic Business Plan
While the complete strategic plan touches on many areas, below
is an excerpt from MTC’s latest Strategic Business Plan that
identifies a few of MTC's Goals.
Goal 1: Increase MTC Business Development by winning new
contracts in the areas of IT consulting.
Goal 2:
Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote
research and analysis support to MTC’s onsite teams in the U.
S.
Goal 3:
Continue to increase MTC’s ability to quickly provide high
quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the
clients’ needs.
Goal 4: Increase MTC’s competitive advantage in the IT
consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having
IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge
technologies and innovative solutions for its clients.
Current Business Environment
MTC provides consultants on-site to work with its clients,
delivering a wide variety of IT-related services. MTC obtains
most of its business through competitively bidding on Requests
for
Proposals issued by business, government and non-profit
organizations. A small but growing portion of its business is
through referrals and follow- on contracts from satisfied clients.

15. MTC
anticipates it will win two large contracts in the near future and
is preparing proposals for several other large projects.
MTC, as a consulting company, relies on the quality and
expertise of its employees to provide the services needed by the
clients.
When it is awarded a contract, the customer expects MTC
to quickly provide the consultants and begin work on the
project.
MTC, like other consulting companies, cannot afford to carry a
large number of employees that are not assigned to contracts.
Therefore, they need to determine the likelihood of winning a
new contract and ensure the appropriately skilled consultantsare
ready to go to work when needed. MTC relies on its Human
Resources(HR)
Department to find and hire the personnel that the line managers
need for upcoming contracts. It is very much a "just in time"
hiring situation.
The Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, houses
approximately 350 employees. Satellite offices have been
opened in the last two y
ears in both Herndon, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland to
provide close proximity to existing clients. It is anticipated that
new pending
contracts would add staff to all locations. The management team
believes there is capacity at all locations, as much of the
consultants' work is done on-site at the customers' locations.
Strategic Direction
As a small to mid-size business (SMB), MTCrecognizes that it
needs to carefully plan its future strategy. Considering the
competitive environment that contains many very large IT
consulting firms, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Booz Allen
Hamilton (BAH), and

16. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
, as well as numerous smaller companies with various skill sets,
market niches, and established customer bases, MTC
will be evaluating how best to position itself for the future and
recognizes that its ability to identify its core competencies,
move with
agility and flexibility, and deliver consistent high quality
service to its clients is critical for continued success. One area
that is critical to a consulting company is the ability to have
employees who possess
the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill current and future
contracts. Given the intense competition in the IT consulting
sector,
MTC is planning to incorporate a few consultants in other
countries to provide remote research and analysis support to the
on-site U. S.
teams. Since MTC has no experience in the global marketplace,
the Director of HR has begun examining international labor
laws to determine where MTC should recruit and hire
employees.
Challenges
The two contracts that MTC expects to win very soon will
require the hiring of an additional 75 consultants very quickly.
The Director of HR is concerned that the current manual process
of recruiting and hiring employees will not allow his department
to be responsive to these needs as well as the demands of future
growth and increased hiring requirements. He is looking for a
near-term solution that will automate many of the manual hiring
process steps and reduce the
time it takes to hire new staff. He is also looking for a solution
that will allow MTC to hire employees located in other
countries around
the world.
Management Direction

17. The management team has been discussing how toramp up to fill
the requirements of the two new contracts and prepare the
company to continue growing as additional contracts are
awarded in the future.
The company has been steadily growing and thus far hiring of
new
employees has been handled through a process that is largely
manual. The HR Director reported that his staff will be unable
to accommodate the hiring of the 75 new employees in the
timeframe requiredas well as continue to handle the expanded
hiring projections. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) then
recommended that the company look for a commercial off-the-
shelf software product that can dramatically improve the hiring
process and shorten the time it takes to hire new employees.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) wants to ensure that all
investments are in line with the corporate mission and will
achieve the desired return on investment. She will be looking
for clear information that proposals have been well researched,
provide a needed capability for the organization, and can be
cost
- effectively implemented in a relatively short period of time to
reap the benefits. The CEO has asked the CIO to work with HR
to recommend a solution.
Your Task
As a business analyst in the CIO's department, you have been
assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system
requirements, evaluate a proposed solution, and develop an
implementation plan for an IT solution (applicant tracking
system
or recruiting system) to improve the hiring process.
The CIO has set up a series of interviews for you to collect
information about the current hiring process and the
requirements for a system. He has asked you to produce a
Business Analysis and System Recommendation Report

