Williamson - Information Technology Stocktake

Appendices

SUMMARY
TERMS

IT COSTS

IT MANAGEMENT

IT TRENDS

FUTURE ISSUES

RISKS

KEY FIGURES
APPENDICES

Appendix 3 Definitions

The following descriptions were used to define the terms used in the questionnaires and in this report. These were obtained from Real Decisions, a member of the Gartner Group of companies, and are the copyright of Real Decisions.

Functional Area

Departments used the categories and their corresponding descriptions when allocating their projects to the functional areas they are intended to address.

Financial	Accounting, costing, income reporting, receivables, billing, credit, taxes, asset register, depreciation
Purchasing	Procurement, vendor analysis, barter, commodities
Manufacturing/ Operations	Materials requirements planning, inventory, quality assurance, production, plant scheduling, process control, manufacturing operations, engineering, safety, regulatory, compliance, environmental, plant security; equivalent operations for service businesses
Distribution Human Resources Scientific Customer Service Corporate	Warehousing, transportation, truck routing, order fulfilment Payroll, personnel, benefits CAD/CAM, R&D, product design, algorithms, analysis Customer records control, customer hotline systems Planning, real estate, travel, phone directories, legal, contributions, public relations, executive, stakeholder services, forms control, auditing, insurance
Systems	Functional business systems for internal use by the systems department (such as a labour time tracking system)

Hardware Platform

Since the distinctions between hardware platforms are rapidly blurring, the departments used the following as guidelines to describe the type of platform the systems would be using.

Mainframe

A "large" computer that serves at the highest level of platform size used. It does not link "upwards" to "larger" computers. It is readily considered a mainframe in industry jargon. It is not common to have PC/Workstations directly linked into a mainframe.

Minicomputer

A "medium-sized" computer that frequently serves as the largest computer at a site. It may be linked to larger computers. It is readily considered a minicomputer in industry jargon. It is not common to have PC/Workstations directly linked into a minicomputer. Examples are many DEC VAX units or IBM AS/400s.

File Server

A "medium-sized" computer that holds data and/or software for use by multiple intelligent computers linked into it. It may be linked to larger computers and/or to similar PC/Workstation database or file servers.

PC/Workstation

A base level "small" computer that generally has no other units linked into it. It may be linked to a larger computer, frequently a file server as described above. Personal digital assistants fall into this category.

Interfaces with other systems

Departments indicated how heavily any system interacted with other systems, both internal and external to the organisation, using the following guidelines:

None

A completely stand-alone system

Low

There are connections to other systems, but there is only a minor amount of work (typically less than 10% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made .

Medium

There are connections to other systems, and there is a reasonable amount of work (typically 10% - 25% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made.

High

There are connections to other systems, and there is a major amount of work (typically more than 25% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made.

System Category

The following descriptions were used to indicate the degree of criticality of the systems resulting from the projects.

Mission Critical

The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the customer and the revenue stream. Loss of the system for a period of time leads to non-recoverable consequences. An on-line sales system would be an example.

Mission Important

The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the customer and the revenue stream. However, a period of downtime is perhaps recoverable.

Process Critical

The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the building of the organisation’s product, but not directly visible to the customer. Loss of the system for a period of time leads to non-recoverable consequences. A manufacturing system for a 7-day 24-hour production cycle would be an example.

Process Important

The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the building of the organisation’s product, but not directly visible to the customer. However, a period of downtime is perhaps recoverable.

Infrastructure

Helps run the internals of the organisation. A period of downtime is usually recoverable. A payroll system would be an example.

Reporting

Provides information necessary to run the organisation, but a period of downtime has only internal consequences. Many accounting systems fall in this category.

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Mainframe	A "large" computer that serves at the highest level of platform size used. It does not link "upwards" to "larger" computers. It is readily considered a mainframe in industry jargon. It is not common to have PC/Workstations directly linked into a mainframe.
Minicomputer	A "medium-sized" computer that frequently serves as the largest computer at a site. It may be linked to larger computers. It is readily considered a minicomputer in industry jargon. It is not common to have PC/Workstations directly linked into a minicomputer. Examples are many DEC VAX units or IBM AS/400s.
File Server	A "medium-sized" computer that holds data and/or software for use by multiple intelligent computers linked into it. It may be linked to larger computers and/or to similar PC/Workstation database or file servers.
PC/Workstation	A base level "small" computer that generally has no other units linked into it. It may be linked to a larger computer, frequently a file server as described above. Personal digital assistants fall into this category.

None	A completely stand-alone system
Low	There are connections to other systems, but there is only a minor amount of work (typically less than 10% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made .
Medium	There are connections to other systems, and there is a reasonable amount of work (typically 10% - 25% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made.
High	There are connections to other systems, and there is a major amount of work (typically more than 25% of the labour effort) in supporting these connections when changes are made.

Mission Critical	The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the customer and the revenue stream. Loss of the system for a period of time leads to non-recoverable consequences. An on-line sales system would be an example.
Mission Important	The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the customer and the revenue stream. However, a period of downtime is perhaps recoverable.
Process Critical	The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the building of the organisation’s product, but not directly visible to the customer. Loss of the system for a period of time leads to non-recoverable consequences. A manufacturing system for a 7-day 24-hour production cycle would be an example.
Process Important	The availability of the system is critical to the organisation’s operations. It directly affects the building of the organisation’s product, but not directly visible to the customer. However, a period of downtime is perhaps recoverable.
Infrastructure	Helps run the internals of the organisation. A period of downtime is usually recoverable. A payroll system would be an example.
Reporting	Provides information necessary to run the organisation, but a period of downtime has only internal consequences. Many accounting systems fall in this category.