2018 MSE 504 Report - Final Project PDF

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Final Project...

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CSUN IT ASSET MANAGEMENT MSE 504 - Engineering Management Dr. Mark Rajai Spring 2018

Prepared By:

Binoy Seal Deep Dave Daniel Perez Daniel Vanzulli Ridham Sharma Subhashree Balu

Table of Contents 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2 2. Background..................................................................................................................................2 Phase: 1............................................................................................................................................3 3. Team Selection.............................................................................................................................3 4. Team SWOT Analysis..................................................................................................................3 5. Team Brain Storming & Project Selection..................................................................................5 6. Project Schedule & Timeline.......................................................................................................6 Phase: 2............................................................................................................................................7 7. Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................7 8. Overall Goal.................................................................................................................................7 9. Objectives....................................................................................................................................7 10. Strategies....................................................................................................................................8 11. Real Case...................................................................................................................................8 12. Research Case............................................................................................................................9 13. Highlights and Results.............................................................................................................12 Objectives with data and summary of achievement, results......................................................12  Objective:1......................................................................................................................12  Objective:2......................................................................................................................14  Objective:3 -....................................................................................................................16  Objective:4 -....................................................................................................................18  Objective: 5.....................................................................................................................19 14. Recommendations....................................................................................................................20 15. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................22 16. References................................................................................................................................24 Appendix A: Survey Questions.....................................................................................................25

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1. Introduction In this project, we analyzed the various functionalities and procedures presently in use by the CSUN IT Asset Department and the hurdles caused by them. We have selected one university for research and benchmarked their methods and features against the university in our real case study. This project aims at finding solutions for the common deployment issues faced by the CSUN IT Asset department and analyze the reasons for their failure in the deployment of computers, their tracking and inventory management. For this purpose, CSUN IT Asset Department was chosen for a real case study. Through detailed analysis, objectives set and strategies implemented, we could formulate recommendations to improve procedures and systems that could help in solving the issues for Asset Department at CSUN as well as another IT Asset Department. Our strategy of implementing an efficient forecasting technique and Value Stream Mapping will advocate for effective decision making based on meaningful data interpretation and helps with planning for future expansions. Surveys were conducted for the CSUN IT department to gather data about the different methodologies already in place and their effectiveness. Further inquiries were conducted which lead to the recommended method to enhance the system monitoring and data management

2. Background California State University, Northridge has approximately 40,000 students and approximately 3000 as faculty staff. The CSUN IT department on a day today basis deploys a number of laptops/systems to the staff as well as students, but in the process, there’s a lack of proper

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management and tracking of the deployed systems. Also, there is not a dedicated environment for keeping a track regarding the software updates on the existing laptops/ systems which are being deployed to the students and staff. The goal is to develop a strategic methodology to organize, manage data, and leverage the use of existing technologies to create a model to perform gap analysis and generate systematic reports for the use of IT department of CSUN.

Phase: 1 3. Team Selection Team selection was the most integral part of our project. We used self-selection method to create our team. Our team members possess complementary skill sets which help with distinct aspects of working in a team and on a project. Finally, we formed a team that is comprised of six different personalities from different engineering majors. Our Team is 

Binoy Seal



Daniel Vanzulli



Deep Dave



Ridham Sharma



Daniel Perez



Subhashree Balu

4. Team SWOT Analysis Depending on the information collected and after analyzing each team member’s Selfmanagement and self-exercise, we applied the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis and formed the following table. The main opportunity of our team is 3|Page

developing strong bonds with industry professionals and the threat of our team was varying schedules and availability of team members, but we overcame this threat and successfully moving towards completion of our project.

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Leadership Skills Hardworking Diversity Flexibility Organized Punctual Responsible Great Teamwork Optimistic Enthusiastic

● Not clear Strategy ● Lack of experience in management ● Gaps in expertise ● Competitive ● Communication ● Deadline pressure ● Time Management

SWOT THREATS

OPPORTUNITY ● Develop stronger bonds with industry professionals ● Enhances problem-solving skills ● Innovative ideas ● Real-time project experience

● ● ● ●

Uncertainty Sometimes Risky Work/Study balance Establishing trust ● Competition for role & responsibilities

