1-800-JUNK VAN: Case Prep

-         Problem / Issue         

The main problem facing Kingo’s virtual business model is that although he intended to keep his company as simple as possible considering IT development, the company took off and grew faster then their employees can handle. Information errors and inefficiencies were negatively impacting the company because the drivers planned their next day schedules based off what the data clerk would input to the system. Many times they would forget to send off an e-mail or just simply have wrong information. This was leading to many unhappy customers.

-         List of Plausible Alternatives of Action

Kingo performed some data research and came up with several alternatives to switch to.

-         Microsoft Access Database

o       Cheap

o       Per computer pricing

o       Fast implementation

o       No remote access

o       Requires professional expertise to implement

-         Custom Application

o       Would be designed specifically to Kingo’s specs

o       Remote access

o       Basic to use

o       Costly with lots of unexpected variances

o       Lots of uncertainty with migration

-         Google docs

o       Very small users fee

o       Quick implementation

o       Quick implementation

o       Remote access

o       Simultaneous use from different locations

o       Lack of formal customer support

-         Platform as a Service

o       Similar to google docs

o       Fast implementation

o       Simple to use

o       No lengthy contract

o       Fairly cheap

-         ERP System

o       Built on central database

o       Remotely accessible

o       Very costly

o       Not appropriate for his business

-         Recommendation

I think the Google doc’s alternative would be the best option for Kingo to roll with at least for a trial phase. It will cost him almost nothing to use and if he does not like the functionality of it he can always explore his next options. Google doc’s will allow the company to run on the “virtual business model” he is trying to maintain.

P&G - Phase to the future

Fellow colleagues, I hope you all enjoyed this weekend with the beautiful weather we had to give us a break from the heat wave last week. Now I would like to dedicate some time later on this afternoon for us to discuss what we think of the decision given to us by KAC Consulting, Inc. We heard the side of our own, Ray D’ Alonzo, and had that decision substantiated in much further detail by our outside consultants. I think there were very strong arguments to support the decision and I feel very comfortable going forward with the implementation of the Electronic Data Capture to close the gaps in the delay of product entry.

            Jon, I think as CFO, I enjoyed our discussion last Friday about how Anthony mentioned some very positive financial impacts on our Financials by switching to an EDC system. Although we would need to pay on a per-trial basis for our phase forward integration of $250-450k, our cost savings during the presentation seemed to outweigh the expenses. Savings on just the cost of monitoring a single study were projected to save $360k when using the EDC system. In addition to some of these tangible financial benefits, I loved the aspect of web-enabled EDC for the simple reason that once records were entered, they were immediately available to our sponsor for monitoring the trial. This aids in the solution of our biggest problem which is to decrease market entry time. In addition, we would be able to reduce some of our staff which would no longer be needed. This cost was estimated to be about $280k per year.

            I think we may even have some further net benefits from this which will be realized in the long run. Our legacy system did not ensure accuracy because we had no way of providing our sites to incentive programs to motivate them. KAC showed us that we will have higher quality data and I think this will in turn provide a positive effect for sales.

            Remember, here at P&G, we want to instill a “purpose-inspired growth” strategy. We hired KAC with the sole intent of analyzing our options and recommending what they think is best for us. I think they did a wonderful job presenting us with the facts. I felt we all agreed last week so this afternoon we can meet in conference room #4 to have some last minute thoughts or comments before we schedule our next meeting with KAC to discuss implementation.

            See you all at 3:00pm.

Thank you,

Bob McDonald

CEO

ERP - Integration to success

Good Afternoon Ken,

            It has come to my attention through the IT pipelines that we have some ideas up in the air about outsourcing an ERP Software. Ironically I just received my monthly newsletter from OPN (Oracle Partner Network) and they were discussing the benefits of outsourcing with Oracle’s ERP software. They mention many benefits that could enhance our efficiency. You mentioned that we need to concentrate on reducing costs and increasing sales. Outsourcing our ERP from Oracle can do just that.

            Cost reduction can be seen by the enhancement of efficiency. This software can allow us to control the costs by speeding up order fulfillment based on an accurate basis, reducing inventory levels. Most of the benefits stems from integrating business processes across departments. In the video, they mention that E-Surance took only 60 days to implement so a company of our size should take half the time. This will get us up and running in no time.