18. (BA&SR) as your final deliverable.
Interviews
In the interviews you conduct with the organizational leaders,
you hear the comments recorded below.
CEO: Samuel Johnson
“While I trust my HR staff to address the nuts and bolts of the
staffing processes, what is critically important to me is that the
right people can be in place to fulfill our current contracts and
additional talented staff can be quickly hired to address needs
of future contracts we win. I can’t be out in the market
soliciting new business if we can’t deliver on what we’re
selling. Our reputation is largely dependent on having
knowledgeable and capable staff to deliver the services our
clients are paying for and expect from MTC.”
CFO:
Evelyn Liu “So glad we’re talking about this initiative. As
CFO, obviously I’m focused on the bottom line. I also recognize
it’s necessary to invest in certain areas to ensure our viability
moving forward. I recognize that the current manual hiring
process is inefficient and not cost-effective. Having technology
solutions that improve current processes and enable future
functionality is very
important to MTC’s success .We must consider the total cost of
ownership of any technology we adopt.
MTC is run as a lean-and-mean organization and support
processes must be effective but not overbuilt. We do want to
think towards the future as well and don’t want to invest in
technology with a short shelf-
life. Along those lines, we currently have a timekeeping and
payroll system; and to help support our bottom line financially,
any new solution should effectively integratewith, but not
replace, thatsystem.

19. CIO:
Raj Patel “As a member of the IT Department, you have a good
understanding of our overall architecture and strategy; however,
let me emphasize a few things I want to be sure we keep in mind
for this
project. Any solution needs to be compatible with our existing
architecture and systems as appropriate. Obviously,we have
chosen not to maintain a large software development staff so
building a solution from the ground up does not fit our IT
strategic plan. Our current strategy has been to adopt Software
as a
Service (SaaS) solutions that can be deployed relatively quickly
and leverage industry best practices. In addition, our distributed
workforce means we are very dependent on mobile computing –
this brings some challenges in term of portability, maintenance,
and solutions that present well on mobile devices.
We’ve been expanding at a rapid rate and are seeking to expand
internationally so any solution will need to be viable
Globally And last, but certainly not least, MTC’s success is
largely dependent on our ability to satisfy the requirements of
our clients and maintain a reputation of high credibility,
reliability and security.
Any security breach of our applicants’ data could have a
devastating effect to our ability to compete for new business as
well as maintain current clients.I recognize that MTC can no
longer rely on a manual hiring process to meet these needs.”
Director of HR:
Joseph Cummings
“Thanks for talking with me today. I see this effort as very
important to the success of MTC. The rapid growth to date and
future plans for expansion have pushed our recruiting staff, and
we recognize we can no longer meet the hiring and staffing
demands
with manual processes. I’m also interested in solutions that are

20. easy-
to-use and can interface with our existing systems and enhance
processes. I’m willing to consider a basic system that can grow
as
MTC grows and provide more capabilities in the future.
I’m sure Sofia, our Manager of Recruiting,
can provide more specifics.”
Manager of Recruiting:
Sofia Perez “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to
begin the process of finding a technology solution to support
our recruiting processes. In addition to myself, there are 2-3
full-timerecruiters who have been very busy keeping up with the
increased hiring at
MTC. It goes without saying that a consulting company is
dependent on having well-qualified employees to deliver to our
customers.
We’re in a competitive market for IT talent and want to be able
to
recruit efficiently, process applicants quickly, and move to
making a job offer to the best candidate before the competition
snaps him/her up. When I talk with my colleagues in other
companies, they mention
applicant tracking systems that have enabled them to reduce
their
hiring time by 15-20%. I’m so envious of them and look
forward to having our new solution in place before the next set
of contracts are won and we need to hire 75 (to as many as 150)
staff in a 3-month
period. I do not think my team can handle such an increase in an
efficient and effective manner. On-going growth at MTC will
continue to increase the demands to hire more consultants
quickly. It really seems like there would be a rapid return on
investment in a technology solution to support and improve the
hiring process.”

