Global
Information System
CIS8000
Hartford
Financial Services
Table of Contents
Activity-A Journal
1st
May, 2014
In order to
gain understanding on the organizational environment for The Hartford financial
services website named www.thehartford.com was referred. Information pertaining
to key business functions and areas was gained. Further this website along with
several other online resources provides information on the business activities
and other parameters pertaining to the organization. Total time required for
the present activity was approx 3 days.
5th May, 2014
In order to
initiate the present project and to gain detailed information pertaining to
wearable technology and its use in the organizational domain website named www.wearabledevices.com was referred. Time devoted in order to gain understanding of
the basic wearable technology and its use in the business domain was for 3 days
where in by referring the site detailed application was understood.
9th
May, 2014
In order to
understand the business challenges faced due to implementation of wearable
technology in payroll system of the organization framework for technology,
management and organization was referred with the help of book named “A wearable
computer for use in payroll system management” authored by Matias et al, 1996. This
book provides insights for the application of wearable technology in the
payroll system managed by the organization and business challenges which are
confronted in implementation by making use of the information system triangle
through technology, organization and management elements. Time devoted for the
present activity was 5 days and detailed knowledge was gained regarding
implementation issues.
15th
May, 2014
Book named
“Evolution of wearable technology authored by Mattew et al, 2002” was referred
in order to collect the detailed information regarding information system
requirements for the wearable technology project proposed for the selected
organization. In order to understand software, hardware and networking
element’s requirement in the organizational context detailed study was
undertaken. Time invested for the present activity was 3 days and along with
the captioned book other academic sources were also referred to make a blue
print for the system requirements.
20th
May, 2014
In order to
gain understanding on the financial investments made on the wearable technology
project for The Hartford financial services IEEE international symposium on
wearable computers was referred which provides detailed costing for the
wearable technology project. In order to estimate the overall cost for the
system first number of units required for each device was made out and after
that approx cost to be invested in software, hardware, networking components
and business process re-engineering was established. Total time invested in
order to develop cost estimations for the present project was approx 3 days in
which entire costing was made out for the current project.
Activity-B Report to CEO
1.0 Introduction and project
background
Present
project would explore the implementation aspects of the wearable technology
adopted in the organizational aspect. Wearable technology has been considered
as one of the most important innovation in present age organizational
environment wherein wearable technology is helping the organizations in order
to smoothly manage their payroll systems. Present project would build on the
previous paper for wearable technology usage in organizational context wherein
earlier paper emphasized on the business model calculations for wearable
technology, acceptance of wearable technology in the organizational environment
and evaluation of the wearable technology.
Present paper
has the purport to explore the usage of wearable technology in organizational
context in order to understand various business challenges faced for the implementation
of wearable technology in order to manage payroll system. Further information
system requirement and investment made for wearable technology would be
understood in the organizational context. A graphical summary in terms of the
management, organizational and technology would be provided so as to propose
possible solution for the organization in order to deal with the business
challenge faced in the organizational context (Brian & Nick, 2014).
Organization
selected for the present paper is one of the key insurance sector organization
named The Hartford financial services which is a fortune 500 organization. It
mainly deals in the insurance of living and non living and having URL as www.thehartford.com. This company was started in year 1810 when few merchants with initial capital
amount of $15000 decided to start with their fire insurance organization. After
that several new services were added in the service portfolio of the
organization with service such as accidental insurance, business continuity
coverage, personal damage insurance and automobile liability insurance etc. At
present business challenges analyzed by The Hartford Financial services would
be analyzed to propose solution with the help of wearable technology.
Background
information for the present paper can be formed by the research paper on
acceptance of the wearable technology in the organizational context. It was
found out that wearable technology can help in order to establish high degree
of efficiencies for the manpower working in the organization by tracking the
working time for them. Wearable technology such as RFID tags used in the
organization can help human resource department of the organization to track
presence of their human resource and working time so as to develop a smooth
& efficient payroll system in the organization.
Important set
of assumptions for the present paper would be formed through the considerations
such that use of wearable technology can enhance the resource utilization in
the organizational context. Further it is assumed that there would not be any
misuse of the wearable technology implemented in the organization. Further
along with wearable technology organization would also implement the video
capturing device so as to support the action of wearable technology (Mary, 2008). It is strong assumption that wearable technology would be
used along with the integrated information security systems in the organization
so that there are no chances of data loss through wearable technology
implemented in the organizational context.
