Initiative Plan

Introduction

The current research paper provides description of innovative strategy in the information technology company. Each step of leadership plan procedures is thoroughly described. Schedule plan helps to control the process of design and realization of new software. Much attention is paid to enabling effective and successful governance of the company by making various managerial decisions.

Purpose

The main purpose of current work is development and introduction of innovation plan in the information technology company. This plan will contain procedures directed on improvement of organizational performance by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the working process. This research paper will also describe procedures of control of the development and implementation of the innovative plan, constant assessment of obtained outcomes and development initiatives is directed on minimization of existing challenges and gaining success in future.

Scope

Described IT organization develops the software for the minimal invasive spinal surgery equipment that enables joined minimal access treatment. It closely cooperates with numerous companies on American and international market of production of medical equipment. The new strategy of IT company will be directed on the designation of the innovative software for capsule endoscopy system. This system is based on the use of wireless disposal video capsule that captures images. The images are then transmitted to recorders and computers. This technology can be applied for treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. According to the official forecasts, wireless disposal capsules segment placed more than 95 percent of the market in the previous year and continue strengthening its position (Deep, 2015). The main benefit of this technology is that it enables organism screening without wires; it is much more convenient and less invasive than the existing technologies. That is why, this direction of the development of IT company is considered successful. This new strategy is directed on maximizing the existing working capacities of the whole company, diversification of proposed production and attracting new customers.

Management

Organizational Structure

The above described company has very diverse structure. It is presented on the figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Organizational structure of the IT company.

Roles and Responsibilities

The board of directors takes major decisions and establishes the company’s strategy. These people perform the assessment of overall performance of the company and determine necessary procedures for its improvement. Establishment of the policy based governance system ensures that company’s assets (equipment and facilities) and shareholders’ investings are well protected. The chief executive officer controls the process of hiring the stuff and observes the outcomes of all departments’ performance.

IT development department designs new software for the minimal invasive spinal surgery equipment. Director of this department observes and controls performance of the IT development team. This person solves the existing problems and challenges which may arise during the developmental process and reports obtained outcomes to the CEO and the board of directors. Consultation department closely cooperates with the IT development department. Medical consultants provide information concerning the appropriateness of developed software for medical use. Marketing and sales department directs its efforts on increasing the popularity of developed software, attracting new customers, holding the existing ones, and selling the production. PR managers establish advertising campaigns, take part in national and international events, and develop production presentations. Sales managers are directly involved in the selling process. They interact with final customers and negotiate purchasing terms. Legal department is responsible for framing the treaties with contracting parties and solving any legal issues which may arise during the working process.

Innovative Leadership Plan Procedures

Walk-through and Review Procedures

Implementation of this project will be performed in several steps. The first step will be setting the concrete goal of the new project: designation of software for the top innovative wireless disposal video capsule. Setting concrete requirements to the project which should be fulfilled within certain time is of top importance at the primary stage of the project’s development. All actions should be properly documented.

Also, evaluation of managerial and technical skills, necessary for the realization of the new strategy should be performed. These skills should be compared with those which are available in the department. If the necessary skills are not available, additional employees can be hired on permanent or temporary basis. Additional company’s enablers are presented on the figure 2 in the appendix.

All members of the IT development department should be physically and psychologically involved into the innovation process. They should direct their knowledge and experience for reaching the above mentioned goals. Clear understanding of the requirements for new software will enable team members to perform successful system and project design. The director should set concrete time frames and constantly evaluate the obtained results.

It should be mentioned that the current company is specialized on the software development. It has no previous experience and facilities in video capsule design and manufacturing. That is why, the next step will be finding the partner company that produces medical video capsule and is willing to cooperate with the described IT company on realization of the above mentioned project. Legal department will negotiate the contract terms with the video capsule manufacturer for clear determination of rights and responsibilities of each party.

Constant testing of prototypes of new equipment should be performed in order to determine weak sides and challenges of the projects and taking timely measures for eliminating them (Sakhniuk, 2012). At the final development stage of the wireless disposal video capsule, marketing and sales department will establish the wide advertising campaign to promote the new product and attract new clients.

Audit and Evaluation Procedures

Audit and evaluation procedures will be performed at all stages of the designation and manufacturing process. Special IT Balanced Scorecards will be used to examine whether “IT makes a contribution in terms of achieving business goals, being a responsible user of resources and developing people” (Schwartz, 2007). They enable involvement of all the members of the IT department into the designation process and, at the same time, facilitate their accountability and responsibility.

Director and members of development team should do their best to correspond to the set schedule. Constant audit of their actions should be performed for the determination of variation between estimated and actual project execution. Considerable variation may occur if the project execution is weak or the estimated methodology is flawed and cannot correspond to actual time lines.

As it was mentioned above, constant control and testing of all the operations should be performed. The review of software design helps to determine whether the new project meets the set requirements. Module testing is necessary to ensure that the software corresponds to functional specifications. Integration testing will show the interworking of software and video capsule. Additional security and post – implementation tests also should be performed by the development team. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the defects discovered at each stage of the designation process will help to evaluate performance of the software and work of employees. Much attention should be paid to time and efficiency of resolution of detected problems.

Improvement Plan

After the completion of the new project, team members will closely communicate with users of the new software to investigate their opinion concerning it. Responses of clients will be thoroughly analyzed for the determination of weak sides of the project (Anderson, 2014). Thorough plan of solving of existing problems will be developed with concrete time frames. It will be realized under the constant control of the director.

Escalation Procedure

This set of procedures directed on dealing with potential problems will contain several aspects. Personal responsibility and accountability of each of the team members are very important for successful performance of the escalation plan. All the problems should be timely reported to employees of the higher level. Team members should direct their intends on quick and effective response of them. If they cannot rectify problems by their efforts, their colleagues should be involved into rectification process. All the problems and rectification procedures should be properly documented

Schedule Plan

The schedule plan for the new strategy will be presented in the table 1.

Table 1. The Schedule Plan

Risk Management

Realization of the new project is connected with numerous risks. The risk of non – meeting the set requirements and deadlines can be minimized by constant testing of the developed software. Budget deficit can be prevented by constant expenses assessment. Additional funds can be borrowed if the board of directors will approve additional expenses. Much attention should be paid to proper testing in order to eliminate any deficiencies.

Recommendations

Director of the IT department should have strong managerial and leadership skills for successful realization of the above mentioned innovative plan. Much attention should be paid to the fact that this project requires considerable investments. Also, described IT company should develop strong relationships with the company which will manufacture the capsule. These relationships will play one of the major roles in success of the whole imitative.

Appendix

Figure 2. Company’s enablers (ISACA, 2012).

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