Five Year Strategic Plan for Move Essay

Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. has been able to situate way into the world(prenominal) course arena with a unwavering footing. Riordan has established operating stick outts in San Jose, CA, Albany, GA, Pontiac, MI, and Hangzhou, mainland mainland china. In addition, the quantity of plastic fan give notice manufactured in the Hangzhou plant has adjoind, adding crucial transfer costs. This plant is up-to-the-minutely subject transportation and loading costs which individu entirelyy(prenominal)ow trucking to a harbor on the Qiantang River, loading the goods into shipping containers which are luxurious onto barges bound for the Shanghai seaport.Riordans COO, Hugh McCauley, has envisi peer littled a solution on how to decrease the cost of shipping which involves relocating this plant to Shanghai, China. The movement soak up out translate into great savings because of the advantage of development container shipping subsidiaries of the China Shipping Company, which util ize the seaport of Shanghai. Therefore, a plan has been made to complete this motion process within the next flipper geezerhood. In deject of this motion st valuategy, the freshlyly plant CIO of Riordan, Maria Trinh, has take up with a list of distinguished factors to be casted by the IT division during the blameless movement process. Those factors consist of setting up a migration committee, delineate the scope of the migration process, and preparing a migration quantifyline.Migration direction SetupMaria Trinh has selected some(prenominal) IT colleagues from Riordans US hubs who lead travel with her to Hangzhou, China in dedicate to finalize the jog ofthe migration committee. Those individuals are Gary Tucker (Ne cardinalrk Administrator), Carlos Gonzales (Development Engineer), and Gilbert Lofaro (Program/Analyst).These recognize IT players leave behind interview a pussy of prospective piledidates from the China plant in regularise to complete the commi ttee. Dave Nanda has been put in charge of managing the devise and entrust be the CIOs liaison in China. As puke manager, Dave is responsible for establishing a divided file storage area (electronic) for beta files and setting up period account codes. In addition, Dave footraceament plan the re muddle and identify study milestvirtuosos. Gary Tucker has been appointed as the IT lead the identified migration coordinators are, Elizabeth Pyrek (Finance and report Dept.), Joe Squires (Operations Dept.), Jose Guevara (Human Resources Dept.), Lonnie Godat (Transportation Dept.), and Lo wellhead Bradford (Legal Counsel).The committee give setup a meeting with all leads, managers, and architects to develop an order of magnitude (OOM), estimate high-level age needs, and identify hardware and software needed. separately convocation pass on achievement to identify redundant tasks necessary to their attain feat. at unity time the committee has been setup, Maria Trinh go away come back to Riordans Headquarters in San Jose, CA. where she ordain remotely manage the entire process. She may travel to China as conditions warrant.Scope of the Migration ProcessIn find the scope of the migration, it is necessary to prepare a performance matrix, set expectations, identify major stakeh previous(a)ers, assign them their specific responsibilities through statements of work, and set apart procedural scrolls. The scope consists of maintaining the current concern operations (business doggedness), establishing the relocation timeframe, allocating human, financial, legal, and transportation resources, and defining the questd space of the spic-and-span location.Migration TimelineIn order to carry out this migration, the look atment definitions establish a timeframe of 5 years starting on March 23, 2007. The akin definitions besides rig the next phases shape the woful plan, create the migration committee and define its scope, get an approved cost migra tion calculate (first ninety days), acquire a lease line (T1), and implement WAN gene linkage surrounded by the corporate headquarters and the China hub (subsequent dickens hundred s levelty days). author the first and continuing until the third year, the sideline(a) ordain be developed parley logistics, surveying prospective locations in Shanghai, be after to stick out correspond Information Systems, cooking for an IT cater recruiting process, ensuring business continuity, prior(prenominal)itizing the particularity of to each one(prenominal) incision and master of ceremonies, analyzing legal relocation anaesthetizes and draught a small town plan, and setting the shipping logistics.From the third through the fifth year, the following m grizzlyiness be accomplished estimate of the hot locations alkali (by March 2011), faculty recruiting for the Shanghai location, resolution of most legal issues, ensuring business continuity, and choice of the pilot interlo ck workgroup which go away be migrated first. On the fifth year, the Shanghai location essential be secured, the headcount of relocating employees essential be known, and the hiring of raw(a)found pitchg mustiness be accomplished (by September 2011), Again, business continuity must maintain, migration of the IT function must be initiated and completed (by October 2011), and IT maintenance and staff training must be accomplished. (This exploit ordain be facilitated by Mari Carrillo, a Development Specialist)During the self aforementioned(prenominal)(prenominal) period, nurture governing bodys must be run in parallel (by January 2012) until the shutdown of the Hangzhou plant (by February 2012). In addition, the antecedently mentioned definitions include a contingency plan that encompasses the followingCrashing non-critical tasks if delays threaten to derail the projectAdding qualified human resources as a last resort to avoid the projectsfailureHaving qualified staff av ailable to make substitutions if it becomes necessaryHaving the fraternitys information musical arrangements backed up daily off situateHaving a prospective hardware traveling bag quickly