21. Recruiters:
Peter O’Neil (along with Mike Thomas and Jennifer Blackwell)
“This project should have happened 2 years ago but glad it’s
finally getting some attention. As a recruiter, I’m sort of the
middleperson in this process. On one hand, we have the job
applicant who is anxious to know the status of his/her
application and fit for the advertised position. It’s important
that the recruiters represent MTC well, as we want the best
applicants to want to come to work for us.
Then we have the actual hiring manager in one of our business
areas who has issued the job requisition and wants to get the
best applicant hired as quickly as possible. Obviously recruiting
is not
the hiring manager’s full-time job, so we’re always competing
for time with other job responsibilities, so we can keep things
moving as quickly as possible. They look to us to screen
resumes and only forward the best qualified applicants to them
so they can quickly identify their top candidates. Working with
Tom, our administrative
assistant, we need interviews to be scheduled to accommodate
everyone’s calendars. After the hiring managers make their
final selections of who they would like to hire, it is our task to
get
the job offers presented to the candidates -hopefully for their
acceptance. Everything is very time sensitive,and the current
process is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Applications
and resumes can get lost in interoffice mail or buried in email;
and,when
a hiring manager calls us, we often can not immediately provide
the
status of where an applicant is in the process.
This can be very frustrating all around. Speaking for myself and
the other recruiters, I have high expectations for this solution.
We need to really be able to deliver world-class service to MTC
in the recruiting and hiring areas to meet the business goals.”

22. Administrative Assistant: Tom Arbuckle “I support the
recruiters in the hiring process. After the recruiters screen the
resumes and select
the best candidates for a position, my job is to route those
applications and resumes via interoffice mail to the respective
functional/hiring manager, receive his or her feedback on who
to interview and who should be involved in the interviews,
schedule the interviews based on availability of applicants and
the interview team members, collect the feedback from the
interview team and inform the assigned recruiter of the status of
each candidate who was interviewed. Then, after a job offer has
been made and accepted, I coordinate the paperwork for the new
hire with HR and
Payroll to ensure everything is ready to go on the first day. As
you
can imagine when hiring volume is up, I’m buried in paperwork
and trying to keep all the applicants and their resumes straight,
track their status in the process, and ensure everyone has
what they need is very challenging. Any tool that would help
the workflow and enable many steps in the process to be done
electronically would be wonderful.”
Hiring Manager (in functional area; this person would be the
supervisor of the new employee and would likely issue the job
requisition to fill a need in his/her department/team):
“While it’s a good problem to have–new business means new
hires --the current method for screening applications,
scheduling interviews, identifying the best qualified applicants,
and getting a job offer to them is not working. My team is
evaluated on the level of service we
provide our clients, and it is very important that we have well
-qualified staff members to fulfill our contracts. Turnover is
common in the IT world and that along with new business
development, makes the need for hiring new staff critical and
time-sensitive. I confess that
sometimes I’m not as responsive to HR as I should be,but this is

23. only one of several areas I’m responsible for. I look to the
recruiters to stay on top of this for me. In the ideal world, I’d
like an electronic dashboard from which I can see the status of
any job openings in my area, information on all qualified
candidates who have applied and where they are in the pipeline.
Electronic scheduling of interviews on my calendar would be a
real time saver. It’s important that we impress candidates with
our technology and efficiency –after all we are an IT consulting
company—and using manual processes makes us look bad. And
,this system must be easy to use –I don’t have time for training
or reading a 100-page user’s manual. Just need to get my job
done."
For this assignment you will prepare the first section of a report
that will ultimately analyze the organization described in the
case study and recommend a system solution. In this section you
will analyze the organization and explain how an IT system
could be used to support its strategies and objectives and
support its decision-making processes. Your report should not
exceed four double-spaced pages, and must include at least two
references. Prior to beginning this assignment, be sure you have
read all of the materials,
Maryland Technology MTC
1
Maryland Technology
Consultants, Inc. Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is a
successful Information Technology consulting services firm that
utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve
measurable results for its customers. Its customer base includes
small to mid-tier businesses, non-profit organizations and
governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels.

