Stage 3: ICT Strategic Plan for Wedding tour company and Cake shop

Information Communication Technology Strategic Plan

For Just Married Company and

When Cake Meet Coffee Shop

            This information communication technology (ICT) strategic plan is made up for two different kinds of hospitality companies, Just Married and When Cake Meet Coffee, which mutually cooperate in order to expand and strengthen both of their companies. Just Married Company, a new interesting type of tourism called wedding tourism, is tour-agency whose focus groups of customers is couples. It is very interesting among the couples who plan to travel and grasp the memorable moments on the honeymoon purpose. The second one is a cake and coffee shops called When Cake Meet Coffee, a small cake shop situated in downtown of Bangkok.

Both companies are not big businesses, so their ICT plan should not be too complicated. In order to commit the ICT plan, all members rely on four useful sources which are the ICT strategic plans of University of Wollongong, Ian Graham, Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government and NSW Health as guidelines to draw the company’s plan. Those four plans possess the strategic management’s pattern of Buhalis (2003, p.45) which consists of four stages; namely, Stage 1: What are we now?, Stage 2: Where do we want to go?, Stage 3: How do we get there? And Stage 4: How do we know we got there?. As having discussed on company’s blogspot (http://wed2cake2.blogspot.com), members of both companies finally have a consensus about what elements should be included in the plan. Those components are shown as follows:

Seven components in ICT strategic plan

1. Mission Statement

According to Finch (2010, p.134), the mission statement should be concise and easy to understand. The objectives should also be narrowed and specific. Finch (2010, p.135) also stated that planning is about staff’s activities and their changing behaviors, so the plan should firstly start with the company’s vision which is related to people within the organization. Then the vision contains the company’s value and guidelines on how and which activities should be performed in order to reach the company’s goals. It is connoted and translated into aims and actions to be followed by staff in the company in order that they perform those activities in the same direction. Moreover, it also forms the customer’s understanding in the company. The good example for mission is the University of Wollongong plan’s and for vision is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia’s; this pattern provides the objectives and strategies, along with performance indicators.

2. Competitive SWOT Analysis

            Now the world situations and political climate keep changing all the time. SWOT analysis, therefore, is one of the effective tools to analyze the internal capability and external environments both positive and negative aspects (Mindtool, n.d.). Strengths and weaknesses is considered to be internal company analysis, while the external analysis focus on opportunities and threats.

3. Future Analysis: Forecasting and Scenarios

            Key Challenges are very helpful in thinking about what ought to happen in the future. The situations which have been predicted in advance help the company have a good preparation for any changes and can provide some solutions beforehand. Here are some examples extracted from NSW Health’s ICT strategic plan.

            - Staff shortages in some areas

            - Higher expectations from customers due to becoming more informed

4. Strategic Options

            Strategic Response to Key Challenges are also shown in NSW Health‘s strategic plan. As the key challenges have been analyzed, it is compulsory that the plan should suggest some strategies that can handle with those key challenges.

5. Strategic Direction

            Goals and strategies’ establishment remains imperative for the organization. Time-Management-Guide (n.d.) demonstrated that the effective goal setting consisted of five elements called “SMART”. SMART goals represent the ideal characteristics that should be specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding and timely. From University of Wollongong’s ICT strategic plan, this part is illustrated in the form of table which can easily read and understand. The table contains three columns which are an objective column, a strategy column and a performance indicator column. This clearly specifies what aims do the company want to achieve and how can we get there. Also, this provides the indicators employed to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of each strategy in order to reach the company’s goals.

6. Implementation

            Since the implementation will help provide the guidelines to achieve the strategic objectives the company set (Buhalis, 2003, p.48), while the feedback and control part will generate successful improvement in the business (Freeman, 2011, p.10). Freeman (2011, p.10), furthermore, added that monitoring the company’s performance and precise time-scheduling of assessment would be beneficial in company’s outcome development.

            Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government’s ICT plan contains some attractive ideas which can be used in the company. Due to the fact that the implementation facilitates the company in such important aspects as human resources management, procurement management, client’s satisfaction management, financial management and so on.

7. Control and Feedback 

            This stage aims at observing the changes in the company’s external environment, along with developing the implementation process the company employed (Buhalis, 2003, p.49). Following the Department of Trade and Industry (2010, p.1), monitoring the outcomes of company’s performance is a necessary stage because the reviewing the performance let the owners know the strengths and weaknesses of the organization committed during the plan and the measurement is also useful in product qualities and procedures’ improvement. Department of Trade and Industry (2010, p.1) also proposed that the major reasons why the company has to set up the assessment are to be confident that our performance truly meets the customers’ needs, to ensure that the objectives are set with benefits to customers as well, to standardize all activities within the company in order to gain the ease in measurement, to provide the concrete evidence that can be easily seen and understand and, lastly, to mention the problems occurs in the implementation and can provide feedback to react to those problems.
The keys actions and measures section, which consists of major priorities, key actions, due datesand responsibility, in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government’s ICT plan should be adopted as an outline.

