BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND SYSTEM RECOMMENDATION: Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is a successful Information Technology consulting firm that utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve measurable results for its customers. Its customer b

Maryland Technology Consultants: aryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is a successful Information Technology consulting firm that utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve measurable results for its customers. Its customer base includes small to mid-tier businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels. MTC feels strongly that its success is dependent on the combination of the talent of its IT consultants in the areas of, Business Process Consulting, IT Consulting and IT Outsourcing Consulting and their ability to deliver truly extraordinary results to their clients. Corporate Profile Corporate Name: Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc. Founded: May 2008 Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland Satellite Locations: Herndon, Virginia; Bethesda, Maryland Number of Employees: 450 Total Annual Gross Revenue: $95,000,000 President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Samuel Johnson Business Areas MTC provides consulting services in the following areas: • Business Process Consulting - Business process redesign, process improvement, and best practices • IT Consulting - IT strategy, analysis, planning, system development, implementation, and network support • IT Outsourcing Consulting – Requirements analysis; vendor evaluation, due diligence, selection and performance management; Service Level Agreements Business Strategy MTC's business strategy is to provide extraordinary consulting services and recommendations to its customers by employing highly skilled consultants and staying abreast of new business concepts and technology and/or developing new business concepts and best practices of its own. Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study. MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 2 Excerpt from the MTC Strategic Business Plan While the complete strategic plan touches on many areas, below is an excerpt from MTC’s latest Strategic Business Plan that identifies a few of MTC's Goals. Goal 1: Increase MTC Business Development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT consulting. Goal 2: Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis support to MTC’s onsite teams in the U. S. Goal 3: Continue to increase MTC’s ability to quickly provide high quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the clients’ needs. Goal 4: Increase MTC’s competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and innovative solutions for its clients. Current Business Environment MTC provides consultants on-site to work with its clients, delivering a wide variety of IT-related services. MTC obtains most of its business through competitively bidding on Requests for Proposals issued by business, government and non-profit organizations. A small but growing portion of its business is through referrals and follow-on contracts from satisfied clients. MTC anticipates it will win two large contracts in the near future and is preparing proposals for several other large projects. MTC, as a consulting company, relies on the quality and expertise of its employees to provide the services needed by the clients. When it is awarded a contract, the customer expects MTC to quickly provide the consultants and begin work on the project. MTC, like other consulting companies, cannot afford to carry a significant e number of employees that are not assigned to contracts. Therefore, they need to determine the likelihood of winning a new contract and ensure the appropriately skilled consultants are ready to go to work within 60 days of signing the contract. MTC relies on its Human Resources (HR) Department to find, research, and assess applicants so that line managers can review and select their top candidates and hire appropriate consultants to meet their needs for current new contracts. It is very much a "just in time" hiring situation. The Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, houses approximately 350 employees. Satellite offices have been opened in the last two years in both Herndon, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland to provide close proximity to existing clients. It is anticipated that new pending contracts would add staff to all locations. The management team believes there is capacity at all locations, as much of the consultants' work is done on-site at the clients’ locations. Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study. MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 3 Strategic Direction As a small to mid-size business (SMB), MTC recognizes that it needs to carefully plan its future strategy. Considering the competitive environment that contains many very large IT consulting firms, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), as well as numerous smaller companies with various skill sets, market niches, and established customer bases, MTC will be evaluating how best to position itself for the future and recognizes that its ability to identify its core competencies, move with agility and flexibility, and deliver consistent high quality service to its clients is critical for continued success. MTC’s plan for growth includes growing by 7% per year over the next five years. This would require an increase in consulting contract overall volume and an expanded workforce. One area that is critical to a consulting company is the ability to have employees who possess the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill current and future contracts. Given the intense competition in the IT consulting sector, MTC is planning to incorporate a few consultants in other countries to provide remote research and analysis support to the on-site U. S. teams. Since MTC has no experience in the global marketplace, the Director of HR has begun examining international labor laws to determine where MTC should recruit and hire employees. Challenges Increased business creates a need to hire IT consultants more quickly. Overall, the Director of HR is concerned that the current manual process of recruiting and hiring employees will not allow his department to be responsive to the demands of future growth and increased hiring requirements. There are currently two contracts that MTC expects to win very soon will require the hiring of an additional 75 consultants very quickly. He is looking for a near-term solution that will automate many of the manual hiring process steps and reduce the time it takes to hire new staff. He is also looking for a solution that will allow MTC to hire employees located in other countries around the world. Management Direction The management team has been discussing how to ramp up to fill the requirements of the two new contracts and prepare the company to continue growing as additional contracts are awarded in the future. The company has been steadily growing and thus far hiring of new employees has been handled through a process that is largely manual. The HR Director reported that his staff will be unable to handle the expanded hiring projections as well as accommodate the hiring of the 75 new employees in the timeframe required. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) then recommended that the company look for a commercial off-theshelf software product that can dramatically improve the hiring process and shorten the time it takes to hire new employees. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) wants to ensure that all investments are in line with the corporate mission and will achieve the desired return on investment. She will be looking for clear information that proposals have been well researched, provide a needed capability for the organization, and can be cost-effectively implemented in a Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study. MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 4 relatively short period of time to reap the benefits. The CEO has asked HR to work with the CIO to recommend a solution. Your Task As a business analyst assigned to HR, you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements, evaluate a proposed solution, and develop an implementation plan for an IT solution (applicant tracking system hiring system) to improve the hiring process. You have begun your analysis by conducting a series of interviews with key stakeholders to collect information about the current hiring process and the requirements for a technology solution to improve the hiring process. Based on your analysis and in coordination with key users you will produce a Business Analysis and System Recommendation Report (BA&SR) as your final deliverable. Interviews In the interviews you conducted with the organizational leaders, you hear the comments recorded below.