24. MTC feels strongly that its success is dependent on the
combination of the talent of
its IT consultants, the best practices MTC employs, and a
dedication to delivering truly beneficial IT solutions to their
clients.
Corporate Profile
Corporate Name: Maryland Technology Consultants,
Inc. Founded: May2008
Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland
Satellite Locations: Herndon, Virginia; Bethesda,
Maryland Number of Employees: 450
Total Annual Gross Revenue: $95,000,000
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Samuel Johnson
Business Areas
MTC provides consulting services in the following areas: •
· Business Process Consulting -Business process redesign,
process improvement
• IT Consulting -IT strategy, analysis, planning, system
development, implementation, and network support
• IT Outsourcing Consulting –Requirements analysis; vendor
evaluation, due diligence, selection and performance
management; Service Level Agreements
Business Strategy
MTC's business strategy is to provide extraordinary consulting
services and recommendations
to its customers by employing highly skilled consultants and
staying abreast of new business
concepts and technology and/or
developing new business concepts and best practices of its
own.
Excerpt from the MTC Strategic Business Plan

25. While the complete strategic plan touches on many areas, below
is an excerpt from MTC’s latest Strategic Business Plan that
identifies a few of MTC's Goals.
Goal 1: Increase MTC Business Development by winning new
contracts in the areas of IT consulting.
Goal 2:
Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote
research and analysis support to MTC’s onsite teams in the U.
S.
Goal 3:
Continue to increase MTC’s ability to quickly provide high
quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the
clients’ needs.
Goal 4: Increase MTC’s competitive advantage in the IT
consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having
IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge
technologies and innovative solutions for its clients.
Current Business Environment
MTC provides consultants on-site to work with its clients,
delivering a wide variety of IT-related services. MTC obtains
most of its business through competitively bidding on Requests
for
Proposals issued by business, government and non-profit
organizations. A small but growing portion of its business is
through referrals and follow- on contracts from satisfied clients.
MTC
anticipates it will win two large contracts in the near future and
is preparing proposals for several other large projects.
MTC, as a consulting company, relies on the quality and
expertise of its employees to provide the services needed by the
clients.
When it is awarded a contract, the customer expects MTC
to quickly provide the consultants and begin work on the

26. project.
MTC, like other consulting companies, cannot afford to carry a
large number of employees that are not assigned to contracts.
Therefore, they need to determine the likelihood of winning a
new contract and ensure the appropriately skilled consultants
are ready to go to work when needed. MTC relies on its Human
Resources (HR)
Department to find and hire the personnel that the line managers
need for upcoming contracts. It is very much a "just in time"
hiring situation.
The Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, houses
approximately 350 employees. Satellite offices have been
opened in the last two y
ears in both Herndon, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland to
provide close proximity to existing clients. It is anticipated that
new pending
contracts would add staff to all locations. The management team
believes there is capacity at all locations, as much of the
consultants' work is done on-site at the customers' locations.
Strategic Direction
As a small to mid-size business (SMB), MT recognizes that it
needs to carefully plan its future strategy. Considering the
competitive environment that contains many very large IT
consulting firms, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Booz Allen
Hamilton (BAH), and
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
, as well as numerous smaller companies with various skill sets,
market niches, and established customer bases, MTC
will be evaluating how best to position itself for the future and
recognizes that its ability to identify its core competencies,
move with
agility and flexibility and deliver consistent high-quality
service to its clients is critical for continued success. One area
that is critical to a consulting company is the ability to have

27. employees who possess
the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill current and future
contracts. Given the intense competition in the IT consulting
sector,
MTC is planning to incorporate a few consultants in other
countries to provide remote research and analysis support to the
on-site U. S.
teams. Since MTC has no experience in the global marketplace,
the Director of HR has begun examining international labor
laws to determine where MTC should recruit and hire
employees.
Challenges
The two contracts that MTC expects to win very soon will
require the hiring of an additional 75 consultants very quickly.
The Director of HR is concerned that the current manual process
of recruiting and hiring employees will not allow his department
to be responsive to these needs as well as the demands of future
growth and increased hiring requirements. He is looking for a
near-term solution that will automate many of the manual hiring
process steps and reduce the
time it takes to hire new staff. He is also looking for a solution
that will allow MTC to hire employees located in other
countries around
the world.
Management Direction
The management team has been discussing how to ramp up to
fill the requirements of the two new contracts and prepare the
company to continue growing as additional contracts are
awarded in the future.
The company has been steadily growing and thus far hiring of
new
employees has been handled through a process that is largely
manual. The HR Director reported that his staff will be unable

