PM 583 Week 2 Developing Strategy Example

Replace the Mainframe or Redesign the Service? Developing a Transformation Strategy for a State Motor Vehicle Division

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PM/583: Organizational Transformation and Governance

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The State Motor Vehicle Division, its data, options and targets are composites written for a model paper.

Week 1 set out governance principles for the State Motor Vehicle Division after its first attempt to replace a 1990s licensing and registration system was canceled. Governance tells the division how decisions will be made; it does not tell it what to aim for. This paper develops the strategy that will guide the second attempt.

Mission and Customers

The division's statutory mission is to license qualified drivers, register vehicles and maintain accurate records for public safety and revenue. Its customers include about 4.3 million licensed drivers, vehicle owners, auto dealers, 72 county treasurers who process registrations, law enforcement agencies that query records and insurers. Each has different needs: drivers want short waits and online options; dealers want fast title processing; counties want simpler systems; law enforcement wants accurate, real-time data.

Situation Summary

Internal conditions: the mainframe is reliable but costly to change, and only six programmers understand it, four of whom are eligible to retire within three years. Office waits average 47 minutes statewide and exceed 90 minutes in the two largest metro offices. About 31 percent of eligible transactions are completed online. Staff morale is low after the first attempt's failure, and many front-line staff doubt leadership's promises.

External conditions: the governor's office has an online-first policy for state services. Federal identification requirements for licenses add verification steps. Peer agencies in other states that redesigned services in phases report higher online use. The legislature, burned by the first attempt, will fund the second only in stages tied to results.

Three Strategic Options

Option 1, like-for-like replacement: rebuild the existing system's functions on modern technology in one large effort, then improve services later. Option 2, service redesign first: start from customer transactions, redesign the most common ones end to end, online and in offices, and build only the technology those services need, retiring the mainframe gradually. Option 3, a hybrid of the two: replace core records modules in phases while redesigning services alongside each phase.

Before scoring, the steering committee agreed on five criteria and weights: customer outcomes 30 percent, delivery risk 25 percent, cost over ten years 20 percent, staff impact 15 percent and fit with state policy 10 percent.

Evaluating the Options

Option 1 scored low on customer outcomes, since customers would see little change for years, and low on delivery risk, since it repeats the large single delivery that failed before. Option 2 scored highest on customer outcomes and policy fit but carried risk: redesigning services while the old system still holds the records requires temporary interfaces. Option 3 balanced the two. The weighted totals were 2.35 for Option 1, 3.80 for Option 2 and 3.95 for Option 3. Option 3, refined to put service redesign at the front of each phase, became the recommended strategy.

George et al. (2019) conducted a meta-analysis of studies on strategic planning in public organizations and found a positive, moderate relationship between strategic planning and organizational performance, stronger when planning was formal. Poister (2010) argued that public agencies should move from strategic planning as a periodic exercise toward strategic management, linking plans to performance measurement and resource allocation. The division's strategy is meant to be managed in that way, with objectives tied to measures and funding.

The first attempt asked what the old system did; the second asks what customers need to get done.

The Strategy

The Division will modernize through phased, service-first releases: each phase redesigns a group of the most common customer transactions end to end and replaces the records modules those transactions need, so that customers and staff see improvement every year and the mainframe is retired in stages over five years.

What the Strategy Gives Up

Every strategy is also a choice about what not to do. The service-first strategy accepts that the mainframe will run for five more years, with its maintenance costs and the need to keep at least two programmers able to support it. It accepts temporary interfaces between new modules and the old system, which add testing effort and some risk of data mismatches. And it postpones redesign of less common transactions, such as specialty plates and commercial registrations, until the last phase, even though those customers also face long processes. The steering committee accepted these trade-offs explicitly, recorded them with the strategy and asked that each be reviewed at the end of every phase.

How the Strategy Will Be Funded

The legislature's staged funding shapes the strategy as much as any analysis. Each phase is sized to deliver visible results within one funding cycle, roughly eighteen months, so that the oversight committee can see improvement before approving the next stage. The first phase requests $28 million, about a third of the estimated five-year cost, and includes the knowledge capture work with the retiring programmers.

Objectives

The objectives below are written as outcomes with dates so that each phase can be judged by them.

Reduce average office wait to 20 minutes, and to no more than 30 minutes in every office, within four years.

Raise the share of eligible transactions completed online from 31 to 65 percent within four years.

Retire the mainframe by the end of year five, with no loss of record accuracy.

Cut title processing time for dealers from 11 business days to 3 within three years.

Raise the share of front-line staff who agree that new tools help them serve customers to 70 percent by year three.

First-Year Initiatives

The first phase targets vehicle registration renewals and address changes, which together make up about 38 percent of transactions. Initiatives include a redesigned online renewal with text reminders, a new registration records module with a temporary interface to the mainframe for other functions, kiosks in the two busiest metro offices and a front-line staff design group that tests every new screen. Each initiative has an owner and a measure linked to one of the objectives.

Keeping the Strategy Open to Learning

Mintzberg and Waters (1985) contrasted strategies that unfold the way their authors meant with patterns that take shape through action and only later look like a strategy, and argued that most real strategies combine both. The division's strategy is deliberate in its direction and objectives but expects to learn from each release. If online renewals reach 65 percent faster than expected, later phases may shift resources to in-office services; if a module proves harder to replace, the sequence may change. The steering committee will review the strategy after each phase against the objectives.

Conclusion

The State Motor Vehicle Division faces a choice between rebuilding its old system and redesigning the services customers use. Evaluating three options against agreed criteria leads to a phased, service-first strategy that delivers visible improvement each year, reduces delivery risk by retiring the mainframe in stages and fits the state's online-first policy. Five measurable objectives and first-year initiatives connect the strategy to the projects that will carry it, while planned reviews keep it open to what the division learns.

References

George, B., Walker, R. M., & Monster, J. (2019). Does strategic planning improve organizational performance? A meta-analysis. Public Administration Review, 79(6), 810-819. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13104

Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 257-272. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250060306

Poister, T. H. (2010). The future of strategic planning in the public sector: Linking strategic management and performance. Public Administration Review, 70(s1), s246-s254. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02284.x