Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc.
AssignmentTutorOnlineSTRATEGIC USE OF TECHNOLOGY
Information Systems in Organizations (2192)
24 February 2019
Introduction
Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) is a process which is carried out in order to analyze the business processes of an organization and then recommend solutions for the organization which would help them in carrying out their processes in an effective manner (Anthony, Shih & Jin, 2016). As a Chief Information Officer, the BA&SR had to be carried out for the organization. At first the strategic usage of technology has been describes, it further supports the decision making process of the organization. The stage 2 consists of a process analysis; here the current processes as well as workflow are evaluated. The next stage explains the requirements, in this stage the main expectations of stakeholders are identified and system recommendations are provided.
- Strategic use of technology
- Organizational Strategy: the main organizational strategy of Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. is to provide consulting services; it also provides various suggestions to its customers by hiring consultants who are highly skilled (Conforti, de Leoni & La Rosa, 2015). They also aim in developing new best practices and business concepts. The present manual hiring process of Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. faces some problems; these include the time consumed by the manual recruitment process. The present recruitment process of Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. would not allow the organization to meet its recruitment goals. Improving the hiring process would reduce the time consumed by it and would also help the organization in achieving its organizational goals as well as hiring goals (Chen, 2018). The organization must choose some strategies that would help them to recruit people who have skills or knowledge regarding consultancy.
- Competitive Advantage: the Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. usually concentrates on quality as well as expertise of the employees. It works through competitively bidding on various requests for proposals issued by the business, non-profit organizations and government organizations (Jiang & Shang, 2017). It also grows its business with the help of referrals as well as follows on contracts from the satisfied clients.
The strategy of candidate sourcing innovations must be utilized by the organization in order to obtain various advantages, recruiting with the use of alternative sites where the organization expects to get target employees. The organization would be receiving application from interested candidates from different platforms including social media. Raiding talent competitors would help the organization to save resources as well as time spent in providing training to the employees (Ferreira, Junior & Rosa, 2017). Referral can also be considered, this would help the organization to reduce enough amount of time invested in the recruitment process. These strategies would help Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. to gain a competitive advantage in the market. The data received from the hiring system can be utilized for strategic advantage. The data would help the company to change the structure of industry and provide new ways to outperform their rivals. It would also spawn the entire business from the existing operations of the company.
- Strategic Objectives: The organization would be able to gain advantage from the hiring process in recruiting. The table provided below mentions the goals of the organization and the objectives that would aim in meeting the organizational goals with the help of new hiring process. At last the table provides proper explanation on the objectives.
|
Strategic
Goal
|
Objective
|
Explanation
|
| Increasing their business development with the help of winning new contracts around the areas of IT consulting | Improve its development in business with the help of hiring talented people who already have knowledge on their business field. | Hiring people who are already talented would be helpful for the company because it would save resources as well as time invested in training. Example – Hiring for the multinational companies is based on the development taking place in the business arena. The resources can be well utilized considering the already working employees. Dell utilizes a strategy which is based on the same context |
| Building a cadre of consultants internationally that would provide them remote research as well as analysis support to the onsite teams of the organization. | Recruiting consultants who are located internationally. | Recruitment of consultants that are located internationally would help the company to think widely regarding fulfilling the demands of the clients; it would also help them to spread their business globally. Example – The consultants who are being hired internationally is a strategy lot of consulting companies adopt. It gives them an edge with the diverse environment present. |
| Increasing their ability to provide great quality consultants to award specific contracts in order to serve the needs of clients. | Talented employees would help the organization to fulfill its third objective and help the organization to meet the client’s needs and demands. | Talented employees would help the organization by providing more innovative and better strategies on their business. |
| Increasing the competitive advantage in the market of IT consulting by increasing the reputation for having IT consultants that are skilled in leading the edge technologies as well as innovative solutions for clients. | Raiding the talent competitors by offering more facilities or wages. | Employees from competitors can be attracted by providing better facilities; this would help the company to get talented and better employees. Example: The business consulting solutions provisioned by the employees serving Consulting companies and others are able to bring in enhanced management strategies. McKinsey is the organization catering to the consulting world. With the various employees representing the various divisions, the management awards them Peer learning sessions. The innovative solutions for clients are being discussed among the employees bring in greater capabilities. This does not only aid in enhancing the motivational levels, but also the cutting edge technology solutions. The resources for an organization like Mc Kinsey can be well deployed to grow. With the brainstorming done in a phased manner, the solutions provisioned brings in enhanced scalability too. The effectiveness of resources aids in bringing about recognition for the employees to a greater extent too. |
Table 1: Strategic Goals
(Source: Chamoso, Rivas & Rodríguez, 2018, p. 123)
- Decision-making: the table provided below describes regarding how information system helps in the process of decision-making. The data available or obtained from the hiring process and the candidates, there are various roles that are to be performed, it mentions the levels of the roles, an example of specific decision that is supported by the hiring system that would be made at that level would also be mentioned (Arias, Munoz-Gama & Sepúlveda, 2016). At last the type of data that has been received from the hiring system would be required in order to support the decision.