Table 1 – SWOT Analysis

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5. Team Brain Storming & Project Selection Our team was highly captivated towards finding solutions and contributing in solving the existing issues within our college premises. Therefore, we had to brainstorm about the issues we faced as students. One such issue which we all agreed upon was long waiting time at Freudian Sip. We ultimately had to drop the idea of working on this project because we had come up with something more valuable and challenging which would not only help the students but also the IT department. Our team finally zeroed down to the project “CSUN IT ASSET MANAGEMENT” and the reason for choosing the above-mentioned project was because it is a new initiative for the IT department. If this system is implemented, that can be applied to other departments and will save a lot of time and resource. Additionally, there would be an increase in efficiency of Asset Management. Moreover, there would be a system in place for the traceability of decisions and improved knowledge management.

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6. Project Schedule & Timeline The below-provided tables are Gantt chart, project schedule, and Timeline of the project completed by accomplishing each task.

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Phase: 2 7. Problem Statement CSUN IT department is having problems during the deployment/replacement of the computers & installing/upgrading software at school causing delays and rework which leads to a loss in terms of cost, effort and time.

8. Overall Goal Our goal with the lifecycle process for a computer at CSUN is to provide the machines for staff and students as quickly and efficiently as possible given their requirements implementing a structured process that avoids rework and enhances the efficiency of the current process at least by 15%.

9. Objectives 1. To identify the root causes that defines the base of the problem (Root cause analysis) 2. To manage the lifecycle of computer deployment from purchase to disposal. 3. To deploy a centralized IS system to track assets. 4. To generate a structured process and automate the logistics/processes required to keep a record of the status of assets across the university. 5. To reduce rework and efficient utilization of resources.

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10. Strategies 1. Root Cause Analysis [Process Study, Data Collection (Interview, Survey), Organization Structure Analysis, VSM Cause & Effect Diagram]. (Objective 1) 2. Find a suitable Centralized Information System tool to manage and track assets. (Objective 3 & 4) 3. Create Checklist and Standard Operating Procedures. (Objective 2) 4. Create Dashboards/Reports with Issues/Incidents information. (Objective 5) 5. Create awareness about Regular Audits. (Objective 5) 6. Benchmark against efficient IT Asset Management. (Objective 5) 7. Suggest appropriate methods to sustain the process effectiveness. (Objective 5)

11. Real Case CSUN IT Department is one of the major department in the university which is dealing with the IT Assets in the university. One of our team members works at IT department at CSUN and we approached the management to do our real case study and sought an approval from the management to study the problems faced and formulate solutions and recommendations. The team performed case study on the present computer deployment system and other procedures carried out at CSUN IT Department. We contacted the manager of the IT department and technical heads to study the current deployment process and the trends and variations in the demand of computers according to the time of the year and location. Some major findings of our real case study include: 8|Page

 There is no centralized asset management software at CSUN  There is no standardized process for deployment of computers  The overall software management is made by IT but the hardware management is divided by each department separately  There is no integrated tool that connects the software with hardware management  The management cannot assure honoring the computers reserved due to inaccurate prediction of their availability.  Some computers cannot be handed to students/staff even if they are lying idle due to unupdated current status. The set of objectives we formulated to meet the goal of this project could help in finding a solution for the problems faced by IT Department. In order to get a better understanding of what is currently in place and gather the necessary data for this project, a survey and personal interviews were conducted. We were able to run the survey through the manager with around 10 employees and also perform individual interviews with 3 team leads.

12. Research Case IT Asset Management Implementation, Virginia State University This case echoes the lack of clear policies and the outcomes due to lack of following through by the department. When policies are followed and in motion, they will lower the chances of loss and misuse of assets and in the long run lower costs. As it stands California State University 9|Page