            By the way, such elements as Situation Analysis, Measurement of Benefit Incorporate Feedback and Reaction Mechanism, Tactical Planning, and Budgeting are excluded from company’s ICT plan. Firstly, the situation analysis is no longer needed in the plan due to the fact that this section can be best described in SWOT Analysis section. The tactical planning can actually be replaced by the control and feedback part because of the similarity in measure role following Buhalis (2003, p.45). Also, the measurement of benefit incorporate feedback and reaction mechanism are able to be combined in the control and feedback section. Lastly, the budgeting can be a part of implementation stage. These extracted elements, though, are considered as important factors, they are too redundant to put these into the plan. Because of being not too huge, company is appropriate to possess those seven elements mentioned above.

References

Buhalis, D., 2003. eTourism: information technology for strategy tourism management. London: Prentice Hall.

Department of Trade and Industry, 2010. Performance Measurement. [online] Available at: http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/performance_measurement_management.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2010].

Finch, B., 2010. How to Write a Business Plan. [e-book] London: Kogan Page. Available through: Southern Cross University Library <www.scu.edu.au/library> [Accessed 24 March 2011].

Freeman, DH 2011, 'Current Best Practices in Business Development', Of Counsel, 30, 2, pp. 8-10, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 24 March 2011.

Mindtool, SWOT Analysis: discovery new opportunities, manage and eliminate threats. [online] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm#business [22 March 2011].

Time-management-guide, Essential Goal Setting Guidelines. [online] Available at: http://www.time-management-guide.com/goal-setting-guidelines.html [23 March 2011].

Stage2: Information Communication Technology Strategic Plan

Based on the ICT (Information Communication Technology) plans of University of Wollongong, Ian Graham, Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government and NSW Health, and according to the Strategic management processes and tools, my ICT plan is as following:
1. Internal analysis
To develop effectively, we should get a specific understanding of our organization including both advantages and disadvantages. The information in the ICT plan of NSW Health would be beneficial to our organization. Because this aspect consists of staff, quality standard, safety standard and many other factors also.
2. External analysis
External environment is also important to run a business. As what was said in the ICT plan of Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government: we are working in a dynamic and complex global environment. So we need a considerate analysis including our competitors, customers’ needs, the government’s decisions and policies, etc, to guarantee the long-term development of our organization.
3. Mission statement
Through the mission of an organization, we can understand clearly and deeply what we want to achieve, which is the basis of establishing strategic plan. Learning from the ICT plan of Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government, with specific analysis of internal and external situation, we can get our mission, then we endeavor to find methods to achieve these missions.
4. Strategic direction
This is the core of a strategic plan, which provides a road map for the organization. Based on the information of NSW Health’s ICT plan, we can know that this part will give out a guideline of operations to accomplish our organization’s mission.
5. Implementation
In the process of implementation, many factors should be also considered, such as departmentalization, human resources management, procurement management, etc. ICT plan of Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government is very helpful to us, which provides us some information about systems for people, technology opportunities, security environment, etc.

Stage 2

In my company, I also used ICT strategic plans as key to success. They were base on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia, University of Wollongong, NSW Health and Ian Graham. I found out that they were some part of them talking in the same direction; however, there were some parts different.

For my company, I mixed them together to make ICT strategic plans brought me the most effective and efficient as below;

-          The Vision and supporting Goals and Objectives

Because vision and supporting Goal and objective of strategic plan of my company need technology resources in support of range of outcome as University of Wollongong, I thought it would increase my quality and suitable outcomes of my company in case of I use technology for research endeavors, teaching activities, business and support purposes as University of Wollongong did.

-          Strategic Direction

As Ian Graham mentioned that “A technology plan provides a road map that an organization can use to guide technology initiatives”, I found out that ICT plan could furnish me a boarder corporate strategy of compressing time to market, enhancing customer satisfaction, improving productivity or cutting cost.

-          Situation Analysis

To run my business successfully, I supposed to apply my strategic plans to appropriate with the current situation. Due to now Thailand is confronting with the economic crisis, we have to realize the value of money. ICT systems must be delivered in an efficient and cost effective manner as we work to achieve our strategic outcomes with fewer resources as mentioned in Department of Immigration and citizenship of Australia.

-          Key Challenges

I thought the preparation to handle unexpected or unpredicted situations in advance was very useful to consider. I realized that NSW Health’s ICT strategic plan was necessary for my company in term of key challenges.

Finally, as Mr. Graham announced that “the greatest challenges involve management rather than technical, issues. No projects complete guarantee of success; however, know risks that lower the probability of success can be managed, and this requires enterprises to understand their strategies and prioritize accordingly”, I could figure out that ICT strategy plan was one of my key to success.

