ITM 580 Core Comp Essay

Risk management is a critical component to the success of any supply chain, yet this is still an area that sees little forward movement. In many organizations, risk management is viewed more as a reactive department, only becoming operational when a significant disruption arises in contrast to being an active and continual department with focused effort. As a supply chain moves to take on a global stance, risk management cannot be treated as a reactive measure. Global supply chains are exposed to greater risk than local/domestic supply chains as their linkage is more

Analysis the core competencies is a major step into defining a company's strategy. No company should forget what are its capabilities and competencies. A company should always take these matters into account to shape a strategy and to achieve profitability.

The same principles are followed in other types of organizations that is focusing only on core competencies and offloading other tasks for suppliers. IT organizations can help their parent company by emphasizing only on core competencies. Since, technology has become highly complex and broad therefore it needs number of specialties. Advancements are made to the technology every day and the one who comes up with the consumers' demands rules the market. Therefore, in such scenario, the IT Company must identify its core competencies and polish them as smoothly that it outperforms competitors.

The first element proposed by Smith was strategic alignment and it is delivering strategic direction of IT and

 Include the specific element of supply chain risk (2 points) to be covered in your

The best strategic plan will never be fully achieved without alignment. This is because organizational alignment is one of the key determinants of successful strategy implementation. Each member of the company must know their job and that they can rely on their leaders, training, equipment, and the technique, skills, and commitment of their coworkers. When cohesion and alignment is off, the company goes off course, wastes time, energy, and the resources that were invested (Rick, 2014).

“Competencies … relate to the behaviors underpinning successful performance; what it is people do in order to meet their objectives; how they go about achieving the required outcomes; what enables their competent performance.” (p. 63)

IT-Business alignment is the relationship between IT-professionals and the body of the company that is the business professionals. IT-Business alignment involves effective communication and the ability of business and IT professionals to work together within an organization to achieve the objectives of the company. This alignment is most successful when the postures of IT and the rest of the company are on the same page. An example of good IT-business alignment would be a companies IT professionals working together with Business professionals in order to reach a common goal and sharing ideas and working towards accomplishing them. The development of Boston Scientific’s datacenter were a result of good IT-Business alignment as a result from aligning their postures to collaborate. They had IT-Professionals working directly with heads of the facilities in order optimize the datacenter location. This created a renowned industry standard for sustainable datacenter design. Poor IT-Business alignment or misalignment is a company hiring consultants to come in and perform work you have a department to do. This makes current employees feel undervalued and creates a poor work environment. Your not only wasting money on hiring outsiders but you miss the chance to develop a stronger solution to a problem that is created from within, but then can be built better and worked on from the creators.

The larger a company’s supply chain, the more vulnerable the company becomes. When the company’s suppliers spread further and further away from the company, the company becomes even more vulnerable to political and currency risk, cyber attacks, missed inventory goals, and failed communication with the supply chain. For a company to overcome those potential vulnerabilities, a company must build safeguards into their operations. Those safeguards include a strong corporate backing in supply chain management, solid relationships with suppliers, more attention to forecasting, and a holistic approach to sustainability.

The solution to what ills the alignment of IT strategy and business strategy can be found in the alignment of the organization’s CEO, CIO, and CFO. In order for the business strategy and the IT strategy to come together to for any type of alignment (cutting edge) there must be harmony among this group. The reason why this select few people are important to the alignment process is because of their roles inherent within the organization. Below is an illustration followed by a brief description of each role and what that person would be expected to bring to the organization.

Throughout my career, I have always been sought after for my experience and skill in being able to fuel an agency’s desire to change and adopt a culture that thrives on innovation and I have been successful, by authoring the strategic and operational plans, necessary to move the agency business goals forward. I have been implementing the corresponding governance oversight to ensure that the plans result in the successful adoption of new technologies. Over 20 years of experience in providing expert, high-level technical advice and counsel to the CIO, executives, stakeholders, and users on matters that affect or relate to current and existing IT, planning, functions and programs. Serve as a technical strategy advisor on projects requiring high-level strategy alignment, technical vision, management evaluation and oversight. Create optimal strategies for applying and optimizing technology; establish new technology objectives in line with agency objectives; and articulate business advantages of technological development

“The topic the value creation of information technology in an organization” discusses the impact information technology has brought in an organization. Information technology has become mandatory for any organization that needs to reach its optimal goals and objectives and it has therefore become necessary for every organization that needs to operate above break-even-point to continuously upgrade the organization information systems.

Forming a risk management plan to ensure the disruptions of the supply chain are minimized and the negative affect of grounded flights are limited. Identifying possible risks, analyzing risks, identifying risk triggers, forming risk resolution ideas, formulating an action plan, and assigning responsibility are the processes for forming a risk management plan (Dcosta, 2014). Supply chain risk management empower organizations to ease the harmful effects of continent-wide disruption to air travel. Contingency planning around air travel interferences

Attempts to clearly describe supply chain risk management since the literature is replete with buzzwords that address elements or stages of this new management philosophy.

Therefore, IT managers need effective management systems and processes to help them deal with the issues and challenges inherent in their responsibilities. Feeny and Willcocks (1998) suggested that core IS competencies are needed to assist the development of IT, measurable in terms of IT activities supported, and resulting business performance. Figure 1 shows the 9 core IS competencies. The research carried out indicated that in order to have a successful IT function there are four major tasks which need to be accomplished. These include: co-ordination and leadership; ensuring technical capability; managing the external supply; and meeting the business’s requirements.