¶ … business in which it operates. In addition to it also analyzes the current outsourcing and offshoring activities of the organization. Apart from that, it puts light on the skills of the IT professionals of the organization and its current information system. This paper also proposes ways for the enhancement of the technological structures of the organization so that it may manage its growth efficiently. Project Management

Background Information about the Company

The company, under consideration, is a data collection and analysis company. It has been operating since last two years and it has a value of 25 million dollars. On the basis of the current performance, it is expected that the company would grow by 60% during the next 18 months. In order to accommodate with the current growth rate of the organization, the CEO wants various changes in the physical and technological infrastructure of the organization. The top management is thinking of expanding the organization from a one floor company to a three floor company. In addition to that, as it is a relatively young organization, the current technological infrastructure of the organization is not efficient enough to effectively manage the rapid growth of the organization. At the current time, the company employs a total of 20 employees, out of which 4 are IT experts.

Type of Business

The organization consists of a dedicated team of employees who aim at designing and utilizing efficient data collection and management systems in order to collect data in relation to consumer behavior for a number of clients. The organization understands that data collection and analysis services are not just related to the mechanics of collection, organization and storage of data instead they should effectively address the intended use and business of the required data. The organization, therefore, effectively use the expertise of its personnel and technology to provide the clients with high quality data. In addition to that, it also uses various outreach solutions, such as town hall forums, email campaigns, Web conferences, and submission, to provide the clients with highly reliable data in a timely manner. In addition to that, the company also aims at securing the collected data and information through the deployment of all the possible security measures. (2020 Company, LLC, 2014)

Current Outsourcing and Offshoring Activities

The company uses onshore outsourcing activities. As a result, the organization locates it business processes at locations that have lower labor costs. This type of model is often referred to as insourcing, rural sourcing or in shoring. This model provides the organization with a number of benefits including reduction in operating costs, improvement in the efficiency of the process, greater control over the process, enhancement of process security and reclamation of the facility space. (Datamark, 2014)

This method, however, is not compatible with the estimated growth of the organization. The current growth and changes in the physical infrastructure of the organization would require the refurbishment and reengineering of the outsourcing and offshoring activities of the organization. For this purpose, company would make use of the hybrid cloud computing. This is because cloud computing enables the organizations to maximize the value of their internal assets as well as external services. The hybrid cloud computing enables the organizations to extend the onsite data centers to the cloud. By deploying Infrastructure-as-a-service hybrid clouds, the organizations can move applications between their onsite and offsite locations and can effectively meet the needs of their businesses. (Fulfilling the Promise of Hybrid Cloud Computing, 2013)

The deployment of hybrid cloud computing would enable the organization to confidently extend their data centers to clouds. In addition to that, it would also enable the organization to preserve the investments that it would make in networking, infrastructure, IT training and other areas. Moreover, this technology would also enhance the IT agility of the organization and would enable the organization to maintain the highest possible levels of performance, security, availability and control. By deploying hybrid cloud computing, the organizations run their applications on both onsite and offsite locations without any compromise on quality or performance. It is, therefore, proposed that the organization would deploy hybrid cloud computing to address the current and estimated growth of the company. (Fulfilling the Promise of Hybrid Cloud Computing, 2013)

IT Professionals of the Organization

The organization employs a total of four IT professionals. The IT department is headed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The CIO supervises the IT manager who then supervises the remaining two subordinates. The responsibility of the CIO holds the responsibility of creating and...

In addition to that, the CIO with the collaboration with the manager designs and develops enhanced technological infrastructure of the organizations. The responsibility of identifying the factors that may hinder the successful implementation of IT plans in the organization also rests with the CIO and the IT manager. In addition to that, the IT manager also ensures that the current activities and operations of the IT department is in alignment with ethical code of conduct. Apart from that, the manager is responsible for ensuring that the interests and individual choices of the subordinates do not collide with the interests of the top management and the overall goals and benefits of the organization. The remaining two subordinates have the responsibility of accommodating the strategic plans and tactics of the IT department in their daily activities. (Bittner & Hornecker, 2002)
Type of Data Collected by the Organization

The organization collects the data on consumer spending and purchase behavior and analyzes it. This data is then forwarded to the concerned clients. The organization uses web analytics as the primary source of data collection. In addition to that, it also deploys its operational database for the collection and analysis of data. Web analytics, here, can be defined as the tool that measures, collect, analyze and report website traffic and the behavior of the consumers on that website. The end goal of this tool is to analyze the success of the organization and its website. (Introduction to Web Analytics for E-Commerce: How to Track Activity to Optimize Your Web Site, 2011)

The use of web analytics enables the organization collect a wealth of information in relation to the purchase behavior of the consumers. This information includes the opinion of the consumers in relation to various products, the behavior of the consumers when they visit different sites, the time that consumer spends on a website and clues about why the consumers leave the websites etcetera. The data collected through this process is then forwarded to a number of research agencies, academic institutions and business organizations. (Introduction to Web Analytics for E-Commerce: How to Track Activity to Optimize Your Web Site, 2011)

The basic analytic used by the organization is 'cookies'. Cookies are the standard web technology that has an ability to track the individual web visitors. They enable the websites to retain the names and other important details in relation to the consumers. Even though, cookies have an unimpressive image on the internet because of their improper deployment by the spywares, the cookies used by the organization are harmless and intend to extract information about the consumer purchase behavior only. (Introduction to Web Analytics for E-Commerce: How to Track Activity to Optimize Your Web Site, 2011)

Cookies are small reusable source codes that enable the organization to perform a number of activities on a particular website. In addition to that, these source codes also feed important information in the analytic programs, which are later used for the efficient analysis and evaluation of data. In order to avoid ethical considerations and issues, the organization ensures that it is clearly stated in the privacy policy of the website that it contains cookies. Moreover, it is also ensured that the purpose behind the use of cookies and analytic programs is also clearly mentioned to the consumers so that the organization may not have to confront any legal considerations afterwards. The use of this tool enhances the data collection ability of the organization and hence has an influential and positive impact on its performance. (Introduction to Web Analytics for E-Commerce: How to Track Activity to Optimize Your Web Site, 2011)

Current Information Systems

This section contains details about the operational systems, databases, analytics, interfaces, infrastructure and security structures used by the organization.

Operational Systems and Databases

The company currently uses multiprocessor parallel operational system in which a number of CPUs remain in close communication with each other. These are the tightly coupled systems in share the internal clock and memory. This shared memory enables the processors to communicate with each other. The deployment of parallel systems provides the organization with increased throughput. In addition to that, it is economically feasible and has a high degree of reliability. (Different types of Operating Systems, 2003)

The organization uses symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) in which each of the separate processors run an identical copy of the operating system. These processors generally share the OS code and most of the processors can run simultaneously without having a deteriorating impact on the quality of the performance. Most of the modern operating systems support SMP…