            Currently we have a 28 day sales lead time and our goal is to bring that down by 10%. Every day we reduce, we can generate approximately $25,000 in sales. Our accounting department currently experiences many issues for the book close at month end because of the lack of communication through our current software. This results in Alex and John working overtime about an extra 20 hours at month end and that is about $50/hr we have to pay. With the integration of data, they will be able to gather needed information with greater accuracy and time.

            We should schedule a meeting and we can start it off with a video I watched that struck my attention from my newsletter. Let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4w7wP0C51Q 

Sincerely,

Alex Slavtchev

P&G - A change above all

-Problem/Issue Statement ​ ​P&G was posed with an issue that they felt needed to be addressed in order to drastically increase potential sales that were estimated to be at about $1 Million per day. The current paper trail process has been the process since the start for their clinical trial management. D’ Alonzo , the associate director for Clinical data mgmt, and other executives felt there is potential to transform what is now a lengthy process that produces very long lead times driven which was mainly attributed to the need for extensive manual processing. P&G knew that there were 3 available options at hand. -List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action -Evaluation of Alternatives   ​ - Improving the paper-based process This would essentially be an attempt to revamp the current manual process by basically trying to speed up the process. It would increase efficiency but overall, a material difference would not be reached. ​ - Digital Imaging Still a paper based trail although this method introduces some technology into the function with transmittal of data from the hospital/physician sites to the sponsor. This would eliminate some double entry work which in turn would cut the process time, further helping them in their main goal. Downside is the constraints formed from the need of large amounts of data capacity of time. This could increase costs.   - Web-Enabled EDC The best, and chosen, approach that D’ Alonzo had used to convince his colleagues were this method. This approach would allow for data to almost be treated as a cloud function. You cut out all the middlemen and transfer information straight to the source. -Recommendation   ​I would recommend the same approach taken in the case study because the arguments presented are very clear and straightforward. There is no need for software at the sites so less work is needed. Navigation is a lot easier which eliminates confusion and speeds up the process.     -If I were Presenting ​ ​I would focus on the pitfalls of the other two options and focus on the success which will come with choosing the EDC option. Also focusing on the previous experience and results I have seen using this method. All the data collected from this method in my pilot trials would serve as presentation aids and lots of charts.  

Ubuntu - Out with the old, in with the new

Good afternoon Mr. Zicker,

            I have completed my analysis on our current operating system and concluded my findings with a recommendation to a conversion to a new operating system. I had a meeting with Jim a couple weeks ago and he brought to my attention that there are several inconsistencies with our current operating system, Windows Vista. Some of the issues your departments complained about were losing internet connection out of the blue which really contributed to downtime at crucial points of the year. The window techs were not very helpful in assisting you with the re-boot. Another issue raised at the meeting was the complexity to contain viruses. After some research, I suggest we move to Ubuntu.

            I suggest you consider moving to Ubuntu for several reasons. Window’s XP has been around since 2001. When it comes to technology, most people scramble to have the latest. The issue with having an OS which has been out for so long is it is prone to viruses. Windows users are comprised of 92% of computer users. This means that hackers are going to target the highest number of people that could be affected. Ubuntu is much protected against viruses because it has password protected installations such as the method Mac uses. No garbage is installed into your computer without the user authorization.

           

            The greatest aspect that Ubuntu promises, which will take care of our current issue, is the service support. Jim told me he cannot stand calling India and having some tech support guy tells him to just re-boot his computer and re-install windows. With Ubuntu they offer an internet forum that is run by knowledgeable people who understand new users and are good at explaining to someone how to fix something.

            It was my understanding that you did not want to spend a lot of money on some costly OS since the problems you are having were not detrimental to our success but rather would be a plus. Well then, Mr. Zicker, you are going to love this! Ubuntu is FREE. The greatest part of all this, not only will making this change the efficiency of the way you conduct business now, but it will actually produce a cost savings function. We currently pay several hundred dollars every time we add an employee to have him up and running and we hire, on average 2 employees a quarter. This can generate an approximate $2, xxx cost savings for the year on licensees alone, not to mention support. Just in case you are a little skeptical and worrisome, here is the closer. We can download Ubuntu on all computers right now, free, and run it alongside windows to try it out. A nice great risk free way for us to try it out.