28. to accommodate the hiring of the 75 new employees in the
timeframe required as well as continue to handle the expanded
hiring projections. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) then
recommended that the company look for a commercial off-the-
shelf software product that can dramatically improve the hiring
process and shorten the time it takes to hire new employees.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) wants to ensure that all
investments are in line with the corporate mission and will
achieve the desired return on investment. She will be looking
for clear information that proposals have been well researched,
provide a needed capability for the organization, and can be
cost
- effectively implemented in a relatively short period of time to
reap the benefits. The CEO has asked the CIO to work with HR
to recommend a solution.
Your Task
As a business analyst in the CIO's department, you have been
assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system
requirements, evaluate a proposed solution, and develop an
implementation plan for an IT solution (applicant tracking
system
or recruiting system) to improve the hiring process.
The CIO has set up a series of interviews for you to collect
information about the current hiring process and the
requirements for a system. He has asked you to produce a
Business Analysis and System Recommendation Report
(BA&SR) as your final deliverable.
Interviews
In the interviews you conduct with the organizational leaders,
you hear the comments recorded below.
CEO: Samuel Johnson
“While I trust my HR staff to address the nuts and bolts of the

29. staffing processes, what is critically important to me is that the
right people can be in place to fulfill our current contracts and
additional talented staff can be quickly hired to address needs
of future contracts we win. I can’t be out in the market
soliciting new business if we can’t deliver on what we’re
selling. Our reputation is largely dependent on having
knowledgeable and capable staff to deliver the services our
clients are paying for and expect from MTC.”
CFO:
Evelyn Liu “So glad we’re talking about this initiative. As CFO,
obviously I’m focused on the bottom line. I also recognize it’s
necessary to invest in certain areas to ensure our viability
moving forward. I recognize that the current manual hiring
process is inefficient and not cost-effective. Having technology
solutions that improve current processes and enable future
functionality is very
important to MTC’s success. We must consider the total cost of
ownership of any technology we adopt.
MTC is run as a lean-and-mean organization and support
processes must be effective but not overbuilt. We do want to
think towards the future as well and don’t want to invest in
technology with a short shelf-
life. Along those lines, we currently have a timekeeping and
payroll system; and to help support our bottom line financially,
any new solution should effectively integrate with, but not
replace, that system.
CIO:
Raj Patel “As a member of the IT Department, you have a good
understanding of our overall architecture and strategy; however,
let me emphasize a few things I want to be sure we keep in mind
for this
project. Any solution needs to be compatible with our existing
architecture and systems as appropriate. Obviously, we have
chosen not to maintain a large software development staff so

30. building a solution from the ground up does not fit our IT
strategic plan. Our current strategy has been to adopt Software
as a
Service (SaaS) solutions that can be deployed relatively quickly
and leverage industry best practices. In addition, our distributed
workforce means we are very dependent on mobile computing –
this brings some challenges in term of portability, maintenance,
and solutions that present well on mobile devices.
We’ve been expanding at a rapid rate and are seeking to expand
internationally so any solution will need to be viable
Globally And last, but certainly not least, MTC’s success is
largely dependent on our ability to satisfy the requirements of
our clients and maintain a reputation of high credibility,
reliability and security.
Any security breach of our applicants’ data could have a
devastating effect to our ability to compete for new business as
well as maintain current clients. I recognize that MTC can no
longer rely on a manual hiring process to meet these needs.”
Director of HR:
Joseph Cummings
“Thanks for talking with me today. I see this effort as very
important to the success of MTC. The rapid growth to date and
future plans for expansion have pushed our recruiting staff, and
we recognize we can no longer meet the hiring and staffing
demands
with manual processes. I’m also interested in solutions that are
easy-
to-use and can interface with our existing systems and enhance
processes. I’m willing to consider a basic system that can grow
as
MTC grows and provide more capabilities in the future.
I’m sure Sofia, our Manager of Recruiting,
can provide more specifics.”
Manager of Recruiting:

