Choosing the Best Method of Service Desk Automation for a Growing Government

Organizations and companies come up with plan that ar aimed at ensuring their advantage in meeting the needfully of their customers as a gait towards the achievement of arrangemental goals. Therefore, planning is the first step towards the realization of a companies goals as laid down by its vision and mission soilment. Coming up with a good policy is non good enough if any brass instrument is to meet its goals and then communication of the goals to al matchless members of the validation is equ whollyy grand in the realization of the goals.The communication mechanism and the pith be bed ar the key aspects that fancy the success of this grade and therefore they fox to be rise up researched on and be relevant to the fundamental law. The preparation and the communication phases atomic number 18 just the fist two steps which act as a guide toward the instruction execution phase in strategical planning. The murder phase in strategic development nominate be desc ribed as the action phase. Therefore, as lots as the formula and communication phase play Copernican roles in the strategic development, much focus is placed on implementation.Formulation and implementation are a essential(prenominal) and communication is considered a means to the success of the action. Thus the implementation phase is one of the most monitored and resource intensive phase in strategic development to ensure onusiveness and efficiency in deli actually and so the success of the entire strategic development. The importance of breeding in the agencyrn study conscious society can never be under stated. As it is oft the case, effective management of information governance is not a sunshine afternoon walk on the b all(prenominal).It is far from defined and is practically filled with uncertainties. Furthermore, the benefits of automating the implementation energize been as well tempting for most organizations and hence the emergence of a system that allows for automation of the last two dish upes in strategic planning is seen as inevitable in organizations that are serious about staying afloat. The question is no longer about automation but rather about how to go about it. Problem logical argument Two overturees to the development of automation for organization that are moving from a manual system befool been adopted.An organization moving from an old system whitethorn choose to two develop their own or bargain for an already make system. There are several issue involved in deciding on whether to demoralize or to wee-wee a system and and then e genuinely organization must(prenominal) look at these factors keenly before do a closing as it has a considerable bearing on the strength of the organization in meeting the require of its customers and their expectation at the metre of implementation and in future. Furthermore, such strategic finiss that shine an organizations future invariably ca-ca an effect on al most all aspects of the organization including the s pushholders.Development of in-ho go for parcel requires long term commitment in terms of resources and cartridge clip from developers who often have too much to do and not enough metre (Jenny, 2004). On the otherwise hand, if a company decides to bribe the software it effectively enters a long term business coition with a v rarityor who not only charge high amounts for the purchase of the license but a considerable chunk of the organizations finances will be directed towards the customization and installation of the software.The organization which is medium surface and in its active process period faces a tough finality on the implementation of the software especially in consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The advantages of construction an automated help oneself desk att shoemakers lastant system may imply the reduction of the bell involved, moreover the organizations labor fo rce are presented with a pass to understand the in details with regards to the working of the automated conduct system.Furthermore, the need for training of hold ups staff for information technology is eliminated as they are responsible for the systems existence and are thus closely conversant on its operations. On the other hand, the disadvantage may include the need for IT labor can be significant in the organizations budget, furthermore the approach does not have any form of guarantee that will help the organization in recovery in case the system crashes as they are solely responsible for the existence and maintenance of the system.In addition, the approach is associated with a considerable amount of pain experienced by the customers and the end users of the system in case of system malfunction or lapse in performance. Lastly the make process can be so demanding on an in-house IT department or team that is not sanitary conversed with the application that the organization intends to come up with. A finding to buy the mail service help condescend system involves a thorough survey and the calculation of the total woo involved in ownership, closing of the trounce software company and ware and the actual purchase of the automated location put forward system (Coldwell, 1999).The role of what the company needs is a very critical part in the decision making process as most individuals and executive often fail at this phase and instead state what the organizations wants. Moreover, the considerations on the financial stability of the software company and their level of experience all come in handy in the decision making process. After the determination of all these, the focus hen shifts to what the organization needs after which a purchase is made.Some of the benefits associated with this approach include increase in user satisfaction, well developed user put up, reduced need for innate help raise and easy access to bread and butter any duratio n of the day. The disadvantages may include change magnitude cost associated with training of staff on the use of the new software, furthermore the process of buying which is quite length may ignore whatsoever aspects tip to the purchase of a poor help sustentation system. Lastly, customization of the systems to meet the needs of the customers is done by an noncitizen which often lead to conflict of interest. Significance of the StudyUsing a help desk management software leads to the increase in efficiency in operation as it allows for the solution of some of the redundant issues over call. This has the