Midsouth Chamber of Commerce
Case Study
MGMT-408: Management of Technology Resources
By: Jeff Jolly
Presented to: Professor Russell Hester
3/4/2018
Introduction
The Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) was created in the early 1900s, by powerful businesspeople with the objective to handle concerns of the mid-south towards the state government. At the early stages of the organization, the aim was to access sound transportation services during a time that economical and business development was at a low point. Now entering into the information technology era, MSCC now faces internal development problems that has Vice President (VP) of Marketing for Midsouth Chamber of Commerce, Leon Lassiter, perplexed. For this case study they are facing
…show more content…
system conversion problems and the question that should be asked is “what should be done?” Background MSCC was created in the early 1900s, by a group of powerful businesspeople that helped lobby the legislature on issues of reasonable transportation access.
MSCC dealt with that one single issue until the 1930s, when its charter was changed to include a larger range of issues that affected the business community that includes state banking laws, transportation, industrial development, and business taxes. By mid-1990s, the chamber of commerce became an aggressive advocacy organization for the business community due impart to the new president, Jack Wallingford. By 2000, the MSCC was viewed as the most powerful business advocacy organization in the mid-south area and was looked at as one of the most innovative chambers of commerce, in terms of its methods and practices in dealing with problems faced by the business community. The biggest challenge facing the management of the MSCC at the time was major concerns that its aggressive practice and growth might have to be cut because it could no longer fund its annual operating budget. For this case study, MSCC has three main problems that were noticeable, their lack of knowledge in Information systems, technology transformation planning, and no system backups currently in place. As an IT manager, each concern requires precise planning and effective responsiveness to resolve each …show more content…
concern. Discussion The first problem that I would like to address is the transformation from old technology equipment to new equipment with little to no knowledge of information systems.
Upgrading new technology equipment is a challenge even for a skilled IT team. To implement such a task, management should have a subject matter expert (SME) to oversee this upgrade and implementation. Leon Lassiter, VP of marketing, should have no business in the IT technical transition for MSCC. To solve this problem, Lassiter should consult with an IT professional and have them create and assist in the implementation of the desired change. The second problem that I would like to address is having MSCC creating an IT transformation timetable that would include; new system employees training, test trials for new systems, address legacy system issues, and financial cost planning. It would be imperative that MSCC implements an IT transformation timetable that would address issues that were discussed in the problem section. Mr. Lassister needs to contact UNITRAK and have them involved in the implementation of the new systems, as well as to assist in the training of the employees on the new system. The third problem to address is and is transparent throughout the case study is MSCC lacks a good channel of communication. It seems to me that at times management is not on the same page. Because of this, small problems seem to multiply and create bigger issues. To address this issue, it would be prudent that Mr.
Lassiter take it upon himself to discuss with the organization and departments of the changes that will be taking place prior to implementation. At a minimum the department heads need to be aware of the system integration and access capabilities, co they can inform and update their departments. He would also need to make sure that he has the upper managements support so that they will support this transition. Mr. Lassiter will need to bring everyone on board and create synergy and generating a sense of belonging and teamwork. Conclusion After reviewing this case study and analyzing it, I feel that the difficulties can be cross-reference to how MSCC handle this situation. It appeared that the communication were absent from the beginning, and made things worse. In order for MSCC to make this transformation as efficient and professional as possible, the organization needed to establish a good communicate plan and abide by it from the start. Mr. Lassiter needed to position himself by addressing the problem with concise precision and act accordingly throughout the process. Mr. Lassiter’s stress would have been lessened if he would have hired an IT professional to manage the implementation and timetable. Opening communication with the organization about the overall process would also have lessened the overall stress of the process. References Brown, C., DeHayes, D., Hoffer, J., Martin, E., & Perkins, W. (2012). Chapter 1 Managing IT in a Digital World: Case Study 1. In Managing Information Technology (Seventh ed., pp. 10 - 16). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
...System (SMS). Knowing that the Harley-Davidson’s employees were not very susceptible to quick changes, SiL’k team made sure to employ company’s model to highlight People, Processes and Technology for any change initiatives. Additionally, company’s Technology decisions were differed to company’s Architecture Integration group to ensure all technical solutions will be compatible with existing Information Systems architecture. Last but not least, the team took an open communication approach and throughout the process, each party involved, shared their monthly updates as well as project newsletter that communicated objectives, activities and progress to the community. This was clearly an ultimate teams collaborative effort, which brought them all toward shared vision of the new process and activities, resulted in shareholder’s decision in favor of the new supplier.
