Executive Summary 5: Hybrid IT & The Cloud

Challenge

Several of our competitors are enjoying large profits from there recently launched application hosting or cloud businesses. These business units offer huge benefits for our customers who might not have a skilled IT department or the resources to hire them. There is growth in this market as well as opportunity for immediate market share. 

Solution

We expand our data centers to match anticipated demand from our existing and new clients who would prefer that we host the application for them. This allows them to access our services strictly over the web from any location. No longer do they have to worry about server expenditures and administration. We will provide managed web services and support contracts based on how much infrastructure and services they require. 

Advantages

• New business growth
• Easier implementations; cut back consultants

Challenges

• Coordination with customer
• Customer still wants control but doesn’t want to pay for support and maintenance
• Legal issues

Conclusion
This is still a high growth area that will continue to play a key role in changing the face of IT departments. We must take action as we can no longer afford to lose this business to our competitors.

Executive Summary 4: The Internet of Thermostats

Challenge

The home automation industry is changing. Home owners and facility operators now have the ability to control their environment wirelessly with a tablet or smart phone. All types of products and devices are now interconnected and ‘smarter’ than before. Significant investment and rapid action are needed to capitalize on the opportunities in this space. 

Solution I propose that our Temperature Control/Thermostat Division develop a new wireless thermostat which can be controlled by all common mobile device platforms, such as iOS and Android. In addition, this device will be a ‘smart’ device which gathers data through sensors while analyzing user patterns and behaviors in order to automatically adjust temperatures more accurately. The system will also offer remote management for additional flexibility.

Advantages

• Be a leader in home automation technology
• Reduce energy consumption
• Potential software licensing revenue

Challenges

• Rapid R&D turnaround

Conclusion

This initiative is important for the future of the company. Between the growth in software application development and the Internet of Things over the next 10 years, this product launch will position us for continued success in this competitive landscape.

Executive Summary 3: Big Data

Big Data Challenge

Big data is one of the largest current trends in information systems. It is a very complex, technical industry, which must be entered into with expertise and reason. While there can be huge gains in this area, there are also opportunities to waste significant time and money.

Solution
We will heavily invest in the compute infrastructure, but will utilize an open source big data platform know as Hadoop. The strategy will be to partner with nearby academic research institutions which currently employ several Hadoop experts. These experts will serve as a labor pool to support the big data initiative. If proven successful, we will roll out additional implementations.

Advantages

• Association with world renowned universities 
• Lower cost, low risk market entry
• Gather customer transaction data
• Analyze spending and lifestyle habits

Challenges

• Managing resources
• Proving business value

Conclusion
The desire to capture and analyze massive amounts of data then profit from it has come to the mainstream. This report offers numerous ways for the organization to enter into the market quickly and reap large gains.

Executive Summary 2: UX Strategy

The User Experience Challenge
Information technology has completely invaded the business environment and is driving day to day operations as well as shaping long term strategies of corporations. End users of technology have become more technologically sophisticated and their expectations have increased dramatically. Unfortunately, many technology projects have failed and will continue to fail due to this trend. How can we better serve these demanding customers and deliver applications that meet their requirements?

Solution
The answer is to centralize the business on user experience (UX). This involves engaging heavily with our customers in order to hear their stories, elicit the necessary requirements, then deliver a useful solution that meets and exceeds those requirements. These engagements bring forth important issues early in the project phase, which will lead to projects being completed on time, within scope, and under budget. Shifting the business towards intense customer engagement will not happen overnight; however, this will be a step in the right direction.

Advantages

• Improve company culture and morale when used on internal projects
• More satisfied customers = Increased customer retention 
• Increased customer acquisition (more referrals due to satisfied existing customers)
• More useful software applications
• Capture more in-depth customer data

Challenges

• Training existing resources
• Change management
• Culture change

Conclusion
Since January 2012, the software engineering team has successfully piloted an intense user experience strategy on select clients. The results are promising, and we are confident this will lead our enterprise into uncharted territories of profitability and customer satisfaction. 

Executive Summary 1: BYOD

The BYOD Challenge
Mobile devices, such as cell phones and tablets, are dominating network access on college campuses around the world. Due to the rapid proliferation of mobile computing and bring your own device trends (BYOD), network maintenance and administration has become increasingly complex. Legacy IT systems and infrastructure cannot continue to support the current and future demands of the growing mobile sector. Immediate action must be taken to improve the infrastructure to support these demands.

Solution
A substantial yet recoverable investment in the following IT systems will solve this problem. 

• Design and implementation of a comprehensive multi-operator distributed antennae system (DAS) for robust in-building cellular and data service for mobile devices
• Campus-wide enhancements in equipment and cabling to improve the existing campus wireless network 

Advantages

• Enhance student learning and college experience
• Provide opportunities for innovative uses of educational technology 
• Revenue generating  
• Recover initial outlay within 2 years
• Improving institutional communications and life safety

Challenges

• Mildly disruptive installation process
• Information security
• Adherence to campus architectural standards

Conclusion
This project is critical to the future growth of the college in becoming a leader and innovator in pedagogical methods and educational technology. 

K1: The power of AWS

WOW! I'm really pumped about getting exposure to Amazon Web Services. I'm fascinated (again) by the bevy of resources that are just a few clicks away from anyone with an internet connection. I will definitely use Amazon Web Services for current and future endeavors. The interface is a bit overwhelming at first mainly due to the massive amount of options, but once you get started it clears up and becomes easier to navigate. I'm also impressed by the useful and extensive documentation provided by Amazon, which really helped me get started.

I enjoy the level of monitoring available through the Amazon infrastructure, and can see the value in having such useful metrics at one's fingertips. The AWS Elastic Beanstalk is also another extremely powerful feature of the AWS toolkit for Eclipse. I look forward to developing and deploying web applications via this framework.

J: Reflections

The MIT program continues to excite me. If you are interested in exploring established as well as emerging web technologies this is the program for you. Not only does the program provide the technical perspectives, it also delivers on overall big picture business thinking as it relates to technology. The hands-on and collaborative nature of the program so far is a huge plus as well.

The main things I have learned recently are in the data management/statistical realm. We've had the opportunity to test and play with interesting software packages such as RStudio. Its intriguing to discover how different organizations are using these technologies as part of their corporate strategy. One really interesting thing is the continued rise of open source software into the enterprise space. I would have never imagined that Fortune 500 companies would be using open source applications to run their statistical and data analysis operations. This is really exciting for entrepreneurial minded individuals and will lead to numerous opportunities in the future. Its even more exciting that I will be in a position to capitalize on some of these opportunities perhaps....thanks to the UGA Masters of Internet Technology program at Gwinnett. Looking forward to next semester and beyond.

Go Dawgs, Beat Bama!

Davis