            Installing it is a very simple process and I have added a link below that has instructions. Just a simple 7-step process with additional information on what we will need. Please give me a call with your concerns and I would like to discuss when you would like to schedule a conference meeting with IT to talk implementation.

http://www.wikihow.com/Switch-to-Ubuntu

Accenture - Guidance to the Future

Good Afternoon Fellow Colleagues,

                        The presentation from our consultants last Wednesday had given us all a good deal to think about on how we could restructure our current IT infrastructure framework to help us deal with the large transition that we are currently undergoing. I know prior to our decision to hire an outside party to analyze the situation, we had several differing opinions on how to proceed. I personally thought we should go with the COBIT framework due to my previous success and experience with it. I did mention that if we were to have opposing suggestions we need to make sure that which ever method we decide to incorporate, we need make sure it will allow managers to provide clear policy development and good IT practice. I think we can all agree that after our brief talk that evening, the consultants did present a good argument to support their findings. The point of this e-mail is to gather all the positive thoughts you all had gathered from the presentation and how you think it could help us improve.

            Below are the benefits I see of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library:

-       Provides definable and scalable documented framework for IT best practices that flows across the IT organization

-       Clearly identifies roles and responsibilities for IT Service Mgmt.

-       Supports reducing IT costs and justifying the cost of IT quality.

-       Supports ability of IT to measure and improve internal performance and service provisioning

-       Defines IT in terms of services rather than systems

-       Supports improvement of user productivity

-       Improves communication and information flows between IT and organization business departments

-       Provides a framework for IT to support regulatory challenges

Given the need for us to reduce costs and also treat our core genre of doing business as a profit center, rather then a cost center, this fully addresses those needs. This framework has been proven to be successful and from Varsha’s allotted time frame for implementation to get things running, we should be reaping the benefits in a couple years at most. I was not happy with this but considering the size of our company, it does seem to be reasonable.

We do need to come up with a final conclusion so it is crucial that you all respond to me by Friday, June 22^nd at the latest. I look forward to all your comments.

Accenture - Transformation to Success

-Problem/Issue Statement

            The issue that Accenture faced in the case study is foreshadowed in the title, “Strategic IT transformation at Accenture”. Accenture, which was an entity of Arthur Anderson, decided to split from its parent company and become its own business. The root of the problem began from the moment they decided that it was crucial for them to restructure the current IT organization because it inherited software and hardware configuration, which would not be able to meet the needs of its clients. These “legacy” systems that Arthur Anderson operated under would not be sufficient for a company that prided itself on advising clients on advanced technologies and best practices in IT implementation. The obsolete platforms that Anderson used were very limited to certain aspects of financial information, database access, and remote networking. In the consulting world, consultants and support personnel need to have a kind of “anytime, anywhere” software platform. Your typical consultant is our of the office more so than he is in so wireless connectivity at a client site or airport was a fundamental need. Accenture was faced was some challenging choices in the restructure of their IT organization. An opportunity not often available to organizations of this magnitude, presented itself for Accenture to start from scratch and build an IT infrastructure from scratch. The question they had to ask was, which was the correct path?

-List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action

-Evaluation of Alternatives

            There were two methods of approach that were presented to the IT steering committee that would need to be debated. The best-of-breed strategy, which was expensive, was to just select the best possible application and software available in the market for each specific need they had. It had several pitfalls to it, which made it seem unattractive:

-       Too many applications to manage

-       Wide variety of vendors

-       Poor bargaining power

-       Not in sync as a whole application

The other method was to adopt a one-platform approach, which meant to find one vendor that would provide all the necessary applications required even though they would not be top of the line. This was attractive in more ways then one.

-       Economies of scale

-       Great bargaining power due to high leverage

-       Seamless flow information from similar applications

-       New technology deployment cost efficiently.

The one downfall that was dangerous is with a one-vendor approach, Accenture could put itself at risk by being vulnerable to the failure of the company.

-Recommendation

            Accenture has over 75,000 employees and operates on 600 global and 1,500 local applications on multiple platforms currently. This generated way too much complexity so simplifying their infrastructure would be a benefit they would look for. With this in mind Accenture chose the singe-vendor approach, which as a result minimized the total, cost of the IT dept. and simplified its strategy. To help combat the risk of a single vendor failure, they chose Microsoft as their partner to supply all their needs. For the financial sector, they opted with SAP. Single platform software that they adopted helped them achieve important cost reductions and happier customer satisfaction. The implementation of their new strategy was a success and was logical from beginning to end so I would not have a recommendation which would deviate from the one chosen because I believe in any organization, the key to a strategy is to reduce costs while increasing customer satisfaction. That is exactly what they managed to accomplish

Presentation of the Accenture case seems more of an analysis style approach rather then a recommendation. I would look at the options and try to assess both sides showing how it would impact the company, financially and structurally.