Adapt to externalities. Correct evaluation, however additional analysis is required. The IT department needs to collaborate with the business to better understand how organization changes impact applications and systems. Moreover, IT needs to strengthen the IT-business alignment to stay abreast of future changes. One methodology that may assist here is business architecture, a blueprint of the business that supports aligning strategic objectives and tactical demands.
The organizational life cycle of Chesapeake Bank is well into the final elaboration stage. The bank has been in business for quite a long time, and has gone...
The metro Atlanta Chamber has many resources to help businesses succeed in the city. The Chamber can help business owners with starting business, growing a business, supply chain and manufacturing assistance, workforce development resources and more. The resources offered by the chamber follow the expectations of any development program as discussed in Stability and Change in County Economic Development Organizations written by authors Jongsun Park and Richard C. Feiock.
In this essay I will look at the strengths and weaknesses of using the Boston Matrix to help make decisions in business. I will first briefly explain the Boston Matrix and then analyse its effectiveness as an aid to making a marketing strategy.
Case Study of The Home Depot Preface This Essentials of Strategic Management assignment has been made by three persons which have been working together and individually to finish the assignment properly and in time. Secondly, we would like to thank the company whose websites we were able to visit and use, to get additional information that we could use for leading the assignment of Home Depot to a successful ending. We can say, that it was a pleasure to work on this assignment and would, in the third place, like to thank each other. The persons who worked on this assignment, for the effort and time that is put in the assignment, that brought us to this finished version.
The Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc a company where their headquarters is based in the United States , also doing business internationally with facilities in Europe, Asia and South America. They are a manufacturing company what produced well known products to individuals and industries. This company is experiencing a great deal of trouble with their internal Payable Audit System (PAS) and how it would purchase goods; receive goods and pays for them. They are challenged with the redundancy and the lack of productivity to their system. They were finding ways to lower costs and eliminating steps in how these processes are getting accomplished. They decided that they needed to change their system and the way they did things at their business. There are some people, their roles and departments that will be closely involved with the process of this project. Some of these important roles will come from Ted Anderson director of disbursements, Peter Shaw the user project manager and Linda Watkins project director for the Payable Audit System (PAS). In addition, the Steering Group and the IS management department will have some important roles to the project too. Finally, there will be several major problems with the development of the project and how the one person would deal with these issues.
Naples is one of the wealthiest cities in America, and the city is a popular vacation destination. Naples is a white-collar city, and nearly 53 percent of the residents have a college degree. More than 20 percent of the residents are employed in management positions, and nearly 18 percent of the residents are telecommuters. Naples is the 130th largest city in Florida. In 2013, the population was 20,543. The average annual income was $84,721 in 2010. For a family of four, the average annual income was $338,884.
Founded by Bruce D. Henderson in Boston, Massachusetts in 1963 to be the Management Consulting Division serving the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company; The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is now a global management consulting firm which is the world’s leading advisor on business strategy (BGG, 2014). With at least two offices at each continent, BCG is a private company that serves those in public, private as well as not-for-profit sectors. Some of the areas in which BCG provides it’s services to are, but not limited to, postmerger integration, transformation, strategy information technology and management in a two-speed economy (Bloomsberg, 2014). This year, The Boston Consulting Group earned the honor of being placed 3rd on the list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For”, falling just behind Google and SAS.
Define the current situation - break down problem into component parts, identify major problem areas, develop a target improvement goal
During our search for possible solutions to this problem, we used several research tactics. These tactics included distributing a student survey on campus, conducting personal interviews with the co-advisors and officers to the Business Society, and also with students who were involved in past years. We also researched journal articles and made contact with department heads to show the significance of student involvement in on campus activities.
In general terms, the organizational structure of the Electronic Products Division of Allentown follows the same structure of the other divisions. Under the General Manager there is a controller, a product development manager, a manufacturing manager (with three plants treated as three different profit centers), a sales manager and a marketing manager. The last two may be the major difference regarding the general structure of the company, since sales and marketing are usually combined in one single department. The breakdown in two departments has been made by the general manager, reasoning that the sales division should be concerned about short-term actions, while the marketing one should take care of pricing policies and strategic plan.
Contemporary management of the business. 7 ed. of the book. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. McComb, S., Schroeder, A., Kennedy, D., & Vozdolska, R. (2012).
The objective of this research is to help a company or an entrepreneur understand the business environment better as well as customers’ needs and, therefore, make better business decisions.
Over recent years companies have become less dependent on paper and more dependent on technology. Take American Honda Motors for example; the Davenport Parts facility recently converted computer systems to more efficiently manage its inventory. Prior to its new system months of preparation was needed in order to ensure a smooth change over. Without the four basic functions of management all working together success would not have been possible.