Computer software

WIDGETS USA LLC

WUSA was founded in 1980 by John W. Doe. His goal was to manufacture a better widget. Since then, he has operated his company in the small town of Blackflower, KY. It is a closely held corporation with three investors; John, his wife Jane, and his dad Joe.

 The company manufactured and sold 2.3 million widgets in the last full year of operation grossing 8.2 million dollars. WUSA has approximately 200 customers to whom they sell wholesale. Most of their customers are located within the United States with a few (including WRU) located in other countries. WUSA does not sell retail. The minimum widget order is 1000 pieces and they are sold in lots of 250. The company has one manufacturing plant with a total of 68 employees.

 Sixty employees work in manufacturing. The factory operates 24 hours a day, five days a week on three eight hour shifts. There are three administrative teams. The primary team consists of four employees (two managers, an administrative assistant, and a computer systems manager). The swing and night shifts both have a shift manager and a secretary.

 There are three computers in the facility, all using Windows XP Professional. One computer is on the manufacturing floor, one in the manager’s office (shared by all managers), and one in the reception area. The computers are on a hard-wired peer to peer network. All three computers are Dell Dimension 3000 computers (Celeron D 2.53 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD).

 Computer software consists of Microsoft Office 2007, a web browser, and other miscellaneous software. They do not have an Internet connection and do not use antivirus software. They do not have a backup plan, but the computer systems manager backs up each computer to a CD when he thinks about it. The CDs are kept in a drawer in the reception area desk.

 Orders are taken by phone and recorded into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is printed out every morning so that orders can be filled. Orders are generally filled and shipped the following day with some minor exceptions.

 All accounting is done using Excel. Once an order is shipped, it is checked off the order sheet in the warehouse, hand delivered to the administrative assistant, who records the sale in the shipping spreadsheet. Payments are recorded in the payment spreadsheet and the order is checked off the shipping spreadsheet.

 Spreadsheets are printed out monthly and stored in a filing cabinet.

Supplies are ordered weekly based on estimates made by John Doe and his personal experience in the industry. Supplies are paid for on a cash only basis (there are no accounts payable on the books). Supplies on hand are kept in a separate warehouse and inventory is maintained using an inventory spreadsheet that is housed in the warehouse and updated by the administrative assistant

Widgets-R-Us, LTD

Widgets-R-Us (WRU) is an online retailer of widgets. They operate out of a small warehouse in Dorness, England. WRU has two members. Bronwen White and Rhonwen Green were roommates at the London Business School where their final project resulted in the start-up company WRU. After graduation in 1998, Bronwen and Rhonwen rented a small warehouse in Dorness and hired ten friends to help with sales and shipping. As the company grew, five additional individuals were hired to handle packing and shipping. The company currently has clients in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the US. They have recently added several translations to their webpage including Afrikaans, Swahili, and Amharic in an attempt to move into the African market.

 WRU uses a client server network. Computers all run Windows 7 Professional, or Windows 8 Professional, while the server uses Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials after a recent upgrade. Computers are primarily Lenovo ThinkCentre M92p Tiny computers (Core i5 2.9 Ghz, 4GB RAM, and 500GB hdd). All computers have Microsoft Office 2013 installed, and each employee has a shared folder on the network.

 Each employee has their own computer from which they maintain customer contacts, telephone call records, and orders. Some sales members also use tablets or personal cell phones to access the network. Each sales person is responsible for ensuring their own orders are packed and shipped. Each sales person has their own method for communicating with the shipping team and ensuring their orders have been shipped. Orders are recorded in a shared Excel workbook.

 The company uses Memopal (http://www.memopal.com/en/) for backups. Backups occur automatically daily. The network is protected by BitDefender Security for Endpoints (http://www.bitdefender.com/business/cloud-managed-security.html)

 Sales for the last fiscal year totaled € 1.3 million. Total units sold were just over 100,000 pieces. A contract accountant maintains the books using Intuit QuickBooks (http://quickbooks.intuit.com/online).

Assignment Instructions

Internal Memo

To: IT Department

From: CEO

Re: Corporate Merger

Good afternoon team!

I need your help. In considering the purchase of a knowledge management system, the board has

requested that we publish a white paper for our new investors that explain some of the technology

that we are implementing. Many of our investors are not technologically literate and therefore, we

need to explain some of the terms and processes that we are using to improve our company.

Please prepare a white paper for publication to the website (APA Format) that discusses knowledge

management systems. Please begin by explaining the differences among data, information and

knowledge. Again, remember that for many of our investors, these terms are used interchangeably

so it is important that we help them to understand the differences. You will also need to define

artificial intelligence and explain its relationship to knowledge management and expert systems. Make

sure you list the characteristics of intelligent behavior and compare artificial intelligence to natural

intelligence. Remember to explain how this will benefit WInt and some of the characteristics these

systems use to be effective for management support. Next, list some of the tools and techniques

used in knowledge management. Finally, identify the components we will require to implement this

system and briefly explain the implementation process