RESEARCH PAPER

A STUDY ON OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN AN IT COMPANY

BY: Apoorva Gaurav Megha Rawat University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

Abstract
Information technology came into existence decades ago and its influence over businesses lead to industrial revolution. The use if IT provided the management within an organization with such featured tools that altered the entire structure of the ways the operations were held. This era also brought in a bundle of IT companies into the business. Within these IT companies the use of IT played a great role in operations management. This research deals with a few scenarios relating to the Operations Management in an IT company. The paper focuses on the objective of the company to earn profit in each activity associated either directly or indirectly with the business throughput. Managing the work force with current trends to boost the performance level as to minimize the cost of production. This study aims to present the results of the operation management strategies adopted by IT Company.

INTRODUCTION
The term Operations Management is quite frequently used in organizations. It plays a key role in decision making Operations Research, in most general sense, can be characterized as the application of scientific methods, technique, and tools, to problems involving the operations of a system so as to provide those in control of the optimum solutions to the problem - Churchman, Ackoff and Arnoff, 1957. Ever since 1980s, the increased use of Information Technology has been accelerating the decision process. Therefore, the companies today in the 2010 have become highly competitive. Each business in long run or short run proceeds if it foresees profit in that scenario with its minimum resources being consumed, that can be to minimize the cost of production or make best use of human resource to meet the companys objective. The 21st century has witnessed the dominance of IT Companies in the business world. No sector has been left from the charisma of IT products and services. The improved services over the competitors gains the customers hence more sales, more revenue and more profit. It takes into account tangible and intangible aspects (like productivity and job satisfaction, measuring inputs corresponding to the outputs, level of absenteeism or turnover). Evon Technologies was founded in 2006 in Dehradun (around 150 miles from Delhi), India, with the intention to provide service in the areas of internet, e-business, mobile application and multimedia development. Offshore Technology Services: Evons key focus area is providing Offshore Technology Services. They help businesses design and develop technology services partner for the most ambitious technology adventures. It is an IT company with unique characteristics as providing low risk delivery report, Intellectual property protection, Use of sophisticated web based project management tool for client, An Experiment Software Outsourcing Partner, Approach and attitude to build long term relationship. As the developing company, it focuses on Operations Management to optimize the productivity so as to render the best product to its customers and expand the business. As the company deals with offshore services only the quality product makes the benchmark of the company.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Evon Technologies focuses on developing solutions across various domains like Entertainment, E-Commerce /Online Store, Education, Real Estate, Insurance, ERP/CRM. For which market bidding is followed. As of date, Evon Technologies has strength of 100 employees (approx.) with technology and management exports with rich industry experience across various domains within the IT industry. The founders of the company Vijendra Chauhan (IIT Delhi) and Sumit Arora serving the company as the Director and Promoter along with 33 software professionals. The company has Advisory Board and Promoters as well. The production of IT products is assigned to 3 major team structures. Development Team: This team has a hierarchy of Business Analysts, Architects, Team Leaders, Senior Developers and Developers. The team size is 8. Designing Team: Evon Technologies has a separate designing team with Visualizers, Web-design Experts, User Interface Designer Experts, Graphic experts and Multimedia designers. The team size is 5. Quality Analysis Team: This team is responsible for quality assurance of the project in the company and is headed by a senior quality analyst along with QA of the in house project. The team is 5.

The Project Development Methodology:- The complete Software Development Life-Cycle has been divided into four high level phases using the Waterfall Model Approach only. 1. 2. 3. 4. Requirement Gathering Phase. Implementation Phase. Stabilization Phase. Go-Live Phase.

The company possesses enumerous offshore and local client and is leading its competitors. Hence the need to deliver quality product to its customer is the key idea the of the company with regard to the services offered by them, the impact of IT utilities has broadened the concept.

Objective of the Study

The Objective of the study was To explore the utilization of Operations Management with respect to Maximizing Profit and productivity and Minimizing Resources Utilization. To study the impact of IT in Strategic Decision Making Process.

METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. IT Company was approached for the study of Operations Management. The data collected broadly classified Assignment Problem and Stimulation Problem being handles by the manager Ms. Rumika Joshi. Thus, the problem is: how should the assignment be made so as to optimize the given objective and how to handle the employees tracking records. MATHEMATICAL STATEMENT OF THE ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM Cij = cost of assignment = level of performance/skills. RESOURCES W1 . . . Wn DEMAND ACTIVITIES/ JOBS C1 . . . . . . ...... ...... ...... Cn2 . . . . . . 1 ...... SUPPLY 1 1 . . 1 n

C11 Cn1 1

C1n Cnn 1

STIMULATION PROBLEM SCHEME The record tracking of the employees been done manually by the company prior was becoming a burden and tedious task to be handled, eventually affecting the Decision Process of the management. A lots of factors need to be considered along with a lot of constraints to reach decision point. The

SENARIO IN EVON
The company has different departments for different operations. These departments work cooperatively to achieve the objective of the company. Relating to OPERATIONS RESEARCH PROLBEM, the process involves 4 major departments. 1. Marketing: - This department is responsible for getting the projects for the company. Market Bidding is done with respect to client, competitor and project value. 2. Operations: - Deals with different operational issues of the company. 3. HR: - Human Resource Management. 4. Development Team: - SPM (Software Project Manager) & TL (Team Leader).

