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.