Zara

To: Richard Peterson

From: Anna Szperlak

June 30, 2014

Problem/Issue Statement

The problem which Zara is currently facing is the fact that it is using DOS operating system, which is no longer, supported by Microsoft. Should Zara stick with their current system or implement a new one? DOS does not require a lot of computing resources, what makes it easy and cost efficient to maintain, also its been working well enough for the company to do their day to day operations. Since 2003 DOS has not been supported by any vendors, what makes Zara’s operating process less efficient, which will eventually eliminate future growth. Also, if Zara continue using DOS it will be harder to keep up with any new market trends and fast developing technology that customers are looking for.

The symptoms are pretty obvious. Zara is operating with an unsupported DOS based POS terminal system. This results in operational inefficiencies whenever an order is being placed and fulfillment since the POS application does not support a network connection between stores. This very manual process also causes ineffective use of store employees’ time; when placing orders - sales managers would have to actually walk around and physically count what was sold then transmit that information on a PDA. Another issue is the culture of the stores. It seems like that before applying any new initiative Zara’s planning and organizational assessment has to be improved to be effective.

The scope of the problem is that the firm is not supported with enough data and resources even for the management to make effective decisions. This also affects the customer service since Zara is not able to connect and see the inventory availability the neighbor stores have at the moment. The company must decide on their further steps; Zara simply has two choices. The first one would be, to remain with DOS and pay nothing that means no change, or to spend a significant amount in terms of hardware, training and IT work.

Situation Assessment

The company has to decide whether to keep its current system, upgrade what’s required for the modern operating system or completely upgrade their operational infrastructure. How would those decisions affect their future growth? What will be the cost cuts associated with completely upgrading to a new system? Will there be training and maintenance necessary after the new implementation? Those are the decision criteria that Zara is facing and has to analyze.

      List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action and their Evaluation

    1. Continuing the use of DOS to avoid additional cost and training; however,    no improvement in term of effectiveness.

    2. Purchasing enough of the current POS terminals at the time - will let Zara to continue their operations without worrying about the hardware vendor’s inventory and production. Still doesn’t not resolve the networking between stores problem.

    3. Integrating new operating system such as Windows or Linux - possibility of networking in between the stores and its headquarter, as well as faster PCs for completing returns and orders. This will allow the company to use better reports, which will result in more efficient planning. On the other hand, new operating system will require additional training and financial resources.

  4. Upgrading Software procedures for better functionality will benefit customers and management because processes will be faster and more functional.

   5. Buying modern PCs that will increase capabilities of store management - this will allow the mangers to follow and analyze the market trends and customer demand as well as track the inventory.

Any implementation has challenges, though the key is to know how to addressed those challenges. A new system would eliminate the lack of support issue that Zara is facing and provide other features to help the store managers to more effectively run their operations. Upgrade to more efficient operating system, would also allow Zara‘s mangers to focuse more on customers’ satisfaction, and find what they are looking for to better assist them and set up a long lasting customer base. Of course there is a high cost associated with most of the alternatives so the question is what would bring the most return? Is this the right time to make a change? Since the current POS application is working well, with no IT assistance needed? I believe staying with the old system and not taking any intelligent risks can lead to missing opportunities for growth.

Recommendation

A quality recommendation is to implement the modern OS, upgrade the hardware and enhance the POS application. Although this would be one of the priciest decisions, it seems to be the best alternative for Zara and their long-term expanding possibilities. Even though their current legacy IT system has been working until now its future is just not promising. Innovation and creativity are very important in the fashion world and the opportunity of being able to respond quickly to any new trends is very significant and results in high revenue.  Knowing that there are no guarantees and that the hardware vendor will continue to support Zara’s current legacy system, upgrading it would be the most logical decision.

Impact The iPad Would Have On Amrahp LLC

To: Richard Peterson

From: Anna Szperlak

June 25, 2014

Thank you for the opportunity given to me to analyze the potential use of iPad technology for our company’s sales force. After researching the iPad technology, and investigating our company needs, I have concluded that iPads are tremendous investment for Amrahp’s sales team. The use of iPads will increase our company’s sales extremely, especially that our current laptops are fairly outdated and need some maintenance and updates. 