2.0 Business challenges faced
With
introduction of the new wearable technology in The Hartford Financial services
would posses’ key business challenges in the organizational environment
pertaining to different organizational functions. The usage of wearable technology
is intended to manage the payroll system and smoothly process the payroll for
the employees of the organization. Some of the major business challenges
confronted are as under:
§ Changes in business processes (BPR-Business process re-engineering): With implementation of the wearable
technology business processes such as attendance, accounting for payroll,
schedule of employees and code of conduct for the employees would significantly
change (Thorp, 2009).
This would require managing business process re-engineering in the
organizational context. There would be alignment of the business processes
towards technology or significant modification can be done in the technology so
as to match with existing business processes in the organizational context to
The Hartford Financial Services.
§ Investment for IT infrastructure: In terms of hardware systems managed in the organization
there would be key challenges faced as organization needs to make significant
investments for purchase of software, hardware and operating systems connecting
software & hardware. Hardware required for this system would include
wearable tags and receivers implemented at different terminals.
§ Organizational human resource strategy: Human resource strategy adopted in the organizational
context would be changed with introduction of wearable technology and
organization would have to shape overall organizational strategy in accordance
to that.
§ Human resource issue: Employees working in the organization may not like to work with the
wearable technology as this may give feeling of hard management being adopted
by the organization to manage their employees (Bass, 1985).
§ Risk factors:
There can be significant risk involved in the usage of wearable technology in
the organizational context as this may lead to attack on organizational data,
can make false detections and misuse of the newly system implemented.
§ Complex payroll management system: Introduction of the new wearable technology in the
organization may require significant changes in the payroll management system
due to which a new payroll system may be required.
§ Conflicts: There
can be increasing number of conflicts between the human resource department and
employees working in the organization. This may also lead to conflict with the
management of organization and significant level of dissatisfaction among the
employees of the organization (Gilbert, 2003).
§ Change in organizational culture and hierarchy: With introduction of the new
technology in organizational environment there are chances that organizational
culture may get affected as workplace practice would differ and accordingly
interaction among employees may also get affected. Similarly in order to manage
the time schedule for employees of the organization there would be changes
required in organizational hierarchy and reporting system.
3.0 Analysis of business challenges
Business
challenges faced by The Hartford Financial services with introduction of new
technology can be categorized into three main organizational aspects which are
organization, management and technology. The new technology can be considered
as the information system having three important aspects which are
organization, technology and management of the organization as shown in figure
1 below.
Figure 1:
Showing the organization, management and technology model for information
system
The business
challenges faced by The Hartford Financial Services can be categorized under
three domains i.e. organization, technology and management as below.
3.1 Technology
In terms of
technological issues faced by The Hartford Financial Services would include
risk factor confronted, investment in IT systems, implementation of BPR and
implementation of new payroll system. Risk factor needs to be understood with
deep analysis before implementation of the wearable technology for payroll management.
It would be difficult for the IT department of the organization to keep track
of the each wearable tag device hence employees using wearable tags should be
made owners of the devices and would be responsible in order to manage their
device in suitable conditions (Collins et al, 2007).
There would be significant investments made in the software systems, hardware
systems, networking system and operating system for the organization. In order
to keep investments in technology manageable there should be phase wise
implementation of the technology which would be mitigate some amount of the
risk for high investments involved in the technology. Implementation of
business process re-engineering would be a key issue from the technological
aspect as some of the business processes which can’t be changed would demand
for modification in IT systems so as to suit the organizational environment.
3.2 Management
Looking into
the management aspect for the business challenges faced there would be key
issues such as changes in human resource strategy, human resource issue,
financial investments and conflicts etc. Human resource strategy of the
organization would go under significant changes and it is important for the
organization to align their organization wide strategy in accordance to human
resource strategy (Bilton, 2012). Financial investments should be made with
consideration of return on the investment for the organization. Human resource
issue would be another significant factor as employees would feel de-motivated
with implementation of such system and conflicts may arise for the payroll of
employees. In order to deal with the issue of human resource it is important
that newly managed system for payroll should be deeply understood by employees
and organization should document the processes and policies to be adopted for
new system.
3.3. Organization
Business
challenges faced for the organizational aspect of The Hartford Financial
services would include changes in the organizational hierarchy & reporting
system, changes in business processes and impact on the organizational culture.
Organization should change their reporting system and hierarchy according to
the new system managed in the organization and additional required human
resource should be recruited for the effective implementation. Business
processes should be aligned with the technology used in the organization so
that there is proper mix of business processes and technology used in the
organizational domain (Peter et al, 2010). Organizational culture
would go under significant changes with implementation of the wearable
technology and it is important that human resource department act in order to
establish a positive organizational culture where employees should not feel
restrictions due to implementation of wearable technology.