31. Sofia Perez “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to
begin the process of finding a technology solution to support
our recruiting processes. In addition to myself, there are 2-3
full-time recruiters who have been very busy keeping up with
the increased hiring at
MTC. It goes without saying that a consulting company is
dependent on having well-qualified employees to deliver to our
customers.
We’re in a competitive market for IT talent and want to be able
to
recruit efficiently, process applicants quickly, and move to
making a job offer to the best candidate before the competition
snaps him/her up. When I talk with my colleagues in other
companies, they mention
applicant tracking systems that have enabled them to reduce
their
hiring time by 15-20%. I’m so envious of them and look
forward to having our new solution in place before the next set
of contracts are won and we need to hire 75 (to as many as 150)
staff in a 3-month
period. I do not think my team can handle such an increase in an
efficient and effective manner. On-going growth at MTC will
continue to increase the demands to hire more consultants
quickly. It really seems like there would be a rapid return on
investment in a technology solution to support and improve the
hiring process.”
Recruiters:
Peter O’Neil (along with Mike Thomas and Jennifer Blackwell)
“This project should have happened 2 years ago but glad it’s
finally getting some attention. As a recruiter, I’m sort of the
middleperson in this process. On one hand, we have the job
applicant who is anxious to know the status of his/her
application and fit for the advertised position. It’s important
that the recruiters represent MTC well, as we want the best
applicants to want to come to work for us.

32. Then we have the actual hiring manager in one of our business
areas who has issued the job requisition and wants to get the
best applicant hired as quickly as possible. Obviously recruiting
is not
the hiring manager’s full-time job, so we’re always competing
for time with other job responsibilities, so we can keep things
moving as quickly as possible. They look to us to screen
resumes and only forward the best qualified applicants to them
so they can quickly identify their top candidates. Working with
Tom, our administrative
assistant, we need interviews to be scheduled to accommodate
everyone’s calendars. After the hiring managers make their
final selections of who they would like to hire, it is our task to
get
the job offers presented to the candidates -hopefully for their
acceptance. Everything is very time sensitive, and the current
process is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Applications
and resumes can get lost in interoffice mail or buried in email;
and, when
a hiring manager calls us, we often cannot immediately provide
the
status of where an applicant is in the process.
This can be very frustrating all around. Speaking for myself and
the other recruiters, I have high expectations for this solution.
We need to really be able to deliver world-class service to MTC
in the recruiting and hiring areas to meet the business goals.”
Administrative Assistant: Tom Arbuckle “I support the
recruiters in the hiring process. After the recruiters screen the
resumes and select
the best candidates for a position, my job is to route those
applications and resumes via interoffice mail to the respective
functional/hiring manager, receive his or her feedback on who
to interview and who should be involved in the interviews,
schedule the interviews based on availability of applicants and
the interview team members, collect the feedback from the

33. interview team and inform the assigned recruiter of the status of
each candidate who was interviewed. Then, after a job offer has
been made and accepted, I coordinate the paperwork for the new
hire with HR and
Payroll to ensure everything is ready to go on the first day. As
you
can imagine when hiring volume is up, I’m buried in paperwork
and trying to keep all the applicants and their resumes straight,
track their status in the process, and ensure everyone has
what they need is very challenging. Any tool that would help
the workflow and enable many steps in the process to be done
electronically would be wonderful.”
Hiring Manager (in functional area; this person would be the
supervisor of the new employee and would likely issue the job
requisition to fill a need in his/her department/team):
“While it’s a good problem to have–new business means new
hires --the current method for screening applications,
scheduling interviews, identifying the best qualified applicants,
and getting a job offer to them is not working. My team is
evaluated on the level of service we
provide our clients, and it is very important that we have well
-qualified staff members to fulfill our contracts. Turnover is
common in the IT world and that along with new business
development, makes the need for hiring new staff critical and
time-sensitive. I confess that
sometimes I’m not as responsive to HR as I should be, but this
is only one of several areas I’m responsible for. I look to the
recruiters to stay on top of this for me. In the ideal world, I’d
like an electronic dashboard from which I can see the status of
any job openings in my area, information on all qualified
candidates who have applied and where they are in the pipeline.
Electronic scheduling of interviews on my calendar would be a
real time saver. It’s important that we impress candidates with
our technology and efficiency –after all we are an IT consulting
company—and using manual processes makes us look bad. And,

34. this system must be easy to use –I don’t have time for training
or reading a 100-page user’s manual. Just need to get my job
done."