Her furniture supplier, Bissell’s Furniture, is located in NC and during a business visit, she became aware of an opportunity to acquire a small furniture store that also does business with her supplier. Using profits from her MA operations, she acquired this Greensboro, NC outlet and retained the long-time, loyal, employees from that company.
Emma orders marble or glass as add-on options for the table tops. Marble is ordered from the Syntica Marble Company in South Carolina (SC) and glass from Ghahe Glass Company in Kentucky (KY).
The Problem
Emma’s business is growing so fast that she is having difficulty in effective information tracking.
As an alternative to stocking marble and glass, UMUC orders the marble and glass when it receives the customers’ orders. So all of the furniture store locations need to know what furniture is available from Bissell’s Furniture and at what prices and dimensions. Since the glass and marble is cut at the manufacturing facilities in SC and KY, it must be custom ordered and shipped to the appropriate outlet location where it is combined with the piece of furniture that has been shipped to the store before the customer picks up the order. UMUC could save monies on shipping costs on both the furniture and marble/glass if orders could be combined for shipment to a specific outlet location or directly to the customer.
The Assignment
Emma feels that by integrating an information technology solution into her business that management of her operations could be greatly improved. You are a consultant and have been hired to provide her with some options can she can consider. Emma’s requirements are as follows:
· She has asked for three different areas where IT could be applied and how each could benefit her operations.
· Emma wants to know, out the three areas you selected, which one you would choose to proceed with first. You will need to provide the reasoning and a clear justification for your recommendation.
· She requests assistance for some hardware and software recommendations that would be needed for her operations along with where electronic files for her business could be kept.
· In addition, she would like to know what steps would need to be taken for a successful implementation of your suggestions.
The Final Assessment
1. Identify three areas where IT could be applied to improve management of Uphill Movers Undae Company (UMUC).
a. _________________________
b. _________________________
c. _________________________
2. Explain how each solution would benefit the furniture outlets, specifically addressing how it could improve business intelligence (BI) and decision-making and/or overall management of the business.
a. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Identify which of the three solutions you would suggest be implemented first and explain why you chose that solution over the others.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Name five IT best practices and methodologies and briefly explain how they apply to the IT solution named in #3 above.
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________
e. _______________________________________________
5. Identify five hardware components that Emma will need to buy for her main location to implement the IT solution named in #3 above.
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________
e. _______________________________________________
6. Identify five software suites/programs/their purposes that Emma will need for her office. (These may or may not be part of your solution, but are programs she will need.)
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________
e. _______________________________________________
7. Name three locations or businesses that need connectivity and for what purpose(s).
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
8. Do some research and list four names of different types of software products along with their corresponding categories that Emma can use to protect her data and her systems. These are to be specific products available in the marketplace, not general types of software.
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________
9. Explain how Emma could benefit from implementing supply chain management (SCM) in her business. Be sure to address the entire supply chain in your response.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. List five hardware components, software or connectivity capabilities that Emma could add to her system and processes in order to establish a business-to-consumer (B2C) eCommerce capability and explain how each would apply to her business.
a. _______________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________
e. _______________________________________________
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