Proposal Simple Getaways, Inc.

Written by Rachael Deming

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3
Key Stakeholders 4
Actual Performance and Desired Performance 5
Justification 5
References 7

Executive Summary

Simple Getaways, Inc. is a travel agency that specializes in island vacations. Due to the overwhelming success of the company, they have grown from one office located in California to 12 all across the United States. Due to this expansion, the communication between headquarters and human resources has become increasingly challenging. When employees request leave or there is a change in an employee's file, a paper document is used. When headquarters requests a document from one of the offices, that particular document is either mailed or faxed. The hard copies are stored in a file cabinet. The file sharing has also become an issue because each location utilizes a Windows file server. The offices do not have central file sharing. That does not allow for real time file sharing. The current way employees work on files together is by emailing each other. When the revisions are completed, the file goes back to the original employee. This causes a delay in processing and outdated paperwork. I propose the company utilizes a central server that every office has access. With a new file sharing system, anytime a file is changed, the revised version is immediately available for any employee to access. I recommend a more up to date way of using paper forms. Once a form is used, the employee scans and saves to the central server. That way the administration can access employee files or leave requests anytime they need without any delays. I believe this change to the way Simple Getaways, Inc. shares files is the best option because every office is connected. Every office will have access to any file that is shared in the cloud.

Key Stakeholders

One of the key stakeholders for Simple Getaways, Inc. is administration at headquarters because they have to approve sick leave and vacation time. The current system uses paper forms the employees have to submit for approval. Changes to employee information are also in paper form. Many times this causes a delay in processing these requests. The request are submitted to the office management and then sent by mail or faxed to headquarters. This causes disgruntled employees who blame headquarters when in fact it is really the need for streamlined communication between the two. Another key stakeholder is the employees. They feel the impact by the communication and file sharing issues. All files connected to that office are stored on that fileserver. Employees share files through email. When an employee receives the document, they then make any necessary changes. That file goes back to the original person. The owner or owners of the company feel the affect because of the communication issues with management and employees. Productivity is not as good as it could be and harmony in the workplace is not present. This all trickles down and the bottom line is the customer feels the impact of the company's issues. The customer does not get the customer service they deserve and eventually the sales go down. Simple Getaways needs a solution for centrally storing files from all offices.

Actual performance and desired performance

Simple Getaways, Inc. currently has 12 regional offices. Each office uses Windows-based operating systems. Every office uses Microsoft Office productivity applications. A Windows fileserver is at each location for file storage. When an employee works on a file, it is saved to that office's server. Often documents are emailed to multiple offices where changes are made. The modified documents are emailed back to the originating office. This often times causes inaccurate information in the final document. Two ensure that two people in the same office are looking at the same document a new file sharing system will provide this. For streamlined communication between headquarters and administration, a central file server will change the way leave requests are processed. No more delays in processing vacation and other leave requests. When any changes are made to a document, the edited version is available immediately. That will help with the missing or inaccurate information on documents between offices.

Justification

The solution to the current file system at Simple Getaways, Inc. is cloud storage. Microsoft OneDrive for Business is a place where you can store, synchronize, and share your work files (Microsoft 2013). There are two options for using OneDrive. The first one is through a subscription that Simple Getaways, Inc buys from SharePoint Online in Office 365. The other is an on-premise installation of SharePoint 2013. Employees can update and share any files from anywhere and work on Office items with other employees at the same time. Files are easily shared with everyone in the organization by putting it in a file marked shared or something along those lines. Specific file sharing can be done when employees need to collaborate on a project. Administration will still be able to use paper documents for leave requests and any other changes to an employees file. The files can still be stored at the local offices. When a document is edited, it is automatically saved to OneDrive. When administration needs to access the document, it will be there in the cloud. There will be no more delays in processing leave requests. Simple Getaways, Inc. utilizes Microsoft for production already. Some training will be needed when OneDrive is purchased. However, because of the employee's knowledge of Microsoft Office Products it should be minimal. Microsoft OneDrive is also not a very expensive solution to the current problems.

References

What is OneDrive for business? (2013) Retrieved from https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/What-is-OneDrive-for-Business-187f90af- 056f-47c0-9656-cc0ddca7fdc2#

Exchange Server 2013(2014) Retrieved from https://products.office.com/en-us/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online- plans