4.0 Information system requirement
There would
be several information system requirements for the newly proposed wearable
technology in order to manage the payroll system in organization context which
can be given as under:
Sr. No
|
System requirements
|
Units required
|
1.
|
RF ID Tags
|
10000
|
2.
|
Receiving terminal
|
1000
|
3.
|
Scanning system
|
100
|
4.
|
Software for payroll management
|
1
|
5.
|
Connecting device
|
5
|
6.
|
HR information system
|
1
|
7.
|
Computer systems
|
100
|
8.
|
CCTV camera
|
100
|
9.
|
Information security software
|
1
|
Table 1:
Showing the information system requirements for wearable technology
Information
system requirements for the newly proposed wearable technology for managing
payroll system in the organization would include above mentioned items along
with units required for each item. RFID tags would come along with read/write
memory wherein information pertaining to particular information would be
recorded. These tags would be worn by employees and in initial phase RFID system
would be implemented for 10000 employees’ f the organization so as to carry out
the phase implementation of the technology (Rahn, 2012). Software
required for the present wearable technology would be used in order to take
information from the initial scanning system & receiving terminal
established and would provide to the payroll information system and HR
information system managed in the organization.
5.0 IT infrastructure investment
For the
entire project of wearable technology implemented in order to improve payroll
management in the organization total budget would be approx $0.5 million which
would be invested in phase wise manner. Investments in the system would be made
after considering the savings done through payroll management system in the
organization (Watier, 2003).
Major investments for the current wearable technology project would be made for
the newly proposed payroll system and HR information system required in order
to manage the employee information. These two systems would be the major cost
centre for the organization wherein entire employee data would be collected and
required in order to manage payroll for the organization’s employees. In
addition to this software for information security would be deployed in
organizational context as well. Overall cost required for the software part
would be approx $0.25 million which is equivalent to the 50% of the overall
cost spent in the project (Microsoft,
2011).
Hardware
investments would be another major requirement for the organization wherein
costing would go for RFID tags, receiving terminals and scanning systems
established in the organization. In addition to this, computer systems, CCTV
cameras and security systems would be required in order to make effective
implementation of the wearable technology for The Hartford Financial Services.
Out of the total investment required for the current project of wearable
technology $0.2 million would be required for the hardware and system purchase
only thereby contributing for 40% of the investment towards hardware purchase (Matthew et al, 2002).
Rest of the
investment for the current project would be invested for the networking and business
process re-engineering. Business process re-engineering would be another major
cost centre for the organization wherein cost would be invested in form of the
business strategy development, re-alignment of the organizational processes and
changes in the information technology equipments etc (Chris, 2012). Hence overall wearable technology is
a high investment project which should be adopted by The Hartford Financial
services after complete analysis of the savings made through this project.
6.0 Solution proposed
Graphical
summary of the proposed solution for the various business challenges faced in
the organizational context for The Hartford financial services can be given as
under:
Table 2:
Showing the graphical summary of the proposed solution
There are
three dimensions of the business challenges faced for The Hartford Financial
services which are management, organization and technology. Looking from the
technology aspect it is important that RFID tags which do not have any wear
& tear should be used for reducing expenses for RFID (Mann, 2012).
Information security systems should be attached with the tags so that any tag
lost could not be used for undesired action. Investment for information
technology should be done in several phases so that company’s financial would
not be impacted at one go. Newly deployed system should be supported by
scanning systems and CCTV cameras so that proper effective implementation can
be made for the wearable technology.
In
organizational context business process should be re-aligned as per the
information technology equipments used in the organization so that a close
coordination can be developed between information system and business processes
implemented in the organization. Organizational hierarchy and reporting system
should be made in accordance with the newly payroll system managed in the
organization (Quincy, 1998).
In terms of
the management aspect it is important that newly managed payroll system should
be well documented so that employees understand the new system. Conflict
resolution policies need to be implemented in organizational context so that
there are no conflicts between employees of the organization and human resource
department regarding pay issue. HR strategies should be aligned as per new
payroll system and financial investments should be made in phased manner (Microsoft, 2011).
Conclusion and recommendations
From the
present paper which analyze various business challenges confronted by The
Hartford Financial services in order to introduce new technology in the
organization. Business challenges faced by the organization can be categorized
into management, technology and organizational aspect. Information system
requirements for the present wearable technology project have been listed in
the present context along with total investment made on the information system
requirements. It is recommended for The Hartford Financial services that
organization should make effective use of the wearable technology in order to
manage the payroll system but cost-benefit analysis should be done along with
suitable mitigates proposed for the risk confronted in the new wearable
technology project.
References
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