Recommendations for Changes to the Five-Year IT Global Strategic Plan
For Lee and Mary’s Gourmet Ice Cream
Introduction
Lee and Mary’s Gourmet Ice Cream (LMGIC) is currently domestically based but the
vision is to expand overseas to London, England, and select countries in Western
Europe and other cities in Great Britan. There are a number of technological
requirements and needs in order to allow for this expansion to be successful and
profitable. There has been a budget set for $20 Million. The goal is for the
implementation of LMGIC’s strategic plan is to be completed in 5 years. There will
be challenges that arise not only from a technological perspective but also from a
cultural standpoint. The discussions need to comprise of not only the goals of LMGIC
but also ensure that the preferred routes taken comply with global markets. One of
the first areas to look at are to “determine your motivation and unique
technology/expertise for growing global markets” (Hopkins, 2017). This is where the
assistance of the following recommendations for Lee and Mary’s Gourmet Ice Cream
IT Strategic Plan come into play.
Section A: Summary of the State of Current Technologies
Section A: Data Storage (target 1) Summary of the technology
o Currently the Data Center environment while it has grown with the
company, it has become quite costly and in need for review. The goal
is to have a more modern state-of-the-art facility that will allow growth
with minimal hands-on deck with optimized cost. Lee and Mary’s
Gourmet Ice Cream (LMGIC) is in the process of researching the best
facilities that will provide for their requirements for now and in the
future. They would like to have a Network Operations Center (NOC)
that is managed 24/7 that is for global replication that includes
everything from infrastructure to app monitoring and support. LMGIC
would like to develop a plan to replace all equipment hardware as well.
Section B: Recommended Changes to Data Storage Activities in Target 1
o There are current weaknesses in the plan that would affect the
company global performance including but not limited to the
requirement for all hardware to be replaced and the requirement for
a NOC to be built by LMGIC. The recommendations to update the
plan for this target area include working to get a global data center
(suggestion is Equinix) that will provide redundancy and failover (by
means of georedundancy- US: North/South data centers and
Western Europe: London/Paris facilities), that can be easily
replicated as the business grows, virtualize all hardware and work
with a partner of the Tier 1 network provider they currently use for
their networking needs to provide 3rd party NOC functions. These
changes will improve the company performance by providing a
mesh topology network that will provide “interconnectivity of nodes
, makes them extremely resistant to failures” (Keary, 2019). This will
allow for a resilient network that can be implemented anywhere in
the world. With equipment being changed to a virtual environment,
there are no longer any disadvantages of hardware not being
available, being to expensive to maintain or needing feet on the
street to configure. Virtualized equipment can be managed via the
portal and with bringing on a 3rd party NOC, there are no longer
requirements to hire a localized team both domestically and
internationally as the Tier 1 network provider is able to have one
group do both regions. “Outsourcing service can help companies to
do their projects through lower costs and focus on completing the
business function via the desired time frame on what they have
skills best” (Rique & Sumeet 2019). This will allow for LMGIC to
focus on the business and not the technology while still meeting the
expectation of having a lower cost, state-of-the-art facility that can
handle future growth and international need.
Section A: Unified Communications (target 2) Summary of the
technology
o Currently the LAN on site is too slow to house more modern UC
needs. Email, instant messaging and video conferencing all need to
be reviewed. LMGIC is looking to decide on a client-based email
application that is easily accessible on tablets and smartphones and
continue to research the best option for desktop video
conferencing. The current weaknesses in the plan that may affect
the company global performance include the goal to push 2016
outlook to each device, requiring each user to sign up for their own
account for video/audio conferencing and using Google Hangouts as
a corporate means for instant messaging.
Section C: Recommended Changes to Unified Communications Activities
in Target 2
o The recommendations based on the goals of the company include
to changing to a cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 and include the
use Microsoft Teams. This can all be leveraged via the Equinix
Datacenters internationally and can even be integrated later for
potential voice over IP needs. Best practices are not to have
individuals responsible for having their own instances of
applications on their devices. That leads to potential security risks
along with additional work that the help desk may need to
intervene on for misconfiguration. In having one Microsoft platform,
it will be easily repeatable and manageable both domestically and
internationally. This application approach is made for corporate use,
assists with productivity, availability and growth while maintaining
lower costs. Furthermore, “small & medium businesses can increase
their employees’ productivity throughout the use of information and
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