The Professional Skills for Business Analysis

Question: Explain the professional skills for business analysis. Answer: The current assignment revolves around the professional skills for business analysis. A business usually requires a set of skills and knowledge. The current assignment mainly focuses on ICT outsourcing. It is evident that ICT outsourcing can be considered as one of the recent trends for the organizations across the globe to run the business more effectively. In addition, it is also observed that ICT outsourcing gained an immense popularity and it has received favorable responses from the large corporation in most the developed countries like UK. However, there are some potential risks and advantage associated with the ICT outsourcing. Thus, to understand those pros and cons, the current report considers a business scenario, where the benefits and loss of ICT outsourcing are demonstrated. Journal Entry Report on outsourcing of ICT Objectives One of the major objectives of the organization is to increase the security of the business and make profits from the use of best ICT business practices. The functions of ICT could help to achieve these goals and provide effective opportunities as well as benefits for the organization. in addition, the objective of ICT outsourcing is to deal with the potential challenges. ICT is one of the first areas that should be considered while looking to minimize the cost and improve efficiency of the business. The concerned organization is determined to evolve ICT outsourcing to identify its opportunities as well as benefits. Advantages and disadvantages There have been several advantage and disadvantages of outsourcing ICT. The organization could a huge amount of profits from ICT outsourcing. As mentioned by (), each aspect of its operation can be controlled or monitored through the implementation of ICT such as stock, distribution, communication technique, payroll and many more. Thus, it can be mentioned that ICT is necessary for particular aspects such as planning, monitoring, auditing and communication. Apart from all these, there are some significant benefits associated with ICT outsourcing. Swiftness and Expertise- There are many cases where the organizations required outsourcing the tasks to particular vendors who tend to specialize in their field. Likewise, the outsourced vendors also have some special equipment as well as technical expertise. Thus, the tasks can be accomplished faster with effective quality output. Core process instead of supporting ones- Outsourcing the supporting process, the organization finds it easy to strengthen the basic business technique. Risk-sharing- it is observed that risk sharing is one of the significant factors that help to determine the outcomes of a campaign is the risk analysis. For example, outsourcing particular components of the business techniques help the company to shift particular responsibilities to the outsourced vendor. Moreover, with the help of ICT outsourcing functions, the organization could plan for the risk-mitigating factors effectively. Minimized operational and recruitment expense- Outsourcing ICT could elude the requirements to hire people for work. Here, the expense of recruitment and operation can be reduced largely. This is considered as one of the major advantage of offshore outsourcing. As the advantages of ICT outsourcing, there have also been some particular disadvantages associated with outsourcing ICT. Risk of disclosing confidential information- When an enterprise outsources HR, recruitment services, and payroll, it could involve certain risk while exposing confidential data of the organization to third party. Synchronization of the deliveries- If the organization is not able to select the right partner for outsourcing, some of the common issues may include stretched delivery time frames and inappropriate division of responsibilities. At some point, it could be easier to operate the factors within an organization. Hidden Cost- Though outsourcing has been cost effective till now, there are many case where the organizations have to deal with the hidden price that is involved in the significant contract. In addition, the hidden costs involved in the signed contract could pose a serious threat to the concerned parties. Lack of customer focus- An outsourced vendor could be catering to the expertise needs of several organizations. In such particular case, the vendors may not be able to give complete attention to organization task. Different outsourcing delivery models In order to gain the effectiveness of ICT outsourcing, the organizations experiment different outsourcing delivery model. The effective delivery model gives the flexibility to the customers to select the available options that suit them best. Some particular models could provide benefits to the Offshore delivery Model: Through offshore delivery model, the entire project is implemented in different country that offers lower price. The progress of the project is reviewed and monitored through face-to-face contact. Offsite delivery model: In this particular model, the outsourcing vendors take the responsibility of the cost of entire office space and materials. The project receives all necessary resources for the successful accomplishment. Onsite: In this particular model, the outsourcing vendors tends to place the skilled and experienced professionals to perform pre-defined tasks such as requirement analysis and specification development. Nearshore- This particular model is considered as the variant offshore model where the offshore vendor is situated in a place close to clients location. In addition, this model may allow having travels that are more frequent between the sites by minimizing the communication overhead to the minimum standard. Recommendation Although, ICT plays an important role in developing the ways of business, there are certain areas that should be developed for better technology and communication. It is observed that accessibility and affordability has gradually increased. The traders get the opportunities for utilizing ICT solutions for e-services and reaching particular audience. However, the organizations need to arrange the funds to acquire modern ICT facilities. Information/ Application System Development The development of information systems need to be