Carlson Shared Services

We are undergraduate students in the course IT 396-44 Management Information Systems at Monroe College. Professor Asteria Villegas is the instructor for

The company is served by an IT infrastructure comprising of an amalgamation of off the shelf software and components and locally developed applications and middleware. The hardware infrastructure is by and large robust and capable of withstanding any current operational peaks. The infrastructure employs a high level of redundancy and good recovery and password management systems, so there is little risk of high business impact in the case of IT issues. No architecture document exists and minimal change control is executed.

The world of technology cores has a different function in today’s era. The core roles of these technologies play an important part to keep this world as we know it to operating on a day to day basis. The basis of the technology that makes IT System useful is Computer Networks, Information Assurance, Wed Technologies, Database, Computer Programs and Programming.

As recognized by leading research and consulting firms with knowledgeable, skilled management, advanced state-of-the-art IT affords extraordinary opportunities for greater efficiencies, cost reduction, higher productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Sophisticated IT applications realize their full potential with highly specialized technical knowledge and management skills readily available only in smaller firms focused primarily or exclusively on such applications.

IT organizational restructure includes; hiring 3 more application developers and hiring two more people in the networking team in order to reduce the number of the networking issues for the applications maintained within WW. Application developers will decrease development time of the applications. Current implemented technology for the accounting processes, route optimization, freight tracking and fleet maintenance will need to be improved. All these applications are based on an older technology. In order to improve the overall functionality and to reduce the cost associated with IT requires the organization to implement a cloud computing based ERP solution systems. This system will improve the overall performance and will reduce the cost associated with the implementation. The cloud based applications can be accessed from anywhere and anyone authorized to access the system can access the system easily. The next set of changes that are required in the internal IT strategies are the improvement in the internal processes; all the internal operations are managed in a better way through the new systems. The new systems are targeted to improve the overall operations within the organization (Chand, S 2014). The next change in the IT internal strategy is the IT portfolio. IT portfolio includes implementation of the

The major goal is to integrate Information Systems/Information Technology with the corporate strategy to use information for better governance and management. This has improved with the connectivity and networking and also the shrinking cost- performance ratios in technology. IT governance thus is a result of the complete merger of computer and communications technologies, like data processing and high advancement in networks, and integrated systems. (Bloomfield; et al, 2000) To this extent the software of the stand alone systems have to be converted to a single functional system for all requirements and the system involves the creation of a network with the following functionality:

The Computer Hardware consists of dozens or more computers linked together by data communications hardware (Kroenke 11). Software roles would consist of hundreds of different programs that coordinate communications among the computers, along with other programs that help to streamline the process of picking, packing, and shipping products from the warehouse (Kroenke11). The system may store Data relating to customers’ orders, customers profiles from previous orders, product information along with inventory, among other facts relating to the shipping process. Hundreds of different Procedures are followed by customers, warehouse employees along with the shipping companies (Kroenke 11).The roles played by People include not only the users of the systems, but also those who operate and service the computers, also those who maintain the data along with those who support the networks of computers (Kroenke 11).

Organizations often seek opportunities to maintain service and quality competition to sustain its market position with the help of technology where the client/server model makes an effective impact. Deployment of client/server computing in an organization will positively increase productivity through the usage of cost-effective user interfaces, enhanced data storage, vast connectivity and reliable application services.

The company that I chose was Carlson companies because I work at The Cedar Bluff location of Country Inn and Suites. Carlson is a privately held international corporation which means there is no public trade. Carlson is well known for being one of the largest family-held corporations in the country. The headquarters of Carlson Companies is located at 701 Carlson Parkway Minnetonka, MN 55305 and the phone number for general information is 763-212-5000. Carlson’s business can be divided into 3 different groups, hotel, restaurant, and travel management. Regent, Radisson, Park Plaza, Country Inn and Suites, and Park Inn are Carlson’s hotel brands. T.G.I. Friday’s and Pick Up Stix are the restaurant brands of

For the long-term objective, Lenox should reach out to different academic resources so that the top managers can be aware of how IT systems can bring value to their company, and holds great importance for future growth. Having the top executives understand the full benefits and functions of the IT systems will prove to be a substantial long-term solution. The overall lack of knowledge in regards to the new IT systems has resulted in the competitors surpassing Lenox. By having a more user-friendly system, the competitors were also able to catalog their products within their system before Lenox., National Life's implementation is ahead even though their rollout began months

Mr. Carlson is the founder of Carlson-Minot Inc. He is an alumnus of California State University, Long Beach. He shared his employment story, gave us information about his company and advice for future engineers.

A functional Information Technology (IT) system requires all the individual technologies involved to work together to achieve its intended purpose. If one of these technologies fails to perform, the entire system becomes vulnerable to breakdown and failure. In this complex relationship, each component is a receiver as well as a provider of services and data. I will make a connection between core technologies to show how they work together. We will concentrate of the most common and important computer technologies, these include; computers programs, databases, networks, web systems, and security assurance.

This paper 's theme is the identification and analysis of critical IT issues facing business. The content of investigation and analysis will include three key corporate IT issues, methods of problem identification, and the rationale for selecting the issues. This overriding critical IT issue facing the Fox Television network and cable affiliates is disaster recovery. The organization of the three topics explored the problem, the investigation of the situation, and resulted in a solution. Many may consider that the exploration of the television distribution systems is not related to traditional IT components. However, many elements in the traditional television distribution facility are changing to using IT components and the

Carlson Companies, a private company known for its existence in marketing, business, leisure travel, and the hospitality industries, has over 180,000 employees across the United States. Carlson Shared Services, the Information Technology (IT) division, provides services to its internal clients and thus must support a wide range of applications and services. In 2002, the IT division decided to implement a storage area network (SAN) that in turn would meet the six (6) goals established in order to meet the needs of a growing company.

This portfolio focus on what I have learned during the whole IT Strategy and Control paper, a critical reflection of this paper would be provided. This reflection includes the key points, support reference and the demonstration of my own understanding about the paper itself and all of my personal understandings are based on the learning outcome of this paper. In the first part of this portfolio, I would discuss all the key IT Operations Management framework which have been introduced in the paper, the analysis of the processes based on my own understanding would be given. In the second part, analyze processes required for aligning IT infrastructure and operations with the business goals of an organization would be talked about, and I would focus a business organization which has been mentioned in the caselets as a sample. In the third part, some critical evaluate operational IT organizations and their processes against the studied models would be listed and analyzed. In the last part, the recommendations and analysis of my own would be given against those organizations (caselets) which have some problems and current issues arising from the implementation of the IT framework.