| Role | Level as defined in IS Course Reading | Example of Possible Decision Supported by Hiring System | Example of Information the Hiring System Could Provide to Support the Example Decision |
| Senior/ Executive Managers | Level 3 | CEO decides to expand the services provided by the company. | The data provided by the recruitment process regarding the expertise of employees. |
| Middle Managers | Level 2 | The Director of HR decides how the recruitment would be carried out and the selection of candidates. | The data on the number of interested candidates from different platforms. |
| Operational Managers | Level 2 | The decisions made by line managers are regarding the projects that would be performed by new employees. | This decision depends on the data obtained from the skills of the employees. |
Table 2: Decision Making
(Source: Colomo-Palacios, García-Peñalvo & Stantchev, 2017, p. 98)
Conclusion
Business Analysis and System Recommendation is a process where the business processes are analyzed, and then various recommendations are provided that can be helped in order to improve their business strategies along with increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the project. This assignment describes regarding the hiring process used by the consulting organization named Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. It also provides some recommendations on new hiring method; these strategies can be used for recruiting new and talented employees and improve the performance of the company.
- Process Analysis
A. Hiring Process. The hiring process currently being adhered at MTC involves screening of resumes. The resumes are processed based on qualifications of applicants. The applicants who well qualify for the system are being interviewed. The interview process has the several processes and sub processes forming part of it. The determination of who is going to interview who is also significant. The schedule of the interviews relies on the availability pertaining to the applicants (Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015; Kaur, 2015). The paper work too forms part of the sub process. For the new hires the paperwork is coordinated by the organization. The Hiring Manager holds a crucial position. The supervisors are able to raise the job requisition for the requirement based on the department.
| MTC Hiring Process | |||
| As-Is Process | Responsible MTC Position | To-Be Process – How the System Will Support and Improve the hiring process | Business Benefits of Improved Process (Align with MTC’s overall business strategy and needs.) |
| (Part 1) | (Part 1) | (Part 2) | (Part 2) |
| 1. Recruiter receives application from job hunter via Postal Service Mail. | Recruiter | System will receive application via on-line submission through MTC Employment Website and store in the applicant database within the hiring system. | A more efficient submission process decreases time needed to receive and begin processing applications. This will present a positive image to potential employees and help MTC compete for top IT talent. |
| 2. Routing applications to functional manager | Recruiter | Supervisors are able to raise the job requisition for the requirement based on the department. | Processes streamlined with more of the usage electronically |
| 3. Receiving feedback and determining who would be interviewed and by whom | Recruiter | The process would be modified to have the system record feedback | The several processes can be automated, and the hiring process streamlined in a better manner |
| 4. Inform the recruiter about the relevant status | Function Manager | The automated system forwards the relevant data | This can be well planned and with the improvement done based on the electronically adopted system, greater advantages would pertain. |
| 5. The resumes are processed based on qualifications of applicants | Recruiter | The automated system processes the applicants and aligns based on qualifications | The strategic plan devised for the organization would bring in efficiency levels too among the workforce. The consultants who need to form part of cadre at the system would be able to serve the clients in effective manner. |
| 6. The applicants who well qualify for the system are being interviewed | Recruiter | The interview for only the selected candidates as provisioned by electronic system takes place. | The skilled technologies at MTC would enhance the current environment pertaining to the business at the organization. The consulting company would be able to generate greater margins. |
| 7. The determination of who is going to interview | Recruiter | The manual process can be automated based on the selection of interviewer done based on capabilities and skills | The applicant information being stored in the electronic system can be utilized for future too. Based on the requirements taking place in future, the standardization based on the process. The recruitment management would be enhanced with the established suitability. |
| 8. Preparing the schedule of the interviews | Recruiter | The automated process streamlines the schedule to be adhered | The process involving utilization of information system in the hiring process would also entail defining the processes in accordance to the requirements. The driving of efficiency can be well taken into consideration. |
| 9. Conducting Interviews | Recruiter | The change in the process is linked to the adhering of time frame for the sub process | The recruitment process has to be completed in shortest span. Based on the screening of candidates in accordance, the system implemented has to well enhance the current adopted technology. |
| 10. Preparation of Job Offer | Recruiter | The automated system prepares the relevant data | The innovations brought into the hiring process can be to offer the training based on the need assessment conducted for the candidates selected. |
| 11. Coordination of Paperwork for new hires | Recruiter | The electronic system helps in preparation | The applicants being handled electronically, the system can be programmed to analyze the key skills of applicants and synchronize it with the requirements of the departments as shared in the organization. |
