Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response 1
Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response

Abstract
Simple Gateways, Inc. is a regional travel and tourism company with 12 offices in the western
United States stretching from Oregon to California and inland to New Mexico. Simple
Gateways focuses on travel to island vacations around the world. They are challenged with poor performing Information Systems (IS). Simple Gateway IS produce multiple versions of documents utilized by staff to make poorly informed business decisions. This paper is an analysis of the challenges to the key Simple Getaways stakeholders, actual performance and desired performance. A technological solution is defined and supported to address the alignment of the IS to the Simple Gateways business objectives.
Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response 3
Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response
The current implemented IS in the Simple Gateways is designed to provide control benefits. The IS was intended to facilitate information to provide the stakeholder the ability to make better decisions and actions. (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009) The current IS produces multiple versions of the same documents used by the office staff. The offices are segregated from each other with their own file servers making e-mail channels the current means to share documents from one store to another. The multiple versions does not assure the information to be accurate or up to date. The staff is then left with misinformation to make decisions. The Simple
Gateways IS does not provide a process to perform administrative tasks like approving sick leave or vacation requests.
Stakeholders
The Simple Gateways stakeholders are the customers, Domain Subject Matter Expert
(SME), End User, Implementation SME and the company sponsors. (Skillsoft, 2015) Each stakeholder is effected by the data inconsistency deficiencies of the IS. The customer is given poor information performance when the information is inconsistent. Domain SMEs or the management staff are faced to manage the Simple Gateways with inconsistent information. They are also challenged to administer the agents’ time without the benefits of IS processing. The end user or the agents of Simple Gateways are faced to perform their tasks with poor information performance. Their time off is delayed and poorly administered without a process in the companies IS. The implementation SME is challenged with poor processes in the IS. The current IS has multiple versions of documents that have outdated information. The intra-office document sharing is hindered because of the current IS configuration. Each of the 12 office of
Simple Gateways run their own fileserver and Microsoft Exchange servers. Documents are e-
Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response 4 mailed to different offices to collaborate. Each recipient provides inputs, then the inputs are collated resulting in missed or inaccurate information. The sponsor is the representative from
Simple Gateways that has the authority to make decisions on the implementation of the new IS.
(Chew & Gottschalk, 2009) They are faced with the same challenges of the poor processes of information sharing in the current IS and the lack of an IS process to perform personal administration. Performance
The actual performance of the Simple Getaways IS is poor data continuity and collaboration. The current IS was intended to provide control benefits for Simple Getaways.
The information derived from the data on the current IS was intended to give the office staff the most current information to make office related decisions. (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009) The multiple document versions and the lack of effect sharing between the regional offices produces outdate information to the office staff.
The desired performance of the Simple Getaways IS will eliminate the multiple version documents, provide efficient document sharing and defines an automated process to perform automated workflow associated with administrative tasks. The IS will provide organizational benefits to Simple Getaways. They desire an IS that will facilitate parallel work to be accomplished across the 12 regional offices. (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009)
Solution
Simple Getaways IS starts from the data level to achieve a management IS. The IS will collect the data in container that will provide up to date information. (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009)
Processes need to be refined to define what data is collected. Steps of how the data is utilized to derive information is observed and employees are interviewed to assess how the IS will perform
Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response 5 as operated by the end user and the domain SME. (Valacich, 2012) The finalized processes are published to a service catalog for the implementation SMEs to map the IS functions. (Skillsoft,
2015)
The new Simple Getaways’ processes are published to an Internet accessible Microsoft
SharePoint 2013 cloud solution. The hosted site is fully support with redundant firewalls, private web, application and SQL servers. (Sherweb, 2015) The SharePoint site is hosted and supported by expert technicians that provide knowledge derived from administering other companies’ sites.
Technical support manage the transition of current fileservers to a server farm. (Sherweb, 2015)
The hosted site has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) guaranteed to 99.999% uptime. (Sherweb,
2015)
Support
Simple Getaways SharePoint 2013 cloud hosting replaces the 13 file servers and deploys an environment where documents can be accessed with an Internet connection and a web interface. “SharePoint's deep integration with Microsoft Office programs allows your team to share and collaborate using tools they are already familiar with.” (Sherweb, 2015) SharePoint will integrate seamlessly with the existing Microsoft products used by Simple Getaways.
SharePoint 2013 facilitates team communications, project management, provides a business search engine. (Sherweb, 2015) A feature of SharePoint that will eliminate multiple document versions is the Document Library. SharePoint’s workflow feature will automate administrative tasks. Simple Getaways, Inc. Request for Proposal Response 6
References
Chew, E. K., & Gottschalk, P. (2009). Information Technology Strategy and Management: Best
Practices. Pages From - To.
Sherweb. (2015, May 6). http://www.sherweb.com/. Retrieved from http://www.sherweb.com/eneu/sharepoint: http://www.sherweb.com/en-eu/sharepoint Skillsoft. (2015, May 10). Business Analysis: Enterprise Analysis. Retrieved from Skillsoft: https://library.skillport.com/courseware/Content/ria/RIA_V2_5_211/index_tablet.html?la ng=en&AICC_URL=https%3A%2F%2Fpvsp73sbe.skillport.com%3A443%2Fskillportb e%2Fspwgu%2FResult.rbe&AICC_SID=dzamor2-394940360-ib_buap_a06_it_enus-A0- @0-SPCSF&CBTLAUNCH=ib_bua
Valacich, J. S. (2012). Essentials of Systems Analysis and Design. Publisher Name.