WORK ENVIRONMENT Marketing Department does market survey on regular basis and bids in for project suitable as per the company strategies. Once the Project is won by the company it is transferred to the Operations. Operations Department after getting the project builds mild-stone with the customer/client, wherein the terms are set at management level. Now the Operations allocate the project to the Development Teams as per the requirement of the project with reference to the SPM. Once the Team is allocated the project, Team Leader and Client mild-stones are initiated. At this point the client is in direct contact with the development of the project. The TL now assigns the jobs to its developers as per the project specifications and development starts. If in case the resources are not available then: The SPM and Operations refer to the HR Department for more resources. This has to be a proactive approach.HR Department then employees more workers, train them and supply the resource to the teams as to meet the demand forwarded to it through the Operations and the SPM. Else, Operations tells the Marketing Department to stop bidding. This cross-functionality is maintained within the organization so that the objective of the firm can be achieved within the time frames. Evon has restricted its target limit to maximum of 1 year and minimum of 3months of project completion period.

ANALYSIS AND DISCRIPTION

In Evon Technologies the assignment problem is to be handled at two stages. Once while assigning the team and other while allocating the jobs to the developers. Team allocation is done by the Operations along with the Software Project Manager at Management Level. Allocating the tasks to the developers is done by the Team Leader.

At Management Level
The problem arises when the management has to assign the project to the team. Management has to decide which is the optimum team for the project development. According to the resources available to the company it can handle atmax 24 projects. There are 8 development teams currently active in the company. Each team can have 3 projects at a time. The Operations along with the SPM checks the performance level i.e. the target hit successfully met by the teams against the skills required for the project. According to the Ratings assignment table is formed and strategically a team is assigned.

Resources T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 Demand

P C11 C21 C31 C41 C51 C61 C71 C81 1

R C12 C22 C32 C42 C52 C62 C72 C82 1

O C13 C23 C33 C43 C53 C63 C73 C83 1

J C14 C24 C34 C44 C54 C64 C74 C84 1

E C15 C25 C35 C45 C55 C65 C75 C85 1

C C16 C26 C36 C46 C56 C66 C76 C86 1

T C17 C27 C37 C47 C57 C67 C77 C87 1

S C18 C28 C38 C48 C58 C68 C78 C88 1

Supply 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8

At Team Level
The problem arises when the team has been assigned the project. Team Leader has to decide which is the optimum developer for the different modules. There are 8 members in each development teams and 1 is the team leader. The working capital of each team is 7. Thus the total productive mass is 56. The team leader checks the performance level of each developer i.e. the target hit successfully met by the developer against the skills required for the project. According to the Ratings assignment table is formed and strategically modules are assigned to the developers.

Resources P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 Demand

M C11 C21 C31 C41 C51 C61 C71 1

O C12 C22 C32 C42 C52 C62 C72 1

D C13 C23 C33 C43 C53 C63 C73 1

U C14 C24 C34 C44 C54 C64 C74 1

L C15 C25 C35 C45 C55 C65 C75 1

E C16 C26 C36 C46 C56 C66 C76 1

S C17 C27 C37 C47 C57 C67 C77 1

Supply 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7

SPEACIAL CASE
1. At Team Level.
If in case the developer is not performing up to the mark, the TL will inform the SPM and the HR Department for assessment. Developer will be then send to training and if no improvement is seen he will be asked to leave.

At this point the team is lacking a resource; there is a proactive approach to handle such situation.

2. At Management Level.
If the Project Limit is reached and a project comes with is very vital for the company. In this situation again the HR Department is lookup for more resources. HR now hires more employees, train them and supply the resources as to meet the demand. This has to be a proactive approach as well.

PROACTIVE APPROACH
In order to handle both the cases the HRD has to be proactive. For this they hire developers and put them under training, in advance. In training the trainees are tested for their skills and then allotted the team accordingly. If in case the developer in training does not perform well even after giving 2-3 chances he is then issued a warning letter and eventually asked to leave. This is a continuous process.

CONCLUSION
The study reveals the live implication of the Operations Management in an IT company, Evon Technologies. It summarizes how Decision Making in a company can be improvised by the utilization of strategic O.R approach in handling process and people with IT as a facilitator. The two major issues covered in this research are Assignment Problem that the company faces at two different levels, Management and Team level. Further tracking the employees records using the Operations Research Techniques to attain a stable environment moreover a proactive approach for risk management. Using the Operations Research Techniques not only increases the growth rate of the company also adds on to its competitive features providing satisfied customers and platform for the company to achieve the on-going concern, developing their brand awareness on national area well as international commerce.

Reference
The data is directly collected from the Operations Head Ms. Rumika Joshi (on interview basis) and the company profile, provided by the HR of the company. Reference Links: - www.evontech.com

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