Hafford furniture Essay

A Crisis at Hafford Furniture dapple Computing Case study MMBA 507 Student ID 300333323 task DESCRIPTION Hafford Furniture was a piece of furniture manufacturer since 1970, supplying to furniture retailers, wholesalers and occasion anyy one-time bulk purchasers across the United States. Hafford relied on a production line Information System (BIS) to handle all the inborn product line processes. The BIS was seamlessly affiliated to a VAN-based EDI system, which served as the customers interface for making orders.In 2008, Haffords entire IT infrastructure and selective instruction storage were destroyed by a massive hurricane. Hafford was able to fix the follow data with its cataclysm recovery plan, but not all its IT function. In March 2009, VP of IT proposed in a vigilance reaching to adopt SaaS deprave solution to restore the IT function. Hafford could access to the same BIS without having to worry about the approach to rebuild another(prenominal) IT data plaza. He projected that the IT staff strength could be halved, as the veil vendor would tug business of the focusing of the softwares platform and its infrastructure.The next day, the president of Hafford ignored the internal decision-making protocol and assure their disaster recovery vendor, PFI Services for that same buy military service. In January 2010, Hafford was face with appalling sales report for the year in the beginning, mostly ca utilize by bottlenecks in the ordering system supported by PFI. Not only was the debase capability in able, PFI was besides filing for bankruptcy and undergoing liquidation. Hafford once again uncivilized into a desperate situation. REVIEW OF KEY ISSUES Management issuesLack of bodily governance The weak corporate governance in Hafford is especially far-famed in the fundamental change process. While there was an internal policy for creating a fundamental change in Hafford (Fig 1), Feckle, the President, had ignored it by go in into a mis t over contract without consulting any of his top management, just one day after the premature aim was shared with him. It was extremely unsound to make such a significant chore decision without sufficient knowledge in the service that he engaged.To make a reasoning(a) decision, Feckle should fox adhered to the corporate policy and trusted the IT professionals to evaluate and recommend a suitable vendor. Figure 1 Fundamental change policy 2. visitation to think critically during decision-making It is understood that Hafford utilise to adopt a VAN-based EDI-system specifically out-of-pocket to its security, despite it being slower and more costly. In Norris proposal for using confuse, he altered the companys priority by pushing for an internet-based EDI-system, without providing solid justification. Questions like will the internet-based EDI change the business in any way? or will it com guarantee customers security? were not asked. The management seemed to require accepte d this change too good, without understanding its impacts. This allude should have been analysed more thoroughly before concluding to transit to an internet-based EDI-system. 3. scummy understanding of business postulates The IT objective was not fully aline with the business objectives. For example, in 2009, period the company was expecting a 30-35% increase in sales due to the efforts in a series of product improvements, the IT squad was preparing a veil proposal to the company basing only on the honest-to-god IT functions.It had missed out on considering how it could support an explosive sales surge. Furthermore, Hafford was break its VAN-based EDI to an internet-based EDI, which could potentially allow Hafford to widen its reach to attract a bracing group of SME customers. This could play a part in increasing their sales. However, Hafford did not foresee these changes, likely due to insufficiency of communication between departments at heart Hafford. IT issues 1. La ck of thorough analysis in asperse calculation The IT team failed to conduct due constancy in exploring all possible solutions that could meet its needs.While cloud offered great advantages for the company, it might have been too sharp to consider only cloak-and-dagger cloud as the final solution. In fact, public, private or hybrid cloud offered different potentials and could achieve the death within competitive cost as well. The IT team should also have analysed each cloud cast against its business needs before find if software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or a combination of services would work best. 2.Lack of on-going management While cloud is said to be pliable, it demands some level of active management to attach the most of it after implementation. The IT team should be able to react right away to resolve worrys like the order bottleneck or a data lock-in. Besides, the IT team should have been more hawk-eye d in ensuring business doggedness for the company. RECOMMENDATION The key failure observed in the part was the lack of understanding in cloud calculation and the lack of communication in the company.Like any other business decisions, the management should have exercised care by developing clear objectives and analysing the opportunities and threats before arriving at its conclusion. In this section, a recommended methodology to approach Haffords IT restoral problem is presented. Step 1. To develop business objectives The most authorised step is to approach a business problem with a clear business objective. It will be necessary for the management to look at the