Through my research I have find few very crucial benefits that the iPad has over the laptops. First of all, iPads are very convenient and easy to use. What does that mean?  Our sales representatives conduct around 8 sales visits per day, and interact with multiple members of each doctor’s facilities. Just to document all of the information takes time and requires few minutes to enter all in that few pound laptop. By using iPad all representatives will be able to quickly ad efficiently enter all information and notes while talking to nurses or doctors. The weight is also the benefit - its only one pound, what allows the sales reps easily reach out to the doctor or pull the sample products. Even thought the over sized laptops provide overall better view while presenting the product or statistics, it seems to be inefficient to hold it while talking and possibly pointing at the screen. The interaction between both sides is limited what could cause missing that sale and the potential relationship with client. iPad definitely eliminates that problem and allows the sales rep to lead the conversation, connect with the client what ultimately brings more sales for the company.

As a pharmaceutical representative I know how much pressure there is associated with providing an outstanding service during few minutes window that we are allowed to. It is extremely difficult to effectively sell product while focusing on holding the laptop and making sure the presentation its clear and visible to the client. That’s is why I’m very confident that iPad will be more efficient and practical tool to better serve the business needs.

Of course there will be some cost associated with it, as everything else that is worth to have it. As we currently have 2,500 sales rep, and estimating the cost of $600 dollars per iPad, a total cost would be $1,500,000. To our benefit there will be very minimal change required with iPad implementation. Mainly the new software would have to be applied so the data can be easily transferred as well as our customer service and IT department will need additional training.  Below I have provided you with an estimate of iPad cost vs. Laptop to clearly see the variances.

In todays fast paste technology world our company must become more innovative and by providing the right tools to its employee we definitely will continue to be the top pharmaceutical corporation.  

I welcome any questions or comments you may have.

Regards,

Anna Szperlak

Junk Van

Case: 1-888-JUNK-VAN

Issue/Symptoms

Marcus Kingo entered the waste collection business in 2008 and unexpectedly his company grew at a fast pace.  However, the problem in the 1-888-JUNK-VAN case is that the company doesn’t have an adequate IT system that could support and help grow its operations. Marcus current IT system was causing information handling errors, which was leading to a loss of customers. The system inefficiencies was negatively impacting operations thought extremely time consuming process of fixing the database, forgotten emails, low customer service quality, and at the same time increasing costs and drives lees productivity. Because of the poor design of the system and its inadequacies, personnel cannot efficiently devote their time to their daily tasks that’s why most of the company operations need to be improved. Marcus needs to find an affordable IT system that would meet his operational requirements and allow the business to grow before he looses his customers.

Situation Assessment

1-888-JUNK-VAN currently employs additional staff: call center operators, data clerk, drivers and three helpers, all under the Marcus supervision. Operations begin with customers calling reception and operators imputing job information to a custom-built MS-Works database. At the end of the day, operator mails work order spreadsheet for each driver in each location that includes job details for the following day. Once the service is completed they email the data to clerk with details regarding jobs performed, weights, invoices, payments received and hours worked. The data clerk integrates the information into the central database, manually processes credit card payments, and forwards updated database to the morning operator. Also, the data clerk and the owner perform payroll and administrative activities, since all of those activities are very manual, time consuming and subject to errors the decision on exploring possible solution to this process is urgent. Even though, Kingo believed in his virtual model and not having a central office location for a while was working out, the importance if this issue is very significant and obvious.

Decision criteria

• Ease to Use/ Flexible – The system has to be accessed remotely and user friendly since there is no IT support available.
• Cost – The new process should be efficient but relatively inexpensive.
• Implementation time – The implementation time and data backup should be relatively fast.
• Secure and accurate operational system – All information are verified and safety stored.

Possible Alternative Courses of Action and Evaluation

To increase company’s productivity and keep the organization running Marcus needs a system that will be easy to use for everyone at the company, it needs to be accessed remotely while the centralized database is available to everybody since there is no central location. The emails to customers should be automatically sent from the system in order to avoid mistakes and resulting delays. It would need to be affordable to keep overall costs low; also, vendor support would need to be included since there is no JunkVan IT team.

Possible information technology solutions referenced in the case include the following:

1. Microsoft Access Database – this solution would be ready in a short time frame and would not be expensive. Access could be installed on multiple computers locally as well as on a centralized server to be accessed remotely through the Internet and a secure virtual private. The price is very promising since each license was only $179. The cons to this option would be possible need of hiring IT support which could be costly.

2. Custom Application – this web-based system is built as a completely customized application for the particular business that would meet requirements of a central database and provide remote access. The development could take approximately 4 weeks with an upfront cost of $2,000 and maintenance cost of $60 per hour. Some cons to this option is the fact that this option can easily become very costly. The maintenance and data migration are additional cost that is not yet estimated. Also, there is no preview option so the needs might not necessary being met.

