AtekPC

Jose Jacinto
Chris Powers
Peter Meinz
Chris Dinnison
Jason Tseng

12/1/2009
Atek Overview

•  Founded in 1984
•  Mid-sized US PC manufacturer
•  2006 sales is $1.9 Billion
•  2,100 Full-time and 200 part-time
employees
•  Main competitor: Dell, Hewlett-
Packard, Lenovo

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Atek in the past

•  Decentralized decision making process

•  Each functional area could request a IS project to be undertaken

to improve operational functions
•  Projects were headed by a Lead Analysts, who was assigned
responsibility for projects in a specific functional area.
•  Informal project initiation process allowed functional areas to
request IT services through the lead analyst
•  Projects were small to medium sized.
•  Very few enterprise applications.
•  Looked at development of IT as a service that was provided on
demand.

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 What is a PMO?
(Project Management Office)

•  Defines & maintains standards

•  Aligns strategic business directions
•  Light vs. Heavy
AtekPC– SWOT Evaluation
Strengths
•  Trade Secrets/ Knowledge of industry
•  Knowledge of employees-quick
response of IT to several problems
•  PMO support from Senior VP
Weaknessess
•  Corporate culture - resistance to
change
•  Lack of standardization-little cross
functional integration
•  Lack of PMO resources

Opportunities Threats
•  PMO can increase efficiency and
•  PDA, Mobile Devices, Netbooks
productivity of IT department
and Cloud computing
•  If PMO is successful in IT, it can
•  Weak Economy/ Maturing Industry
potentially be applied organization-
•  Current and emerging PC
wide
manufacturers (Dell, HP, Acer,
•  Change role of IT in organization
Asus, etc.)
Implementation
•  Still in early stages of development.
•  No general consensus on its purpose, authority, or
responsibility as of Spring 2007.
•  Potential benefits include: Improved IT in projects, efficiency,
and resource utilzation.
•  Limited by lack of PMO expert resources.
•  Difficult to implement in an environment use to an
unstructured culture and PMO promotes and creates
structure.
•  Employees opposed "bureaucratic" change.
Conclusion

•  “AtekPC was an organization that was used to people

rushing around doing whatever it took to build and ship
products…”
•  “How can I get where we need to go, without violating the
culture so much that it causes a big red flag?” – Strider CIO
•  Lean more towards PMO Light
•  Work diligently to demonstrate PMO effectiveness
•  Slowly work PMO into culture
•  “Are small steps building on small successes going to get the
job done fast enough?”

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