restoral of the IT centre as a collaborative business problem. Communication within the organisation is crucial in aligning all the stakeholders goals.With effective teamwork, the IT will appreciate the business values better and be able to analyse the suitability of miscellaneous options. Step 2. To compare various via ble options The IT team should research on what the available solutions are, before zeroing into a particular infrastructure option. While the restoral of a sensual data centre may be expensive, there may be payment structures that could armed service reduce the impact. On the other hand, cloud computing may go forth cheaper but it inextricably exposes users to a range of risks, especially in the horizon of security.Also, there are hybrid options that can minimise risk temporary hookup offering cost benefit. In short, the IT team should fully understand the merits and shortcomings of the following(a) options before selecting the IT infrastructure. 1. Public cloud 2. Hybrid cloud 3. Private cloud 4. Public cloud Physical data centre 5. Physical data centre Step 3. To choose the suitable cloud service model There are three common service models in cloud computing. It is important to evaluate each models attributes and determine which cloud model would be more suitable for the b usiness needs. 1. Software as a service (SaaS)To understand threats and opportunities of cloud computing Cloud computing offers the following powerful advantages but also opens a gateway to a wide range of threats. 1. Elasticity Usage-based pricing model, charging users only for the substance used Scalability in terms of network and speed depending on demand 2. control Setting up and maintaining a data centre can take significant manpower. Cloud computing offers convenient and economical business solutions to clients, while taking advantage of the economy of scale by taking care of one specialised area in bulk. 3. Cost-efficiency No capital cost required.Companies benefit from the transference of risk (of over-provisioning and under-provisioning) of investing in a private data centre. While accepting these benefits from cloud, users should also exercise due diligence by being aware of all the possible problems cloud computing brings. Some of the crucial problems are outlined a s follows. 1. Business tenaciousness There is always a risk with placing valuable business information with a single third party. As such, the best way to go about is to even out the risk by employing multiple cloud providers and devising a business continuity strategy should any of them fail. data lock-in It would be risky for a company to be unable to easily extract their data and programmes from one cloud provider to another due to compatibility issues of the programme and data from one cloud provider. In order to moderate this risk, SaaS developer could use standardised API so that the business can remain flexible and mobile. 3. Data security While most cloud providers invest a considerable amount of attention on managing security, users should assess the security standards select by the cloud provider against their requirements before engaging it. 4.Insufficient capacity Although it is said that cloud is scalable, in rare occasions, businesses may experience profession surg es beyond what their contracted cloud can offer. Hence, it is important to strategize carefully before deciding on the cloud service. Step 5. Choosing the cloud vendor later on thorough analysis and establishing a clear description for the cloud service needed, the user will have to evaluate the following factors to arrive at the most suitable vendor. 1. Pricing structure While cloud vendors typically follow a pay-as-you-use pricing model, pricing structure varies.For example, Google AppEngine charges users by the cycles used while AWS charges by the hour for the number of instances the user occupied. 2. Security Users need to look at a cloud services physical as well as network security. This refers to the physical location the cloud provider houses its equipment and network security measures like firewall and data encryption. Also, a cloud provider should be compliant to government standards specific to your business. In the case of Hafford Furniture, it was an auditing requireme nt for Hafford to ensure the cloud vendor is compliant with Statement on Auditing Standard No.70. 3. Other factors A clean record does not promise anything, it would be beneficial to also look at the vendors track record against available benchmark systems. Also, it would be helpful to have a vendor that can provide reasonably good service. Hence, it is important to know about the extent of customer support services, the setting up process and the servicing response and resolution time. Step 6. Engagement of cloud vendor and getting started During cloud rollout, especially from a different classification of data management, it would be common to face various teething problems.Cloud vendor should try to achieve seamless implementation, and companies might need to swot up their staff and/or customers should it affect their routine jobs significantly. Step 7. On-going active management of the cloud service Internal IT team should be continuously vigilant towards possible threats to e nsure that the cloud service adopted by the company is safe and secure. Active backups of data must not be neglected. Also, internal feedback reviews could help the IT team understand the possible difficulties faced by the users, and also stay up to date with the companys business initiatives.