TAP 7.0 Findings Report
Report Prepared For: / Report Prepared By:Tom Murphy
IT Manager
Sample Company
1234 Anystreet
Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92123 / Grant Freeman
EP Solution, LLC
President
4898 Ronson Ct
Suite B
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 576-3000, Fax: (858) 576-3248
www.epsolution.com
Introduction
At the invitation of IT and Executive Management, EPS was retained to perform a Technology Assessment Profile (TAP) on the HQ office of the Sample Company. The TAP was performed primarily in the conference room of the client, May 24th. TAP is a tool that assesses (via interview format) an organization’s actual IT practices and provides insight into areas needing attention. TAP is not designed to be totally inclusive. The information provided is based on data provided at the time of the interview(s) and subsequent partial inspection (as indicated in the report) by EPS.
Desired Outcome(s)
Outcome 1
Provide current assessment of company infrastructure.
Company has grown from several "pockets" of IT:
AlphaMicro based MRP, NT based Back Office, Custom CRM application (Notes) and a mixture of Office templates for other needs. The overall design is now Ethernet with a mixture of dial-up and internet based communication strategies for their supply chain, customers and field-based Sales.
Outcome 2
Provide current assessment of company IT policies.
With the departure of Tim White to a supplier of raw materials to Sample Company, EPS has been asked to review company policies and compare with industry-accepted best practices, pointing out any areas for concern.
Outcome 3
Provide current assessment of company IT practices.
The company wishes to know how they may best be administrating their current installed base to maximize ROI and lessen any security issues. Additionally, company wants an assessment of their current IT project planning.
Outcome 4
Provide findings report on (above) with recommended follow-up projects.
The company is aware the TAP process will review their previously identified areas of concern and produce a findings report with prioritized recommendations for next steps.
Executive Summary (Findings and Recommended Next Steps)
EP Solutions (EPS) was retained by Sample Company to perform a Technology Assessment Profile (TAP). On May 24th, a meeting was conducted between EPS and Sample's IT management and select additional Execs/Mgrs.
Overall, the organization’s IT health is:
1) Acceptable at the Strategic Planning level
2) Acceptable/Marginal at the Practice level
3) Marginal in some areas as noted below.
The HQ IT director (new in position) is generally applying well-rounded IT "best practices" in administrating the network and resources. Locally, HQ is applying standard operating procedures that cover the preponderance of issues/concerns facing organizations of similar size and scope. There are some items of concern regarding overall strategy and implementation of the next generation customer database application. Some primary items of concern/attention follow from the TAP report as requiring near-term attention.
Items specially noted from the Findings Report for Prompt consideration:
Manufacturing System (MRP) upgrade project: plan needs to take other infrastructure or dB requirements into account, such that the CRM project to follow will have sufficient resources.
CRM conversion/upgrade project: needs to be expanded to include remote office considerations and security.
Security: Company security plan is lacking in coverage and redundancy. Back doors and breaks in the DMZ exist and can be exploited. Additionally, certain physical security issues are present, such as relatively free access to the server consoles.
Disaster Recovery: Current plan insufficient and untested. Emergency Repair disks not current and bootable media (DLT) not present. Backups not properly tested to ensure Mailbox restore capability. Improper fail-over circuits for DSL service in case of interruption.
Storage: IT plan does not provide for sufficient growth & manageability, especially given the current projects at hand. This concern exists through backup hardware planning as well.
IT Planning: new IT staff need to think "holistically" vs. task-sequentially. Historically, IT practices at Sample Company have followed the typical "add-on" philosophy, such that investments in IT typically follow/build-on existing practices and infrastructure.
EPS recommends Sample's IT staff concentrate on the existing MRP and CRM project rollout, while allowing EPS to augment the functional plan of each. Additionally, EPS will provide Project quotes on addressing the Security and DR plans. The current IT staff is already addressing the storage issue appropriately. Future IT Planning can be a joint project once near-term issues are addressed.