effect of cut down traveling costs and man-hour billing to field engineers as they go to customer sites. Research Question The answer of this research is to contain whether purchasing COTS or take a shiting a service desk tracking application is scoop up for the automation and tracking of the GovComm, Inc. technology provide function Helpdesk. To answer this question, thi s research must explore ? The entities of GovComm, Inc.Engineering delay Services Helpdesk ? Based on advantages and disadvantages, which qualities of each configuration opera hat adhere to Engineering Support Services automation and asset tracking ? If these applications fulfill stakeholders requirements Design and Methodology This research is qualitative, drawing loosely from a review of the literature on the subject of Helpdesk/ swan desk tracking applications and the battle of bring ining versus buying to determine which application structure provides efficient asset tracking, mischance notification, and metrics collection. GovComm, Inc.s Engineering Support Services will be reviewed to discover details that might affect the factors that will offer to the decision of choosing build or buy. From the review of the internal workings of GovComm, Inc. s Engineering Support Services a decision will be made upon comparison with the inherent record of the two systems of implement ation. Chapter 2 Literature Review automate office systems support (AOSS) is a model made up of teams of technicians in computer who are aerated with the responsibility of providing a variety of support activities in a scope computer environment and area networks for any organization.To ensure the provision of high feel services and products, each of these teams must follow the processes, standard and procedures. A process referred to as quality assurances is used in observe and evaluation of the level of adherence to the procedures processes and standard in a bid to determine the potential quality that the product will attain. Therefore, QA involves review and audit of the services and activities as a means of verification of their conformation with the relevant procedures and standards so as to assure the appropriate results are seen.The question of whether to buy or build an AOSS is one of the very complex decisions that an organization has to deal with in its daily activiti es. It is in deed a perpetual dilemma for the organizations that are contemplating on automating their office activities. Buying implies purchasing an off-shelf automated office systems support that are produced in mass by some software company, more often multinationals (Leopoldo, 1999). The products typically comport contents that are not unique to a particular organizations or user population needs.Moreover, it is the frequent trend in the software application to create new softwares that do no conflict with the alert and thus the technology can be implemented without conflict with the existing systems. Build imply the inception of Automated office systems support from scratch (Leopoldo, 1999). Therefore, the process of building requires the determination of the organizational needs, the data and information temperament and needs of the organization, design of the system an the actual implementation of the system.The process of building may and often include testing the e nd product to ensure that its functionality are as per the objectives that acted as the basis for its formulation (Leopoldo, 1999). A decision to buy or build a Automated office systems support may seem to be complex but in reality it can be reduced to tether considerations Resources, Needs and uniqueness. The organization must intelligibly determine its needs and wants before a decision is made, this may involve identification of features which are critical in meeting the organizations needs. In determination of the organizational needs they must consider the following? Organizational objectives ? Skills ? Information needs ? Culture ? Corporate direction. Meeting all the needs is an unfeasible event and therefore setting priorities is inevitable. Resources Resource as a factor is one that many organizations and individual would quickly jump at an opportunity to ignore. However, examination of resources is a very important aspect to the development agenda. Moreover, many organi zations make the mistake of viewing resource in the monetary place only. Although notes as a resource is quite critical, two other pieces clipping and personnel, need to be considered to complete the puzzle (Shrapre, 1999).Time When interpreted in the context of all building or buying a Automated office systems support, date takes the following into account ? The time that will interpreted in decision making. ? The developmental time of the Automated office systems support including the time taken in testing. ? The time taken in rolling out the Automated office systems support or implement it within the organization. psycho compend of organizations against the three time variables helps in the determination of the importance of time in deciding whether to buy or build. Decision makingThe time taken by the organization in making decision is quite alter and cannot be correctly determined as the record of the problem and other variables that can never be determined nor controll ed easily have a great bearing on the total time (Curan & Mitchell, 2001). The spirit of the organization and the cast of decision to be made also have a bearing on the time taken. It time critical decision making the aspects of time is important and the challenge thus lies in coming up with sound decision within limited time (Curan & Mitchell, 2001).Most theories adopted in decision making leave out the time taken in selection of actions which is often considerable in organizations where the decisions are viewed differently by constituent members (Curan & Mitchell, 2001). Coming up with a solution that are made without consideration of a well carried out problem solving session could lead to solutions that lack in operational significance, thus any decision making should be aimed at finding the solution that is either associated with the least cost or most returns of the total costs (Curan & Mitchell, 2001).In coming up with the cost, organizations must include the cost and effor t taken in thinking and coming up with a plan or a policy in determination of the time taken in decision making. The problem with time considerations is that complex problems may hinder the development of best solutions (Spezzano & Mertens, 1999). In some instances, coming up with the best solutions could be within organizations grasp but the cost associated with such may not be unexceptionable to the organization. The organizational structure plays a great role in the speed of the decision making process (Spezzano & Mertens, 1999).A structure whereby all members of the organization have to be involved is time consuming (Kaplinsky, 2007). Such an approach is inclusive and the decisions made from this approach are more likely to meet two the needs and wants of the organization. The implementation of such policies is often smooth as those aerated with the responsibility of carrying out the policies are well informed of the good and thus have the motivation required for the implemen tation. The tread off in this approach is the time taken the approach requires organization wide consultation and is time intensive.Getting the opinion of each and everyone in a medium or large organization and coming upon with a decision based on their varied views can be demanding on an organizations financial resources and time. Most organizations have adopted a mechanism where the executives and purloin managers exclusively take part in the formulation of the policies. Such an approach is time conscious and often leads to timely formulation of policies. Despite this, the relevance of the policies to the needs of the organization is brought into question as the people charged with the responsibility of implementation are not included in the formulation.Policies implemented done this mechanism often address what the organization wants rather than what it needs since organizations are best known by the people charged with the duty of policy implementation. Deciding on the correc t approach is thus complicated as some(prenominal) time and relevance of decisions are very important, moreover, company heads have in a tour of make made decisions that have turned out to be for the good of organizations without necessarily involving everyone, this complicates the issue even further.Therefore, organizations have to consider all the factors inherent of their organization that affect the decision making effort and thus the cost of decision making associated with each approach before deciding on whether to buy or build Automated office systems support. Developmental Time The time taken in the development of Automated office systems support varies with the approach employed. Other factors inherent of an organization also play an important part in the determination of the total time the organization will take in coming up with a new system (Tapscott, 1998).The developmental time can be viewed in two contexts the time taken in building an Automated office systems supp ort and the time taken in buying an off-shelf Automated office systems support. The time taken in building a new Automated office systems support is generally larger than that taken in buying (Tapscott, 1998). Moreover, the factors that are influential on the overall time taken in building are more compared to those in buying.The total time taken in building is influenced by internal and external factors which include the accessibility of resources, the organization and coordination of all those involved in the implementation of the bear. The level and the availability of the required expertise within the organizations working environment is a consideration. The availability of the required software and hardware components required in coming up with Automated office systems support is fundamental. The software and the hardware components must be as per the required functionality set by the organization needs.Change in government policies and market place trends may greatly affec t the availability of the required components and thus have an effect n the developmental time (Tapscott, 1998). In addition the needs of the users often change with time and this may require the alteration of components that are already in place which lead to delay. The time taken in buying a new system is highly dependent on external factors that are not within the control of the organization (Tapscott, 1998). In most cases organizations lose time in this stage for reasons that are not within their reach or control.Buying as a process requires a well complete resource base and a good legal framework to fully engage the system as a whole (Kenyon, 2001). The market takes are influential on the speed of purchase and thus very important in the determination of the total developmental time. The actual location of an organization is also important in evaluating the total buying time. An organization in an urban setting find it easy to buy software and hardware components as the avail ability and cost associated with their purchase is small compared to those in a farming(prenominal) setting.Personnel This is also one of the most overlooked factors (Kenyon, 2001). In consideration of the personnel, decision on whether to buy or build an Automated office systems support requires company wide consultation (Kenyon, 2001). As organizations analyses their resources they must determine what they have and the needed personnel required for the implementation of the Automated office systems support. The organization should determine the number of open technical staff available for the support.If organizations lack or anticipate a lack of personnel, they must decide on when and where the required staff will be obtained from, which may involve the determination of the cost of the support (Kenyon, 2001). Money Money is an important consideration in strategic development as it affects the nature of the budget. A limited or unlimited budget has a great bearing on the cream o f whether to buy or build an Automated office systems support (Katzan, 2002). In consideration of the budget both individuals and organizations must consider the pathetic and long term benefits that will be accrued by the implementation of either methods.This may also involve the analysis of the effects of the non-implementation of the alternative. The importance of money is such that without it the project is non-existent (Levy, 2001). Therefore, organization are required to accurately estimate their resource requirements before a decision on whether to buy or build an Automated office systems support is made. The cost involved in both cases have to be estimated and any other factors that may affect the estimated cost determined.Moreover, since all factors can never be determined