| 12. Ted prepares offer letter based on information from recruiter and puts in the mail to the chosen candidate. | Administrative Assistant | System enables AA to prepare job offer letter by storing the offer letter template and information on each candidate; allows AA to select information to go into letter and put it into the template, which can then be reviewed and emailed to the candidate. | More efficient offer process presents positive image to applicants and decreases time needed to prepare offer letter and enables MTC to hire in advance of the competition. |
Table 3: Hiring Process
(Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015; Kaur, 2015)
B. Expected Improvements. The enhancement in the business requires getting the processes streamlined with more of the usage electronically. The several processes can be automated, and the hiring process streamlined in a better manner. The organization needs to adopt the strategy wherein the selection of interviewee should be done based on the system application. This would aid in saving time as part of the process. The workflow steps can be divided based on the priority levels in the process. For the screening of applicants too, the same can be well organized (Hilal, Densley & Jones, 2017; Gërxhani & Koster, 2015). The manual process of recruitment and hiring can be well planned. With the applicants being handled electronically, the system can be programmed to analyze the key skills of applicants and synchronize it with the requirements of the departments as shared in the organization. The hiring process involves greater time being consumed at each step. This can be well planned and with the improvement done based off the electronically adopted system, greater advantages would pertain.
The recruitment process has to be completed in shortest span. Based on the screening of candidates in accordance, the system implemented has to well enhance the current adopted technology. The decision-making process of the organization can be improved to significant levels. The innovations brought into the hiring process can be to offer the training based on the need assessment conducted for the candidates selected. The operations pertaining to the hiring can be well enhanced with the six-sigma linked to it. This would enhance the quality levels of linked processes. The recruiting new and talented employees and improve the performance of the company. The reliance on technology and lessened paper work can not only offer an economic advantage for MTC but also offer in saving resources linked to finances, time and the employee resources linked to (Gërxhani & Koster, 2015). The process involving utilization of information system in the hiring process would also entail defining the processes in accordance to the requirements. The driving of efficiency can be well taken into consideration. The adoption of Information Technology and making the process automated would enhance the workflow and facilitate the selection process. The recruitment tie cycle can be considerably be reduced. The system would facilitate the interface which would be user friendly. The table below considers the consideration of prevalent issues and the enhancements that would improve the process.
| Area |
Current
Issues (from the Case Study) |
Improvements (due to use of technology) |
| Collaboration: |
The
Hiring Manager states that recruiting is only one area he is
responsible for and he isn’t as responsive to HR as he could
be. Therefore, he counts on the Recruiters to help manage the
process and keep him informed. Current manual system causes considerable communication breakdowns and takes additional effort | An efficient system with all information in one place, easily accessible via a dashboard, and updated in real time could make his recruiting job easier; and he could devote time to effectively working collaboratively and proactively with HR on his staffing needs. |
| Communications: | The Hiring Manager states that the communication of the selected applicants is done manually. | The hiring system can enhanced the internal and external communications with The enhancement in the business requires that organization needs to adopt the strategy wherein the selection of interviewee should be done based on the system application (Hilal, Densley & Jones, 2017; Gërxhani & Koster, 2015). |
| Workflow: | The current workflow is strained at MTC | The hiring process at MTC can be based on the system with adopt the automated system and reduce the manual processing in selection and hiring at MTC would generate additional resources. |
| Relationships: | Due to the relationships not coordinated, there is a greater attrition | The relationships can be enhanced with The attrition too can be reduced considerably for the organization. With the system devised wherein the interviewers are being mapped to the interviewee’s based on the capabilities and skills, the efficiency can be improved to a greater extent (Gërxhani & Koster, 2015). |
Table 3: Hiring Process
(Melanthiou, Pavlou & Constantinou, 2015; Kaur, 2015)
III. Requirements
- Stakeholders Interest. The following tables highlights the objectives of new hiring system for various stakeholders provided below. In the table below, the organizational role and information related to case study. One significant problem for each of the stakeholder in present hiring system in MTC has been provided:
| Role | Specific problem related to the current hiring process | How a technology solution to support the hiring process could address the problem |
| 1. CEO | As per the CEO, Samuel Johnson the right people need to be appointed so that they can fill up present contracts (Noe et al., 2017). | After the implementation of efficient system, all the required information can be placed properly. It is mainly done so that the given information is accessible in much better way. |
| 2. CFO | As per CFO, Evelyn Liu the present hiring process in MTC (Maryland Technology Consultant) is efficient and not cost effective nature (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). | The issues in the hiring process of MTC can be overcome by the help of technology. It will be helpful in functioning which is required for the success of MTC. |