Northridge IT asset management policies are out of date and not well defined. This results in lost physical assets and outdated software. For VSU to fully control and collect adequate data about all IT assets, they have invested in an ITAM program. This way VSU can better document and improve their inventory management processes. Doing so will require the implementation of new methodology, the following are a few key pointers in what they have done. Faculty and Staff members must comply with copyright protection of licensed software and should contact their supervisor about software purchases. A report needs to be made when unknown software is found in computer systems in the university. Generally, the Virginia State University Policies require that their employees search wall-to-wall in certain locations for physical assets every single year. Include faculty in approving the type of software installation, then the device will be processed by staff. Another very important step is the use of software asset management tools, which will allow for software inventory, data, and license agreements to be tracked. This process can identify whether assets need to be removed from specified locations and control these assets as well as the data. Remove all data from assets before disposal. Thoroughly control the software license management process. Do not allow students to install, remove or copy any software onto computers and allow employees to remove any unlicensed software found. Finally, all license agreements must be followed when systems are being added, moved location, disposed or traded in. One of the main objectives of VSU has been to use more advanced information systems to increase the asset management efficiency. As the university continues to grow more and more 10 | P a g e

assets are acquired. The variety of assets also result in problems of their own, this is dealt with the implementation of information management technology. This type of system is unique as it will record the entire process of buying, receiving, tagging, obtaining, transferring, and the disposal of assets.

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13. Highlights and Results Objectives with data and summary of achievement, results We used Engineering management principles to increase the efficiency of the entire process.

 Objective:1 - To do Root Cause Analysis We followed steps in order to achieve the first objective 1. Based on the careful study of the full process we created a process flow map to understand our boundaries and the areas we are focused.

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2. Based on the process map, we as a team accompanied the process execution to observe it completely in person. 3. We analyzed the process to identify activities that are not value added. 4. Apart from these, we collected data through interviews, surveys of the IT employees as mentioned in the appendix. 5. We also analyzed the organizational structure of the department and its influence on the process to know the support for any changes to implement. 6. With all the above information, we found the root cause that created problems in the asset management of the IT department.

Survey Result

RESULTS OF CSUN

RESULTS OF VSU 13 | P a g e

Based on 70% of the results of the survey (as in While the Virginia State University had chart above) below are the reasons that is

the below process:

impacting IT:





The improper flow of information between 

Centralized information flow system Efficient use of software

departments



Automatic validation



Improper use of software



Lack of metrics



No validation of procedures



Lack of metrics

After our analysis through various methods, we believe these are the major causes of the problem in CSUN IT department. Although we came up with the above root cause through Cause and Effect diagram, there were some factors like policies, security, management support, Financial constraints which we did not consider as part of this project due to timeline and management restriction to discuss on some of the sensitive areas in this topic.

Objective:2 - To manage the lifecycle of computer deployment from purchase to disposal. As a first step, after finding the root causes, we chose the immediate effective less expensive cause to resolve. Since there was no clear documented guidelines and checklist available from Inventory until Disposal. Employees with less experience between various department took longer time than experienced ones as shown in the data collection survey:

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Survey Result

To fix this issue, the team provided a new guideline and checklist based on the Value stream map output to avoid Non -value added process as much as possible and increase the efficiency of the flow.

RESULTS OF CSUN 

RESULTS OF VSU

As it took more time to understand the 

They have systematic procedures and

process as in the survey mentioned above,

checklist in place for the process

a cost effective immediate solution from Benchmark is provided to the team with templates for guidelines and checklist which they have started to use in the process We tried to implement this in the department and resulted in increasing the efficiency of the overall flow by 2% as it gave employees clear picture and helped them to have it organized which motivated them and increased the productivity. 15 | P a g e

 Objective:3 - To deploy a centralized information system to track assets and automate the logistics/processes required to keep a record of the status of assets across the university.

In order to have a centralized control of the entire process, the team investigated on the existing methods used to monitor/track the asset at CSUN. Below are the responses we got from employees for the tools used. As we can see, the majority of the work with Software installation was tracked through Microsoft SCCM (System Center- Configuration Manager). This Configuration Manager provides remote control, patch management, software distribution, operating system deployment, network access protection and hardware and software inventory only when the client is installed in the machine and it connects to the internet.

Survey Result

An Asset Management tool can bring better visibility into hardware/software assets, gain control over IT inventory and save a lot of time and effort resulting fewer errors and overheads. The University needed an Asset management software that is primarily concerned with managing,

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tracking and controlling the life cycle of the asset from the point of acquisition to disposal. This includes tracking data that is non-discoverable but needed from a business perspective. Assetspecific data can also be collected about each asset through by using scanning barcodes or RFID tags to keep a record of the status of assets across the university.

This allows the organization using this data to make business decisions, evaluate software licenses compliance, location, analyze the ROI, determine the utilization of assets. The Asset ma...