accurately, including a contingency or escape plan in the formulation of the trustworthy policy will ensure that the organization is well prepared for any eventuality (Kenyon, 2001). The effect of money on the total time taken also depends on the government policies, market and persistence condition that can affect the availability of resources especially money (Carter, 1999). Expected change in areas that currently affect the availability of funds largely determines the feasibility of the project in future.The availability of additional funding and all the factors that affect it, which may include legal and political issues all play important roles. Uniqueness The nature of organizations differ and therefore their requirements may vary though the degree depends on the organizations world considered. A study consideration is thus the uniqueness of the needs of the organization. In determination of the uniqueness of an organizations needs the following have to be looked into ? What are the needs of the organization? ? What are the objectives in the implementation of Automated office systems support What are the connections amongst the available of the shelf-software and the need ed capabilities in what the organization looks for in Automated office systems support? ? Does the implementation of the system go in line with the industry and market needs? ? What is the relationship between the methodology of choice and the organizational enculturation? The determination of the answers to this question as per the context of the organization helps in coming up with the level of uniqueness needed for the Automated office systems support and thus plays a very important role in the determination of whether to buy or build.The needs of an organization are defined as its requirements to perform in the industry (Herbert & Sparck, 2004). The needs are thus the components that are necessary for the survival of a business in the industry that it is in. The needs are the basic components of the operational environment. design of the needs requires one to look deeply into the processes and establish their requirements, outputs, behavior and interaction before any modificat ion aimed at the improvements of the processes is made.It is noteworthy that every process has a number of factors that affect it both from its external and internal environment. Moreover, every activity or operation than an organization may undertake in can be broken into a number of processes and thus determination of the needs of the organization is done effectively in an efficient manner. The implementation of developmental agenda in any organization is best done through strategic planning (Buckingham, 2006). Strategic planning involves the formulation of a plan aimed at development of some project(s) so as to ensure organizational growth.Any plan that is developed with success in mind must have a well laid out action plan that is characterized by well intentioned and real objectives. It is important that the objectives of any plan be in line with the actual needs of the organization. Therefore, the objectives of the organization in coming up with an Automated office systems su pport must be established and documented exoneratedly so that the guidelines in the implementation of the policies that arise as a result of the consideration of the objectives be in line with the organizational goals.Moreover, the objectives in the implementation of a plan differ according to the priorities of the organization and are therefore unique to the problem being addressed and the organizational approach to problem solving. After the determination of the exact needs of the organization, the available software and software components have to be evaluated. An important consideration is that in either case the organization has to buy either software components to, or the full Automated office systems support since the organization does not engage in the manufacture of softwares (Gibson, 2004).Thus, determination of the needs of the organization and the available software capability in meeting those needs must be established. Moreover, organizations must effectively determine any addition capabilities possessed by the available softwares that may enhance service delivery. These capabilities which meet the wants of the organization must be addressed clearly and effectively if the investment is to be a success. Industrial and market considerations also contribute a great deal in deciding whether to build or buy Automated office systems support.An industry is defined as a collection of businesses and related economics (Gibson, 2004). The industry is thus one of the factors that is influential on the strategic development of any organization. Companies may choose to either go with the trends of the industry or adopt a trend that can be considered as being contrary, in either case there are pros and cons that must be considered. The effects of the trends in an industry do impact on its players. Moreover, how the effect is felt by the constituent members depend on their abilities and thus differs across the industry.An occurrence in an industry may be viewed by the sector players as an opportunity or a threat depending on their policies, resource base and technical capabilities (Gibson, 2004). Policies implemented by organization under the consideration of the industry may be aimed at measuring up to other players in the industry or gaining an edge over them. In either consideration the nature of the organization in question plays a great role in the strategic direction adopted. The market is a very important consideration in deciding on what strategic direction an organization will adopt in pursuing its vision.Most organizations are in business for the sole aim of meeting their customers needs and thus their strategies are often biased towards the achievement of this cause. The customers needs are an aspect of business that is nearly impossible to predict. The requirements and the expectation often shift with changes in technology, industry, preferences, fashion and taste. The social, environmental, legal, political and economic factor s all have a great bearing on the market and thus on the decision.Moreover, in market considerations, expected growth in the future plays a central role in formulation of current market strategies. In consideration of the market needs, the policies formulated are often aimed at coming up with directions that will best meet the needs of the market so as to either match the