| 3. CIO | As per CIO, Raj Patel any kind of solution is required for meeting the needs to present architecture and system which are very much appropriate. | MTC should not create large development staff which is required for brining solution. |
| 4. Director of Human Resources | Joseph Cumming, director of HR, recognizes that MTC has failed to meet needs of hiring and staffing demands (Benitez, Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menéndez, 2016). It is because they are following manual process. | The director of HR is very much interested in providing solution which is easy to use. It can interface with present system along with improving the whole process. |
| 5. Manager of Recruiting | As per, Sofia Perez two- three recruiters are busy in keeping up with the increased hiring at MTC (Oke, 2016). | By the help of this new system, overall reduced time will be reduced by 15-20%. |
| 6. Recruiters | Peter O’Neil states that the current recruitment process is not efficient. | By the help of new hiring system, MTC can deliver world class services in both the domains that are recruitment and hiring. |
| 7. Administrative Assistant | As stated by Tom Arbuckle, with increase in the hiring volume, the number of paper works have increased a lot (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). | Hiring system will help in understanding the workflow along with enabling the process to be electronically done. |
| 8. Hiring Manager (Functional supervisor the new employee would be working for.) | Hiring Manager states that the present system for screening application is not efficient. | By the help of new hiring system, an electric dashboard will be there for understanding status of job opening. |
Table 4: Stakeholders Interest
(Laudon & Laudon, 2016; Oke, 2016; Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017; Benitez, Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menéndez, 2016; Noe et al., 2017)
B. Defining Requirements- In the table below, the essential needs of information system in MTC has been provided. User requirements tends to express the needs of the hiring system. System performance highlights how the system will perform in certain areas like security.
|
Requirement ID | Requirement Statement | Stakeholder (Position and Name from Case Study that identified this requirement) |
| User Requirements – (What the user needs the system to do) | As present, MTC requires a hiring system for achieving benefits like Hiring system should improve the employee productivity at MTC. This new hiring system should provide social reach to its employees (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Hiring system should provide easy access to the employees through the applciation process that is from job posting to its selction. | CEO: Samuel Johnson |
|
| The system must store and protect all of the candidate’s information from their application/resume in a central applicant database (Noe et al., 2017). | Recruiter – Peter O’Neil |
| 1. | The system should must effectively integrate with the payroll and timekeeping system and have a long shelf-life. | CFO: Evelyn Liu |
| 2. | The system will be easy to use provide automation of candidate sourcing while interfacing with existing systems (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). | Director of HR: Joseph Cummings |
| 3. | Hiring system should schedule the appointments and interviews for top candidates. It is required for job campaign in MTC. | Manager of recruiting: Sofia Perez |
| 4. | Hiring system should focus on process customization in MTC. The implemented system should automate the process of business choice and its flexibility. | Administrative Assistant – Tom Arbuckle |
| 5. (Reporting-Output of organized information retrieved from the system) | The hiring system should review the resume for analyzing some of the key data of employees (Van Aken et al., 2017). | Hiring Manager |
| System Performance Requirements – (How the system will perform) |
|
|
|
| The system must be implemented as a Software as a Service solution. | CIO – Raj Patel |
| 1. | The system must have minimum response time to avoid and inconvenience. | Director of HR: Joseph Cummings |
| 2. | The system must stay up to date to ensure that it reduces the hiring time by 15-20%. | Manager of Recruiting: Sofia Perez |
| 3. | The system must process, gather, and store all new hire information at a high rate to ensure deadlines are met (Oke, 2016). | Administrative Assistant: Tom Arbuckle |
| 4. (Security) | The system must store applicants records on the secured online cloud which help with the recruitment process. | CEO: Samuel Johnson |
| 5. (Security) | The system must protect and track applicates data to ensure that applications are not lost or misplaced during the recruitment process (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). | CFO: Evelyn Liu |
Table 5: Defining Requirements
(Laudon & Laudon, 2016; Oke, 2016; Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017; Van Aken et al., 2017; Noe et al., 2017)
References
Anthony, A., Shih, Y. K., Jin, R., & Xiang, Y. (2016, September). Leveraging a Graph-Powered, real-time recommendation engine to create rapid business value. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (pp. 385-386). Retrieved from https://recsys.acm.org/recsys16/industry-session-3/
Arias, M., Munoz-Gama, J., & Sepúlveda, M. (2016, September). A Multi-criteria approach for team recommendation. In International Conference on Business ProcessManagement (pp.384-396) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-58457-7_28
Benitez, A., Cruz-Castro, L., & Sanz-Menéndez, L. (2016). Human Resources Management in Higher Education: the influence of the policies of regions on hiring and promotion practices at universities. Human Resources, 13, 15. Retrieved from http://www.ingenio.upv.es/es/system/files/adjuntos-grupos-organicos/session_5._01_abenitez-amado_et_al._influence_of_regional_policies_on_university_hrm.pdf.