under a web based technology such as PHP and MySQL technology. The application design should use a multi-user, online and web based environment. In addition, the web based application need to be hosted at the head office of the organization. Process flow model The large organizations that tend to outsource ICT often use and change the business models. Thus, they use different approaches to implementing the models effectively. As the objectives are to gain profits, the concerned organization could select four different approaches of business to increase the effectiveness of its current business model. The four different approaches are such as usage of the models, resources, customers and the competitors. These four approaches contribute to implement the business model of the organization. Usage of models- Through this particular approach, the company could identify its clients as the focus is on targeting the customers. Thereafter, the approach helps to learn the users of the products produced by the organization. The customers use the products or the applications provided by the organization globally. However, it is necessary to know how the customers use the applications and what issues they face while using the application. Lastly, it is important to focus on the current technical characteristics associated with Information Communication and Technology. Thereby, further modification can be done. Resources-Hence, the resources refer to the organizational resources based on which it could think of developing the business approaches. It may involve the skills and the partners. The company needs to focus on the current financial situation since the changes in the current business process may require a large investment. Likewise, they should pay attention to the current skills strengths. The analysis of the skills strengths helps to learn the skills that are required to be changed. Lastly, the enterprise could decide to choose the partners. There are many organization that implements the approach of partnership to resolve the financial crisis. Customers- Consumer analysis is also one of the important aspects that are required to be considered while developing the current business approaches. Changes in the business approach may have a large impact on the customers. In such as case, the organization needs to pay full attention to the customers. By conducting a customer analysis, they could learn the needs and demands of the customers. Similarly, it is also important to learn the competitive advantages that customers gain. Competitors-A business should always be aware of the external environment. While running a business in the existing market or in the new market, the organization should learn the current approach of the competitors. If the organization is running the business in existing market, then it is necessary to know the new competitors. The newcomers could through big challenges, as their initial objective is increase the market share. Request for information (RFI)- The concerned organization could receive required information from the certain organizations that provide operation services. The organizations provide operation for desktop, service for network operation, management of network system. The current system of the organization is centralized by ICT focal resource worldwide. With the help of its effective business approaches, the organization seeks for the following information. Desktop Hardware/software support Operating system administration and support Management of networking infrastructure and security devices Enterprise file storage and management system RFI The project managers of the organizations take the responsibility to appoint a preferred supplier to the project. It may be difficult for the project managers to find the right supplier at the right time as it is somewhat challenging. Thus, to ensure that organization appoints the best available supplier, it is necessary to undertake certain processor steps. The initial step is in the process is to document a statement of work that could describe the procurement requirements of the concerned project. The project managers need to define organizations procurement requirements. The organization should provide the opportunity to register an interest to the potential supplier. This can be achieved by releasing a comprehensive Request For Information document to the market. There are certain steps involved to release or create a Request For Information document that are mentioned below. Document a Statement of Work- By documenting a statement of work, it is easy to record the goods and services to be acquired from the external supplier. Document a Request for Information- RFI helps to describe the techniques for a supplier to register an interest while supplying the product to the concerned project. RFI also helps to explain the information required of each supplier to permit the project team to analyze the strengths and weakness. Thus, the project manager could select a supplier. Release SOW (Statement of Work) to the existing market- This particular thing is done through the advertisement in newspapers, trade magazines as well as tender distribution activities. The content of the advertisement includes the procurement requirements of the project. The advertisement also describes how an interested supplier could obtain copy of RFI to go through. If the supplier acquired a copy of RFI, they may generate a formal responses and forward to the team for consideration. Collect and review tender responses- The project team of the organization may review each responses and provide feedbacks on the basis of the ability of the supplier to satisfy the requirements of the project. Selection of the tenders and notification of the suppliers- Based on the overall responses given by tenders and rated by the project team, tenders are selected. Generally, top 3-5 tender responses are chosen to proceed to the supplier proposal phase. Releasing a Request for Information includes multiple type of steps to be covered. Thus, in order to create a detailed RFI that covers all the requirements, it is significant to include above mentioned project management tools. Evaluation Methodology It is evident that building KPI systems plays a vital role in evaluating job performance of individual parts. The development of