other players or wee-wee a reputation and thus a free-enterprise(a) advantage. Organizational farming Organizational culture is defined as the shared values and beliefs within an organization (Wilkes, 2000).The culture also comprises of the norms and beliefs and is thus an in build system within an organization (Wilkes, 2000). Thus organizational culture is specific to an organization and it defines the relationship and the nature of the interaction between members of an organization and is influential on the nature of the relationship with outsiders (Wilkes, 2000). The culture is also expressed of the goals tha t are set for each member of the organization and is seen to go in line with thee vision of the organization. From the clear definition, goals, guidelines or expectations are developed these constitute the norms.The management may try to instill some kind of a culture on its employees, this type of culture is thus described as corporate culture and is more specific (Wilkes, 2000). The classification of culture takes on diverse dimensions and therefore the analysis of the effects must also take on the same trend. The following are some of the factors that are used in classification of organizational culture ? The expected differences in power levels. ? The extent to which the organizations members are willing to take risks. ? The level of collectivism or individualism in an organization. ? Gender aspects.? Orientation, which can either be short or long term. Any strategy that an organization comes up with must be within the organizational setting and thus be relevant to the organizat ion culture. A clash between the strategies and the organizational culture will lead to the flop of any program, therefore all organizations must ensure that their development plans are in line with the culture, failure to which the implementation will be a flop. Support for the policies After the analysis of needs, resources and uniqueness, there is an additional factor that must be considered in coming up with a decision support.The organizational support to the mode chosen is very critical in the determination of the success of the mode of choice in meeting the needs of the organization. This is because it affect how members of the organization receive the decision. Support can be categories into three ? Upper level support ? Like/ Colleague level ? End user support Management The reasons for support by upper management staff and executives is quite clear. The main reason for their support is the power they posses in the implementation of the plan especially in resource allocatio n and policy formulation (Woodruff, 2005).Moreover, the obvious nature of the need to influence the top executives often lead to concentration on them and thus ignoring the other members. Organizations must ensure that such occurrence are minimized and if possible eliminated as they can cause failure of well intentioned plans. Colleagues This group is made up of all those that the organization have to interact with in their daily undertaking (Woodruff, 2005). The importance of this group lies in counteracting the power that the organizations executives have on the decision making process.The support of the members of the organizations operational environment plays a very important role in influencing the decision. Therefore, enlighten the colleagues on the importance of Automated office systems support will go in line with drum up support for the implementation of the approach of choice. In addition, enlightening the colleagues to understand the implementation of the plan, which it is meant for and the effect of its implementation on their jobs will go a long way in influencing their support.End Users Even though they have the power to influence the success of a plan, the end user are often ignored in lobbying for support (Woodruff, 2005). The end users have the power to render the plan a failure by deciding not to use the product, which will have the effect of changing the attitude of the colleagues and the management executives on the effectiveness and efficiency of the adopted Automated office systems support acquirement mechanism.Moreover, the sabotage need not be intentional the failure of the system may be due to their lack of understanding of why the product is necessary or as a show of their lack of support of the governance model adopted. Furthermore, the products failure in meeting the needs of the end user could lead to failure and thus the importance of the end user in deciding on whether to buy or build Automated office systems support can never be downplayed.The Decision Process Whenever an organization decides to buy, the decision is always an aftermath of a series of processes. The decision may be instantaneous or take a long time though buying is a process and not an event (Woodruff, 2005). No matter the length of the process the origin is when a company becomes aware of the need (Woodruff, 2005). The need is then identified and the organizations searches for avenues through which the needs can be met.In the process of information or data gathering, the criteria that will be used in buying affects the buying process and should therefore be evaluated and refined. It is advisable for organizations to choose a few alternatives that are considered to be the best from the lot. Once a decision in reached and a choice made the purchase is made which is another process that can be quite time consuming (Woodruff, 2005). In summary, the decision to buy can be broken into five stages in which the first three are also constituted i n a decision to build? Identification ? Searching ? rating ? Decision ? purchase ? Reevaluation i. Identification This is the phase in which the organization realizes that it has a need that can be met by an Automated office systems support. The identification could be as a result of the failure of the system that they are using, increased competition from their rivals who have automated or as a strategy to gain some competitive leverage on players in the industry who are still implementing the manual system or are using a poor automated system.ii. Searching This is more of a research phase where the organization analyses itself, processes together with the industry to come up with the aspects in which it is lacking (Woodruff, 2005). Moreover, the organization can establish areas in which it can improve in so as to aid the establishment of its presence in the industry. iii. Evaluation In this phase the results from the searching p