Chamoso, P., Rivas, A., Rodríguez, S., & Bajo, J. (2018). Relationship recommender system in a business and employment-oriented social network. Information sciences, 433,204-220. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020025517311660
Chen, H. (2018). Personalized recommendation system of e-commerce based on big data analysis. Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics, 21(5), 1243-1247. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09720502.2018.1495599
Colomo-Palacios, R., García-Peñalvo, F. J., Stantchev, V., & Misra, S. (2017). Towards a social and context-aware mobile recommendation system for tourism. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 38, 505-515. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574119216000407
Conforti, R., De Leoni, M., La Rosa, M., Van der Aalst, W. M., & ter Hofstede, A. H. (2015). A recommendation system for predicting risks across multiple business process instances. Decision Support Systems, 69, 1-19. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923614002516
Ferreira, J. P. B., Junior, F. L., Rosa, R. L., & Rodríguez, D. Z. (2017, October). Evaluation of Sentiment and Affectivity Analysis in a Blog Recommendation System. In Proceedings of the XVI Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems (p. 25). https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3160559
Gërxhani, K., & Koster, F. (2015). Making the right move. Investigating employers’ recruitment strategies. Personnel Review, 44(5), 781-800. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/PR-12-2013-0229
Hilal, S., Densley, J. A., & Jones, D. S. (2017). A signaling theory of law enforcement hiring. Policing and Society, 27(5), 508-524. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=a6a339ad-8979-4e6e-9c5a-e2fdf296826e%40pdc-v-sessmgr06
How information supports decision-making. (2019). University of Maryland University College. https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/361829/viewContent/14073025/View
Jiang, D., & Shang, W. (2017, May). Design and implementation of recommendation system of micro video. In 2017 IEEE/ACIS 16th International Conference on Computer and Information Science (ICIS) (pp. 483-485). https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/icis/2017/5507/00/07960040-abs.html
Kaur, P. (2015). E-recruitment: A conceptual study. International Journal of Applied Research, 1(8), 78-82. Retrieved from http://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2015/vol1issue8/PartB/1-8-44.pdf
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://202.166.170.213:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3849/Project%20management%20%20a%20systems%20approach%20to%20planning%2C%20scheduling%2C%20and%20controlling.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education India. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/6946733/10.1.1.130.4393.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1551175210&Signature=od8p0xJSqG4P1Zs9%2B1uFe7IElfk%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DCrossing_the_Rubicon_A_Generic_Intellige.pdf#page=103.
Melanthiou, Y., Pavlou, F., & Constantinou, E. (2015). The use of social network sites as an e-recruitment tool. Journal of Transnational Management, 20(1), 31-49. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15475778.2015.998141
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Retrieved from https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:f-elYwWCTzoJ:scholar.google.com/+Human+resource+management:+Gaining+a+competitive+advantage.+New+York,+NY:+McGraw-Hill+Education&hl=en&as_sdt=0,21.
Oke, L. (2016). Human resources management. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS) ISSN 2356-5926, 1(4), 376-387. Retrieved from http://ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/article/view/275.
Van Aken, D., Pavlo, A., Gordon, G. J., & Zhang, B. (2017, May). Automatic database management system tuning through large-scale machine learning. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Conference on Management of Data(pp. 1009-1024). ACM. Retrieved from http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/3070000/3064029/p1009-van-aken.pdf?ip=69.250.92.47&id=3064029&acc=CHORUS&key=4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E6D218144511F3437&__acm__=1551171658_903a112abc00acc31ad707c5b4e74ded.