available in the event that a catastrophe compels the federation to restore their systemsWhen intend the relocation of the Hangzhou, China facility, it is important to tip over that the existing incisions testament unruffled require the IT departments answers in order to conduct business. In fact, the IT department is much likely to see an increase in the number of calls for support during the unlike phases of the relocation. The potential for increased call flock could result from one or to a greater extent factors such as a movement related to the move, connectivity issues receivable to the move, or even the perception that the move has caused a problem, when it is non even related to the move.When considering the effects on the IT departments workload, management must consider both direct and validating causes that may increase the workload demands. every(prenominal) department that allow for be relocating to the stark naked facility volition invariably require assistance from the IT department.The needs may be minor or significant, provided if non anticipated, these distractions detract from the goal (to relocate) and affect the budgeted repel unavoidable for the move. In order to cater the best possible continuity of service in the first place, during, and after the move, it is necessary to evaluate each departments needs and the relationships between each department to provide utmost support.For the first year goals, the IT department pass on evaluate each supported department to visit the above factors in an effort to establish an estimated amount of labor required for each department. This survey get out also help to establish the most consistent path to pursue when transitioningeach department to the fresh location. Timing is a crit ical element in the transition.It may make more than sense to move current departments in phases, and other departments at one time or the big stunner approach. For example, it may be wise to move the payroll/hr department all at once as you would inadequacy to fix all the records at one location and available to that department. Since this area houses polished information, it would be wiser to move everything at the same time in order to more easily track and secure the data since it provide be confined to one location.A final factor to consider is the very real potential for a significant turnover rate across all departments collect to the new site being a considerable outstrip from the existing site. This high turnover rate will result in less experienced employees these employees usually require more assistance from the IT department than seasoned employees do. A physical move may ignite business, but a robust and gleam business continuity plan should concede the business to proceed as everyday with minimal disruptions.An analysis of all risks will need to be performed as well as plans to mitigate these risks should the circumstances arise. forward one can turn back a successful business continuity plan, a test must be run to work out any idiosyncrasies or items that may not waste been considered.An in-depth analysis identified several immediate risks. Since the volume of the current IT military group will be relocating to Shanghai, a plan will be in place to account for the temporal IT personnel department shortage. Approximately half dozensome weeks prior to the move, the remaining staff members, from the Hangzhou office, will be known. It is estimated that 1/3 of the current staff will remain. in one causal agency this number has been finalized, hiring will slide by to backfill these positions. While approximately 2/3 of the staff will be preparing for the move, the remaining 1/3 will be conducting training for the new staff. another(prenominal) identified risk was equipment failure due to damage during shipping or because of indecorous reconfiguration. Members of the existing staff will short-circuit an on-call position for the first month. This will placate performance problems due to configuration. If the equipment failure is due to damaged hardware, two vendors will support been pre-determined to contact for service or heir parts. To minimize issues with equipment delivery, several confirmations with the shipping ships company will be completed.Portions of the hardware will be shipped separately. For example, the QA equipment will be shipped first, followed by the finance equipment, etc. Gradually despicable components will throw in each individualize system to stabilize itself. In order to safeguard data and information assets, two identical waiters will be used. wholeness housed in the new location will be a mirror of the original. erstwhile it can be determined that the databases and in formation can be used from the mirror server, the original will be disconnect and subsequently destroyed. One way to en confident(predicate) a successful business convalescence plan is to test it. While in the current location, a dry run will be performed. Throughout the week, several staged, but undisclosed failures will occur which will allow the business convalescence plan to be challenged. Problems such as an unavailable database, slow response time and faulty hardware will be orchestrated to mimic the anticipated response. Once this testing is complete, department coordinators will advertize written document ways to combat the lessons learned.When the time arrives to begin the physical move, some additional steps will be taken to ease the transition. First, the department coordinator will be migrated the procedure changes, issues, resolutions, etc. will be documented. Second, migration activities and estimated time spent on each activity will be active so that users know what to expect onwards demonstrable migration. Sufficient time will be allocated on each migrated employees calendar and expectations will be set.The actual migration will happen in stages, one-third groups will be identified by the department co-coordinator based on system, application, or function criticality. Less critical groups will be moved first, followed by morecritical, and thereafter by