Apa formatted report on Spring Street Company (SSC) scenario

Assuring Your Learning 107

1. Visit Oracle.com. Click the Solutions tab to open the menu; then click Data Warehousing under Technology Solutions.

a. Select one of the Customer Highlights.

b. Describe the customer’s challenges, why it selected a particular Oracle solution, and how that solution met their challenge.

2. Visit the Microsoft SQL Server website at Microsoft. com/SQLserver.

a. Click the CloudOS tab and select Customer Stories.

b. Filter the customer stories by selecting Business Intelligence and Data Discovery.

c. Summarize each company’s business problems or challenges and why it selected a particular solution.

d. What were the benefi ts of the BI solution?

3. Visit Teradata.com. Click Resources and review Video News, and select one of the videos related to analytics. Explain the benefi ts of the solution chosen.

4. Spring Street Company (SSC) wanted to reduce the “hidden costs” associated with its paper-intensive processes. Employees jokingly predicted that if the windows were open on a very windy day, total chaos would ensue as thousands of papers started to fl y. If a fl ood, fi re, or windy day occurred, the business would literally grind to a halt. The com- pany’s accountant, Sam Spring, decided to calculate the costs of its paper-driven processes to identify their impact on the bottom line. He recognized that several employees spent most of their day fi ling or retrieving documents. In addition, there were the monthly costs to warehouse old paper records. Sam measured the activities related to the handling of printed reports and paper fi les. His average esti- mates were as follows:

a. Dealing with a fi le: It takes an employee 12 minutes to walk to the records room, locate a fi le, act on it, refi le it, and return to his or her desk. Employees do this 4 times per day (5 days per week).

b. Number of employees: 10 full-time employees perform the functions.

c. Lost document replacement: Once per day, a document gets “lost” (destroyed, misplaced, or covered with massive coffee stains) and must be recreated. The total cost of replacing each lost document is $200.

d. Warehousing costs: Currently, document storage costs are $75 per month.

Sam would prefer a system that lets employees fi nd and work with business documents without leav- ing their desks. He’s most concerned about the human resources and accounting departments. These person- nel are traditional heavy users of paper fi les and would greatly benefi t from a modern document management system. At the same time, however, Sam is also risk averse. He would rather invest in solutions that would reduce the risk of higher costs in the future. He recog- nizes that the U.S. PATRIOT Act’s requirements that organizations provide immediate government access to records apply to SSC. He has read that manufacturing and government organizations rely on effi cient docu- ment management to meet these broader regulatory imperatives. Finally, Sam wants to implement a disaster recovery system.

Prepare a report that provides Sam with the data he needs to evaluate the company’s costly paper- intensive approach to managing documents. You will need to conduct research to provide data to prepare this report. Your report should include the following information:

1. How should SSC prepare for an ERM if it decides to implement one?

2. Using the data collected by Sam, create a spread- sheet that calculates the costs of handling paper at SSC based on average hourly rates per employee of $28. Add the cost of lost documents to this. Then, add the costs of warehousing the paper, which increases by 10 percent every month due to increases in vol- ume. Present the results showing both monthly totals and a yearly total. Prepare graphs so that Sam can easily identify the projected growth in warehousing costs over the next three years.

3. How can ERM also serve as a disaster recovery system in case of fi re, fl ood, or break-in?

4. Submit your recommendation for an ERM solution. Identify two vendors in your recommendation.

ANALYZE & DECIDE: Apply IT Concepts to Business Decisions

a. What are the retention recommendations made by the vendors? Why?

b. What services or solutions does each vendor offer?

3. View the “Edgenet Gain Real time Access to Retail Product Data with In-Memory Technology” video on YouTube. Explain the benefi t of in-memory technology.

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