This paper circulates around the core theme of Develop a SWOT analysis on the viability of upgrading to Windows 8 for the organization as a whole.Provide a detailed upgrade plan for the organization, including the sales staff. together with its essential aspects. It has been reviewed and purchased by the majority of students thus, this paper is rated 4.8 out of 5 points by the students. In addition to this, the price of this paper commences from £ 99. To get this paper written from the scratch, order this assignment now. 100% confidential, 100% plagiarism-free.
Crescent Manufacturing Inc. (CMI) is a luxury leader
in crafted and customized home furnishings. The corporate headquarters
and a production facility are located in Texas, with additional
manufacturing facilities located in Nebraska and Maryland.
There are 250 employees in the Texas location, 175 in
Maryland, and 25 in Nebraska. All locations use Windows 7 as the primary
client operating system. The systems at the Maryland location are over
five (5) years old. CMI’s Information Technology (IT) department
upgraded the computer systems with new hardware within the past year at
all other company locations. These upgraded computer systems are capable
of running Windows 8. CMI recently upgraded all of its servers to run
Windows Server 2012 in an Active-Directory-based environment.
The Operations, Marketing, Administration, IT Support,
and Finance departments are located in the Texas location. Nebraska is
primarily a manufacturing location that is staffed by production line
employees, a line supervisor, and a plant manager. The Maryland office
also includes an operations component (i.e., production line employees,
line supervisor, and plant manager), a small IT department, and the
company’s human resources department.
The current IT support staff comprises a seasoned
group of individuals that collectively have over ten (10) years of
experience in network administration and working with Microsoft
operating systems. Many of the IT staff have recently completed training
on the Windows 8 operating
.studypool.com/computer-science-homework-help”>system and are
well-versed in supporting Windows Server 2008 and 2012. The remainder of
the company’s employees has only a basic knowledge of Windows 7 and
relies on the company’s help desk to solve a majority of its computer
problems. CMI has a team of 50 salespeople who use laptops and tablets
while working from their home offices. These employees, who travel
extensively with their laptops, must have their systems secured in case
of loss or theft. The laptops, purchased over five (5) years ago, run
the Windows 7 operating system. The tablets, used only by a subset of
the sales staff, are iPads running iOS 7.
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is concerned about
employees installing non-standard company applications downloaded from
the Windows Store both while at work and when they have their devices at
home. The CIO also wants to ensure that those persons on the IT staff
are the only individuals authorized to update Windows Store apps. The
CIO has an IT support staff of ten (10) employees and does not want to
increase the number of applications that need to be supported via the
company’s help desk. The help desk is currently staffed by three (3)
employees from 8:00 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m. (CST).
Hardware and software compatibility issues experienced
during the upgrade to Windows 7 several years earlier resulted in the
company going over budget by several thousands of dollars. The CFO
stated that the reason for going over budget was directly related to
problems with their business critical applications not being fully
compatible with Windows 7. The applications are used by the Operations
department to track inventory, schedule production runs, handle purchase
orders, and track product shipments. Senior management wants to address
software compatibility testing prior to moving the entire company to
Windows 8. They are also concerned about the time it might take to
migrate user settings and applications over to the new Windows 8
operating system, the time to train employees on using the new
interface, the overall impact on the company’s help desk, and day-to-day
operations.
The CIO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) want more
.studypool.com/communications-homework-help”>information before
making the decision to upgrade to Windows 8 and have asked you to write a
report that addresses their concerns and also includes your
recommendations on how best to proceed, should the project be approved.
Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:
1. Develop a SWOT analysis on the viability of upgrading to Windows 8 for the organization as a whole.
2. Provide a detailed upgrade plan for the organization, including the sales staff. At a minimum:
a. Identify the number of systems, by location and / or departments that IT must replace with new or compatible hardware.
b. Recommend whether the organization should use a
phased-in approach (i.e., upgrades are sequenced by departments and / or
locations) or a flash-cut approach (i.e., all at once) in order to
upgrade to Windows 8. If a phased-in approach is recommended, identify
the departments and / or locations you would upgrade, and describe the
preferred upgrade sequence. Support your recommendations.
c. Address the length of time in which the upgrade
should occur, and identify the main issues which could impact the
specified time frame.
d. Describe one (1) approach that IT could use in order to ensure that they thoroughly test business critical applications.
3. Describe three (3) best practices for securing the laptops and tablets for the sales staff after the upgrade is complete.
4. Examine the pros and cons of configuring AppLocker to standardize the software used by employees across the organization.
5. Explain the process and options available for
managing application installations and updates via the Windows Store,
and thus addressing the concerns voiced by the CIO.
6. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this
assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as
quality resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font
(size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations
and .studypool.com/writing-homework-help”>references must follow APA
or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional
instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the
assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title,
and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in
the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
- Demonstrate the ability to install and configure a
client operating system, applications, and associated updates as well as
designing a client operating system installation strategy.
- Validate and successfully install a computer client operating system.
- Demonstrate the ability to discuss the migration
phases and considerations in a client operating system installation to
include virtual machines and the cloud infrastructure.
- Demonstrate the ability to apply technology tools to monitor and configure applications and network performance.
- Use technology and information resources to research issues in operating system environments.
- Write clearly and concisely about desktop
administration and operating system topics using proper writing
mechanics and technical style conventions.