Question 2

Answer 2

MEMORANDUM

Date: March 31, 2013

To: Brendan Smith President, Spa Works

From: Vice President, IS

Subject: Advisory committee members – Integrated IS system for Spa Works

As per our discussion, I have compiled the list of people to be part of the advisory committee responsible for the new IS system to be implemented at Spa Works. These people will be the link between business and development needs of the new system. This project is being undertaken to streamline Spa Works reporting structure for better internal and external reporting and also to provide a competitive advantage by leveraging our business strategy to offer better and quality products and service to our customers. This new system …show more content…
The IS manager will also be responsible for overall information technology (IT) requirements related to the hardware, software, networking, security and other issues related to the new system and to better use the current resources of the company.

Question 3

Answer 3

Executive Summary
Information technology (IT) alignment trap occurs when IT operations are aligned to the business (i.e. they are doing what the business wants) but they are not effective. IT and business strategies should be interlinked together and IT spending needs to address organizational processes and objectives. Avoiding alignment trap is the fundamental priority of an organization and moving to a state where IT is both highly effective and highly aligned, where IT spending is less than average but growth considerably higher, and where IT appears to be enabling growth is the plateau that most organizations want to reach but few have done so and maintenanted.

Current Situation
The authors presented a survey which reveals the pattern to IT spending and sales growth rate:

* Alignment trap – in this situation companies spent more on IT than an average company by 13% yet posted 14% lower revenue growth on average over three years. * Maintenance zone – in this situation, which is predominant in the organizations surveyed, the organizations incurred average level of IT