the most critical. separately employees backup will be identified. When an employee is moved, his backup would still be work from old location to cover for him. We will wait for at least two weeks of stable work from the employee at the new location before removing the backup employee. This will provide redundancy in case there are some issues at the new location tasks can still be performed by the backup until those issues get obstinate.Arrangements will be made with the current shipping company to accommodate our new shipping logistics. If the current shipping company is unable to do so, a second-stringer shipping company will be used. Each department coordinator will be assigned the task of making accreditedly all disaster recovery documents are with-it and existing business recovery measures are intact prior to the move. The test exercise will bring to light any inconsistencies in these documents. Enhancements will be integrated into the existing document.The business continuity plan (BCP) is a living document which needs to be kept up-to-date to ensure its effectiveness. It should be updated at least once every quarter. Another important aspect of the BCP is auditing. It should be tested at least once every six months to ensure its validity. At anytime, there should except be one document with all of the changes and updates. If the document is well constructed the organization should be able to use external resources that do not have intrinsic intimacy of your current network to recover your system. This can only be achieved once the BCP document ha s matured and it is recommended to attempt such a recovery (Magalhaes, 2005).The IT Departments usance During the MoveThe IT department must continue supporting all the departments, groups, and systems at same level as that provided prior to the move, including but not limited to the following practical application developmentTesting and Quality impudenceHelp DeskMessaging or e-mailAsset management (hardware and software)System Administrators, earnings supportSystem bailIT Planning, prep current and new staff as neededProviding maintenance to the current and new IT infrastructureSpecific Milestones for divisions One, ternion and FiveThere are 250 users at Hangzhou, China. As far as system hardware, most of the IT related systems become antiquated in five years. This is the very designer that most companies lease their hardware equipment. The surmisal is being made that Riordan Manufacturing leases equipment and will have six months of parallel systems. Hence, for the durat ion of six months, Riordan can keep the old as well as the new systems.The company will lease the system at the new location and retire the system at the old location. This approach will save moving costs and allow a six-month period to make sure the new system is stable before retiring the old system. Running the old and new systems in parallel facilitates a back-out plan in case we have to revert to the old system in a worst-case scenario. This also helps with system approachability and business continuity planning as discussed in the beginning of the migration plan.The project scope will be determined by identifying all the servers, personal computers (PCs), networking systems, and other infrastructure componentsthat need to be moved. The hardware stock of the items in Hangzhou is listed belowSatellite base station, connection to HQT1 to outside networkPCs for Corp (12), Finance (8), MFG (8), MTLS(6), and QA (6)IP phones (40)8 HP laser printersNASWindows Servers (2) Network, E xchangeUNIX Server ERP/ MRPIBM Blade Servers (2)UPS, Router, VOIP data router, Gateway/ switch, switches, hubRiordan will also need a atypical communication channel such as a wide area network (WAN) between Hangzhou and Shanghai during the relocation period. The following are the specific milestones for years one, three and five of the migration plan. yr OneAn IT budget will be developed for the five year migration plan by act all department heads, their leads and architects so that an tenderness of the required effort can be accomplished. The IT infrastructure group will be responsible to make sure server and network equipment transitions are as glitter as possible. Estimated hours from each department as well as from theinfrastructure group will be used to determine the estimated costs in man-hours. The cost of moving the hardware, software, and other equipment will also be estimated. Total costs will be presented to management for approval so that work can be started.In this phase, IT personnel will be recruited and hired, or transferred as needed. In Shanghai, the WAN connection to HQ will be implemented. In addition, a T1 to the outside network and a short-lived WAN connection to Hangzhou will be established for duration of the migration effort.Network equipment will be leased and a new WAN connection contract will be negotiated with a vendor. During this phase, risk logs and issue logs will be maintained and security concerns and issues will be evaluated. Also, a work breakdown structure will be developed to establish tasks which need to be accomplished to successfully complete the relocation.Year ThreeTime lines to move, setup, test the equipment, and utilize the stakeholders at appropriate time will be developed. The time line will be shared with management and discussed in monthly meetings monthly meeting proceedings including the summary of items completed, list of items targeted next, and any issues encountered will be provided. A six-month period will be used to make sure the new system is stable and the old system can be retired.Year FiveMigration of the most critical systems as well as miscellaneous and proportion systems will occur during this phase. New IT personnel will also be recruited and hired during this time. Legal constraints will be resolved and business continuity will be ensured as discussed in the beginning of the migration plan. As discussed previously, a six-month time frame will be used to ensure the new system is stable in the new location and no one is using the old system.