Implementation Strategy

Article
03/05/2008

This section explains the methodology of the project and project staffing requirements and deployment priorities.

Project Phases

This project will be implemented in four main phases: Site Planning, Deployment Preparation, Deployment, and Post-deployment. The bulk of the work will be performed in New York, but the project team will assign certain tasks to local IT administrators.

This project will follow best practices as outlined in the Microsoft® Operations Framework (MOF). The desktop deployment processes will be introduced into operations as an ongoing change in the way computers are deployed, migrated, and refreshed.

Site Planning (Plan)

In this phase, the current state of the company’s network, hardware, and software will be documented and assessed. Local software and hardware requirements will be determined. Applications will be tested and fixed. Required hardware and software will be ordered.

Location: New York

Responsibility: Core team, limited local administrator involvement

Deployment Preparation (Build)

This phase takes place on site at the deployment location. The required local server infrastructure will be installed and tested. User training and acceptance testing will take place. Hardware will be received and staged in preparation for deployment.

Location: New York

Responsibility: Core team, local administrators

Deployment (Deploy)

In this phase, standard images and supplemental applications are installed to the targeted computers at that site. Deployment procedures along with a brief functionality check will take place outside normal business hours to avoid user downtime.

Location: New York, target sites

Responsibility: Core team, local administrators perform most work

Post-deployment (Operate)

In this phase, reporting is generated and the site is closed out.

Location: New York, target sites

Responsibility: Core team, local administrators

Deployment Priorities and Location Schedule

The deployment schedule has been prioritized according to security threats. Pending confirmation:

Asia
North America
Europe
Regional microbranches, parallel to all three

Project Staffing

This project will consist of a core team of 11 senior IT managers from the New York office. Ten of these managers will lead a feature team of 2–3 IT professionals. The Enterprise Systems Administrator will be the program manager for this project. Additionally, local resources at each deployment site or regional hub will assist the core team in setting up required servers in their respective locations and helping train users on the new technologies. External consultants may be used where local resources are insufficient. Core team travel expenses will be limited, and these expenses have been calculated into the global average fully burdened hourly rate of USD$90 per IT staff member.

This project will be staffed in a manner consistent with the budget guidelines stated in the “Cost/Benefits Analysis” section. Over the course of the project, approximately 25–30 staff members and consultants will be involved.

Project Steering Committee

The project steering committee will meet on a biweekly basis to discuss project progress and concerns. The Steering Committee will consist of:

Enterprise Systems Administrator: Program manager
CTO: Executive Sponsor
IT Director, Europe: Executive Sponsor, European Operations
IT Director, Asia: Executive Sponsor, Asian Operations

Project Impact on IT Budget

The total amount budgeted for this project is $1.9 million, accounting for 10 percent of the total computer hardware and software budget for the current fiscal year. The costs projected are well within budget requirements, and they leave adequate budget ($17.2 million) for other planned hardware and software initiatives. A detailed project cost analysis is provided in “Cost/Benefit Analysis” section of this document.