KPI metrics could help to generate measurement system information system across the organization. There have been multiple types of KIPs and SLAs that could help to identify the potential issues in the concerned project. The organization could ask the outsourcer to deliver the services to the organization. Estimation of project completion-Hence, if the requirements of the project successfully meet the criteria, the completion of the project should not take much time. However, there have been certain cases where the organization may change the requirement. In such a case, the time and cost of completing the project may increase. Number of unresolved issues- While working on the project some multiple types of issues may appear. Thus, project team should keep a track of the potential issues so that further actions can easily be implemented. For example, the employees may leave working on the project in the middle or their performance may not be up to the mark. These types of issues could occur due to poor skills of the employees. Thus, the outsourcer should be concerned of all these and develop immediate solutions for avoiding any delay in the project. Labor cost spent- The overall labor expense of completing the project should be 10% less than the expense of the previous month. The requirements for the proposed project have been measured. The project should be delivered within the given deadlines. Resources and cost- The cost and resources of the project should be spent based on the requirements. However, if the project does not require a Interface of the project- The outsourcer needs to develop a flawless project so that the concerned organizations need not deal with further issues. In addition, the expectation of the outsourced company should adequately be met. In addition, the requirements of the project may change in the middle. Thus, tenders should be aware of these requirements. Customer satisfaction-The tenders that are undertaking the project should have the ability to meet and satisfy the needs of clients. In the dynamic business environment, the requirements may change. Thus, it is the responsibility of the tenders to provide excellent services to the clients. It is observed that that quality of products and customer satisfaction is the basic aspect that should be considered by the tenders. List of SLAs in the project management It is observed that the information management department has developed a Service Level Agreement to lead and guide the project. The goals of SLAs are to develop the management performance, develop project communication and reduce the risks. Scope The project manager should take the responsibility of leading the efforts of information technology and functional team members who are working on the project. Training and assistance should be provided in setting up the project site with the help of tool features. Report to CEO Objectives The major objective of this report is to provide a developed solution of implementing a project. The project revolves around some particular techniques that could help to manage the resource for the project. In addition, the completion of the project provides an idea of gaining profits from the potential suppliers. Background The trends of ICT outsourcing have become tremendously popular. Many of the large organizations have started outsourcing their ICT. One of the key reasons behind this is, by outsourcing ICT, the organization could use an advanced project without wasting required time 1and financial resources. As the competition of outsourcing ICT is rapidly increasing in every industry. Thus, the concerned organization does not have to spend much on ICT outsourcing. In addition, the completion of the project helps to know the potential suppliers, their quality of work, techniques used for the project and effective relationship with the clients Processes undertaken In order to complete the project, some techniques have been applied. Firstly, the RFI has been published on the newspaper through advertisement. The Requested for Information is circulated that has a clear meaning. Thus, the tenders could go through and read the information properly. Thereby, the responses of the tenders have been collected and checked by the project management experts. Thereafter, the selection of tender has been disclosed. After, order the project, KPS and SLA have been developed and required the supplier to deliver with the project. Scope Although, the project has been completed with successfully, however, the project failed to deliver within the given time framework. The proposed deadline of the project is crossed; thus, the deadline of the project has been extended. Thereafter, while undertaking the project, the requirements of deadline and given resources should be used properly. Solutions and suppliers evaluated The accomplishment of the project has largely been effective for the organization. However, in the case of missing the deadline or demanding additional financial resource need to be properly mentioned in the RFI. The suppliers should implement consulting offers market and project evaluation techniques through the contribution of significant experience of experts. This particular approach provides reliable project assurance as well as dashboard overview of the proposed project developments of initiatives. Recommendations It is identified that supply chain is usually considered as the network of connected as well as an interdependent enterprise that mutually work together. In order to build an effective relationship with suppliers, they could use the model of supply chain integration as it plays an important role in outsourcing ICT. In this context, it can be added that the internet could change the role as well as the type of relationship among different players through a value network chain. Lastly, it can be added that the supply chain integration model could contribute to the development of effective project. In addition, apart from the supply chain integration, the organization needs to focus on its financial resources. Thus, while selecting the tenders or the suppliers for the project, it is necessary for the organization to develop certain requirements that should be conveyed to the suppliers in order to avoid the further crisis of resources. 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