3. Google Docs – offers online application that allows quick creation and sharing of documents, forms, and spreadsheet. It allows many individuals to simultaneously work in one file and in collaborative system environment. The cost was relatively low.  For Kingo it would be approximately $50 per user per year, and could be implemented quickly. The con to this alternative is Marcus friend opinion of not storing the data in clouds.

4. Platform as a Service– This alternative is delivered on a cloud-computing infrastructure and would provide network capacity as well as some basic functionality on demand and through the Internet. Users could use common applications, as well as build their own unique applications using a shared computing platform.  The application is relatively easy to use and quick to implement and can expanded at any time. Cons to this option are: again the fact that data would be stored in clouds. The service package ranges from $300 to $600 per month depending on how much storage space and how many user licenses and applications are needed. Also, if customization is required there would be an additional charge billed at the rate of $180 per hour. 

5. Enterprise Resource Planning – built around a central database, designed to be accessible remotely and cover business processes that reflect every aspect of the business. This implementation would benefit more a bigger organization. In fact the implementation is very costly and expects a larger number of users at a cost of $2,500 per user.

Recommendation

Each one of the solution types referenced above has advantages as well as disadvantages. One of the main factors that should be considered in this case is the value, functionality and possibility to accommodate the growing business in the future. 
Based on analyzing above alternatives I believe the logical and quality recommendation will be selecting the Platform as a Service Option. This is the most affordable option that JunkVan would be able to optimize and use over time. This option will provide the business with better operational system, central database, remote accessibility, flexibility and robustness capable of accommodating future grown and evolutionary changes in the market of the business. The system is easy and quick to implement, it would only take 3 days and the system has the resources necessary to have a centralized database and forms while the system could cost $300-$600 per month. It is definitely something to think about.

Business Impacts of Microsoft Visio

To: Richard Peterson

From: Anna Szperlak

June 16, 2014

Dear Mr. Peterson,

As per our discussion I have conducted a research on a potential implementation of a diagram drawing software into our company. After spending hours on the subject and comparing numerous programs such as: EDraw, Dia Diagram Editor, Smart Draw, OpenOffice.org Draw, Microsoft Visio and etc. I have come to a conclusion that even though some of the programs are free, have lots of options and great features, they do not even come close to Microsoft Visio. You would say “…well it is just a software that lets you string together lots of boxes and arrows?” You would be wrong… This software is a powerful yet intelligent tool that would let us create accurate and up-to-date diagrams, it will also allow us to communicate in a visual manner, make our diagram more meaningful, flexible and responsive to our needs. It has a fluent and intuitive design, very similar to the Microsoft Office one that we are all used to and it will let us collaborate and accesses it pretty much from any device. Therefore, this will most probably reduce the time our staff would need to be trained and begin to work with it. Microsoft Visio would also let us link shapes to data from sources such as Microsoft Excel. 

I welcome any questions or comments you may have.

Regards,

Anna Szperlak

Reflection on Business Impacts of Ubuntu

To: Richard Peterson

From: Anna Szperlak

June 9, 2014





Dear Mr. Peterson,

In regards to the research I have done to determine whether Ubuntu should be implemented into our business as a substitute to our current operating system-Windows 7 or not.  I have come across a few very meaningful facts about Ubuntu that might contribute to our final decision. After reviewing multiple studies and have tested Ubuntu myself, I have noticed the user friendliness and the easy access to it without any cost associated to it. This very attractive operating system would be a great opportunity for our company to be more effective in our daily activities.


Ubuntu does not require for users to be computer savvy to work on it, and also can be easily installed and constantly upgraded while running a different operating systems. Since Windows is still one of the most popular and used systems, Ubuntu is made to co-exist with any other operating systems what would make the implementation and transition so much easier. Ubuntu is one of the most secured operating system and defines the highest level of security as compared to other operating systems, what for instance would totally cut our expenses related to all of the anti-viruses software and their updates. Its long lasting support helps to storage the data for the lifetime of the computer. Moreover, this free of charge operating system will save our company significant amount of money on the frequent Windows upgrades as well as antivirus protections. This will definitely decrease our operating expenses and eventually significantly increase the Net Income. Especially considering our international locations, and over 300 US employees, implementation of Ubuntu will benefit our company financially and effectively.


With this, I hope you take into consideration my findings when making your decision.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to further discuss the matter.




Best Regards,

Anna Szperlak