SCENARIO
Soleil Panel Distribution, a solar panel company, has been in business for 25 years. For the first two decades, they focused primarily on distributing small panels used in personal electronic devices, such as calculators and watches. As solar-powered technology has developed more, the company is seeing unprecedented growth. They have gone from 15 employees to well over 150 in three years. They are expanding in multiple ways and are seeing growth in residential rooftop solar panel sales, large-scale commercial applications, and product distribution.
While this rapid growth has increased both sales and profits, it has also presented various challenges for a company so accustomed to small-scale operations. One of the most pressing challenges is the orientation of new employees. In the first 12 years, the organization hired one or two employees every few years. An administrator easily handled this process, and each department handled tasks pertaining to the new hire’s various roles. More recently, the company has experienced monthly increases in personnel of as many as 20 employees, making their current orientation process obsolete. The administrator who previously handled new employee orientation had been trying to improve the process, but it has become clear that the company no longer has the time or processes in place to overcome this challenge.
In addition, analysis of the solar industry competition implies that a quick growth of the employee workforce could position Soleil Panel Distribution to improve its market share.
Over the years, Soleil Panel Distribution has grown and developed a seasoned software team as part of the IT department. The department is confident a new software application called SolDistHR can meet their needs while addressing concerns. While anticipating rapid growth and additional software vulnerabilities, the company is also concerned with security and customer support.
A. Explain how leveraging an IS solution can help Soleil Panel Distribution achieve operational efficiency.
- Explain how business process management (BPM) can help the IT department in the development of SolDistHR.
- Explain how each of the five steps of change management could be applied to this project.
- Explain the individual responsibilities of four key contributors (individuals or groups) that would be directly involved in the project.
B. Select one system development method to be used in the implementation of SolDistHR and do the following:
- Justify your selection of the system development method, providing the strengths and weaknesses of the method.
- Explain how each milestone within your selected system development method would be executed during the implementation of SolDistHR.
C. Describe the potential internal and external security threats that could exist after the implementation of SolDistHR.
D. Explain how to protect against digital and physical threats to SolDistHR that could exist after implementation.
E. Describe the approach you would take to troubleshoot and restore SolDistHR after system failures.
