1-888-JUNK-VAN Case Preparation

Problem/Issue Statement

Kingo and his company are currently facing IT issues that are resulting to information handling errors and losing customers. There is no centralized database system that allowed information sharing remotely. This was negatively impacting the operations and increasing cost. Customer quality was low and it is damaging the company’s reputation.

The symptoms of the problem includes:

• Poor customer service
• Administrative tasks and drivers’ data consolidation were time consuming
• Errors in customer contact information, forgotten e-mails, manual calculations, and billing mistakes
• On several occasions, the clerk accidentally sends wrong version of the data base to the drivers. This results to jobs being missed and customers being unsatisfied.

The scope of the problem is that the entire business operation is no longer efficient, and that Kingo is facing is to find an affordable IT system that met his operational requirements and allowed the business

Situation Assessment

The context of the problem is that the operational system is becoming inefficient as the the company grows. A big part of the operational issues was that communication flow was becoming very complicated, so there is a need for a centralized data base system that would allow every employee to have easy access to any specific information that they need.

The decision criteria includes:

• Cost effectiveness
• User friendly for anyone who is not IT savvy because Kingo and his emplyees are not It savvy
• Flexible to change and grow with the business
• Implementation time need not to be lengthy
• Vendor support

Evaluation of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action and how they address the key problem

MS-Access Database:

• It doesn't require lengthy time to implement which is what Kingo needs
• It is not very expensive in that onliy license cost should be considered.This option also requires very few resources in order to transfer information and it is capable of being used on multiple computers.
• It is also easy to implement and use so Mr. Kingo could figure out how to do it on his own which saves him money on hiring someone else to do it.

Custom Application.

• This option has so many uncertainties especially when it comes to cost. This would depend on the vendor hired to do it.
• It would be user friendly due to the fact that it would be customized to the user’s taste.
• Mr Kingo will run the risk of wasting time and money because he will only be able to make changes when he sees the final result. If the application doesn’t meet his needs, he would spend more time and money sending it back for fixing. This is a lot of risk for a small business.

Google Docs

• This is very cost effective. Only $5 per month
• Doesn’t take a lengthy time to implement
• Documents could be accessed anywhere and can have multiple users working at the same time.
• All info are kept in one location
• It can be bogus because employees would have access to info that they do not need and might cause confusion
• There is security issues because documents on google doc are not private, so customers information are not secured.

Platform as a service.

• Allows the company the ability to use cloud computing
• The company could utilize common applications, as well as build their own unique applications, using a shared computing platform that was provided and hosted by a third party
• it is not very cost efficient and may require an IT professional for support

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System.

This system is not good for Mr. Kingo because it offer things that he does not need and it is also extremely expensive.

Recommendation

If I were a consultant, i would recommend that the company considers other factors before looking an IT solution. Maybe software is not the problem. Since the company is growing, shouldn’t the employees grow with it?

The employees also work from home, so i would assume there would be distractions and it is causing them to input wrong information. which is affecting productivity.

May the employees need more training? or maybe they are not paying close enough attention?