Stage 2: ICT Strategic Plan

Our company is in service business. We created ICT strategic plan in order to achieve the company‘s vision, And our ICT strategic plan base on 3 sources:

1. Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia
2. University of Wollongong
3. NSW health department
Our companies ICT strategic plan are separated in to 5 stages are as follow:

1. Mission statement
- Vision ( Base on ICT strategic plan of University of Wollongong )
Beech J (2006) mentions that “Vision or aspect of where the company is, could be, or want to be”. So Our company create the vision in order to be the way for all staff to work in the same direction. The information of this research is very useful to our staffs.

- Mission ( Base on ICT strategic plan of Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia)
This stage will be the idea of the company because the information is very clear and easy to understand . There are some important informations for example: The company have to ensure that our clients have access to the service when and where they are required.

2. Stategic direction
- Goal and strategies ( Base on ICT strategic plan of University of Wollongong )
There are sepereted in to 3 parts, And each part is very important to be the road map for our company
There are 3 parts are as follow:
1. Objective
2. Strategy
3. Performance Indicators
All parts are link together. It will be guide line for all staff‘s task in order to achieve the company vision and mission.

3. Tactical planning
- Key program of work ( Base on ICT strategic plan of NSW health department )
This is the critical part of our company. And ICT strategic plan of NSM health department is identify to many strategy, each strategy is provide the benefit to company, I selected the best informationn strategy that suitable for our company.
There are some critical programs that appropriate with our company:
- Business information strategy
- Infrastructure strategy

4. Control and feedback
- Measurement of benefit ( Base on ICT strategic plan of NSW health department )
This strategy is seperated in to 3 parts, each part be the advantage for the company. It easy to read and understand so I selected this to be the measurment's device to check the action plan of our company.
There are a model that can apply for our company, It said about:
- Level of customer
- Benefit type
- Benefit

5. Incorporate feedback and reaction mechanisms
- Review and improvement ( Base on ICT strategic plan of University of Wollongong )
This information is suitable for all company, especially in our company, and it sepereted in to 3 parts so it easy for staff to check it.
This stage is the last stage . There are 3 parts that appropriate with our company :
- Review
- Recommendation
- Progress

By Pinai...

Stage 2: Discussion_ICT Strategic Plan

 Information Communication Technology Strategic Plan

            Based on Information Communication Technology (ICT) strategic plans of University of Wollongong, Ian Graham, Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government and NSW Health, I have gained plenty of interesting characteristics and strategic plans’ styles. With references to those sources, my ICT strategic plans are divided into 7 major parts which are showed as follows:

S    1. Situation Analysis

            From University of Wollongong’s ICT strategic plan, I discovered that explanation about the current position of the organization because mentioning the current position of the company can help us foresee the future trends of technology that can be adopted to use in our company.

  

2    2. Future Analysis: Forecasting and Scenarios

            Key Challenges are very helpful in thinking about what ought to happen in the future. The situations which have been predicted in advance help our organization have a good preparation for any changes and can provide some solutions beforehand. Here are some examples I have extracted from NSW Health’s ICT strategic plan.

            - Increase in demand for services

            - Staff shortages in some areas

            - Higher expectations from customers due to becoming more informed

            -Effects from communication, policies and procedures, knowledge, skills and competence issues

            - Constraints in funding à Priority determination and project scheduling

3    3. Strategic Options

            Strategic Response to Key Challenges are also shown in NSW Health‘s strategic plan. As we have analyzed the key challenges, it is a compulsory that we should suggest some strategies that can handle with those key challenges.

4    4. Strategic Choices

            In order to lead staff and owners understand thoroughly about technology employed in the company, I think it is necessary that we build up the best practices following to Ian Graham’s ICT strategic plan. Some of his practices which are listed below can be adapted to our own plan.

Whenever the organization employs new technology, we should also consider about the “Opportunity Costs and Benefits” as can be seen from Ian Graham’s ICT strategic plan because it can help we make a right decision whether we should invest in the new technology; for example, if the benefits exceed the costs, we should hired it.

5     5. Strategic Direction

      Goals and strategies’ establishment remains imperative for the organization. From University of Wollongong’s ICT strategic plan, this part is illustrated in the form of table which can easily read and understand. The table contains three columns which are an objective column, a strategy column and a performance indicator column. This clearly specifies what aims do the company want to achieve and how can we get there. Also, this provides the indicators employed to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of each strategy in order to reach the company’s goals.

      6. Implementation:

                        Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government’s ICT plan contains some attractive ideas which can be used in our company. Due to the fact that the implementation facilitates our company in such important aspects as human resources management, procurement management, client’s satisfaction management, financial management and so on. These activities are all related to the information technology, so, in my own view, they need to be included in our plan.

7    7. Control and Feedback 

            In Key actions and measures’ procedures, I think the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australian Government’s should be adopted. It includes imperative factors as follows:

            - Major priorities

            - Key actions

            - Due dates

            - Responsibility

            This part is not only help we assess our company’s performance, but also help us find the weaknesses and can improve or perform d\some solution on the problems we find out.

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