Management, Integration and Implementation: Case Study

Management, Integration and Implementation: Case Study
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Management, Integration and Implementation: Case Study
Case Background
South Australian Water (SA Water) was originally formed as a government department in charge of water supply, but it changed to a government corporation characterized by the outsourcing of operations such as IT infrastructure to mitigate management challenges. The background of the case can also be explained regarding the government’s desire to steer the corporation into a quality oriented water board. The case regarding the IT development and advancement in SA started in the late 1990s, when the South Australian government incorporated environmental concerns and quality of water into the objectives of the organization. The IT infrastructure came about when the government tasked SA with the need to be customer-focused, to augment commercialization and to establish a dynamic export-focused water organization. The need for exemplary Information Systems and IT infrastructure became necessary since the achievement of the new goals set by the government required an exemplary water-testing laboratory that depend on SCADA, GIS, computer systems, IT and information systems for the achievement of a high-quality water delivery. The organization's environment can be characterized by government regulation, organization’s departments, and water supply systems. The general SA environment is made of a combination of Engineering and Operations departments, projects development and procurement functions. The essay will explore the case study of SA Corporation to evaluate the steps that IT sector went through to realize the present day improved company.
Case Study
The case study seeks to explain the remedy to the poor IT infrastructure and constraints that were introduced by the projects that were not being completed. Information systems of the organization were poorly managed, and almost all the Water Services and Engineering, and Operations department were outsourced to an external organization, Aspect Computing. The information systems had been poor in the company before and after the government intervention to incorporate quality into the mission of the company until the employment of the CIO. The newly introduced CIO refreshed the IT sector and redirected the whole department with the introduction of the new style of outsourcing named broker model alongside new talents who were assigned different roles within the department. The other significant step of the CIO was the new control and management of the SA information systems through the formation of Project Governance, Executive Committee, and Project Boards to oversee the projects. The other significant step of the CIO was the integration of the new structures and roles through the adoption of PRINCE2 methodology. It was finally followed by the Waterscape project to test the tremendous methodologies enacted. The aim of the project was to improve the quality of water and reduce the problems through detection and rectification. The project put the project teams to the test, DMR. Aspect Computing, SA Water BI and Systems Development teams who were monitored by the DMR project coordinator who was answerable to the Project Board. Despite facing challenges, the project solved several problems CITATION Ala04 \l 1033 (Thorogood, 2004).
The organization structure entails the CEO as the top most executive. The heads of Water Services, Economic Development and procurement, and Water Technology report to the CEO. The Water Service management is top heads to Engineering, Projects, Retail and Infrastructure. The Water Engineering heads the Information Service and Environmental Management.
Problems
During the starting period of the organization, the major problem was the management of various departments that lead to the government’s idea of outsourcing. The other issue as meeting the organization’s main goal, namely th...