IT Management

CASE 1

Q1 In what ways is the Wi-Fi technology changing the life of Dartmouth students? Relate your answer to the concept of the digital society.

1: The college society is changing under the influence of Wi-Fi technology. The college society is enjoying the new and influential network in many ways, but is yet developing constantly improvements how to make the technology even more effective by introducing new programmes and procedures. The wireless technology is accelerating the innovation among the society, resulting emergence of new technologies that the students are developing. Wi-Fi has changed the way the college’s professors educate and also how the students are learning. Interactivity has increased students’ involvement during the taught courses and using new technology has enabled students “wanting to give answers”. Wireless network has introduced virtual communities, provided on-line entertainment and altered the way the students obtain information – all characteristics of the digital society.

Q2 Some say that the wireless system will become part of the background of everybody’s life—that the mobile devices are just an afterthought. Explain.

2. In the near future companies and societies are introducing increasingly more wireless solutions because they tend to increase productivity by simplifying communication, removing physical obstacles and when installed they are able to serve big masses at the same time. Wireless systems will also replace wired systems and it has already started in a large scale. Some states have even introduced a nation-covering wireless networks for the citizens. The wireless technologies give pressure to the device manufacturers to produce such devices that take advantage of the given wireless technology.

Q3 Is the system contributing to improved learning, or just adding entertainment that may reduce the time available for studying? Debate your point of view with students who hold a different opinion.

3. WI-Fi system is impacting positively on both studying itself and increasing entertainment in the network. Actually, partially the increased entertainment is a result of innovations made by the members. Further, new teaching techniques enabled by the new technology motivate students to be active and involved during the courses. People who want to study will study no matter how much entertainment was available.

Q4 What are the major benefits of the wireless system over the previous wireline one? Do you think wireline systems will disappear from campuses one day? (Do some research on the topic.)

4. Major benefits of the new technology are numerous. The most obvious one is that the computer and other devices do not need no be physically attached to wire lines anymore. This enables people to use the network where ever in the network area. The second benefit is that both the students and the college's employees learn to use the technology effectively. Innovativeness

increases as people try to use the given technology even more effectively. The third benefit for the college, students and the society is that the new teaching methods make students more involved. The involvement will increase the learning intensity and thus the college will produce people with more knowledge to the society.

Wireline systems are old-fashioned and will be replaced by the Wi-Fi in the near future. In many Universities it has already happened entirely and some Universities have applied the new technology partially. Of course, some server units must remain in the network.

CASE 2Q1 IVR systems are still popular. What advantages do they have over even older systems in which the reps mailed or faxed reports?

1. IVR systems are still popular because they are appropriate in some services. For example, I often use directory-inquiry service in my mobile phone (you push definite number button answering on different questions and get necessary information), it’s really very convenient.

If compare with mailed and faxed reports, IVR system is more reliable and doesn’t require extra hardware (computer, fax machine).

Q2 Summarize the advantages of the new system over the IVR one.

Directly information exchanging between managers and reps: manager can electronically send daily schedules and other important information to each rep

Functions of the EDI system: reports include inventory-scanned data from retail stores

Decision support Ability to capture more detail information about product and market analysis Reducing reps errors Elimination of gap between time of capturing information by reps and it’s receiving by

managers Decreases employees stress-level

Q3. Draw the flow of information in the system

PDF information Headquarter database Managers from relevantfrom reps departments

District managers

Q4 The existing technology enables transmission of data any time an employee can access the Internet with a wireline. Technically, the system can be enhanced so that the data can be sent wirelessly from any location as soon as they are entered. Would you recommend a wireless system to Maybelline? Why or why not?

4. Most of the decisions that Maybelline needs to make are not time sensitive on a day-to-day basis, so the company does not need the continuous connectivity and added expense of wireless.

In a more volatile market, like the paper industry, the cost would be justified. In that industry, real time pricing and availability is the only way to sustain a competitive advantage, so wireless would be very useful. In cosmetics, most women will wait a few days, or go elsewhere to get the product, so whilst inventory levels are important, they are not critical.

I would strongly recommend implementing wireless system to Maybelline, because it will speed up an up-to-date information transmission and, as a result, accelerate manager’s reactions to new market situations.

CASE 3

1. What were the drivers of SPRS?Previous inefficient information system forced to implement SPRS. For example, frequent

mismatches between accounting sales figures and information scattered among numerous

databases forced users to query multiple systems, even when they needed an answer to a simple

query. Summarized data made it difficult to conduct analysis. Finally, errors were virtually

inevitable when calculations were based on data from several sources.

2. How did the data warehouse solve Sears’s problems?

Data warehouse united previous 18 old databases in one and includes comprehensive sales data,

information on inventory in stores, in transit and so on. Sears now fine-tunes its buying,

merchandising and marketing strategies with previously unattainable precision. SPRS allows

authorized employees to view necessary information from a multidimensional perspective (by

region, district, store, product line and individual item). Sears managers can monitor exemine

and adjust inventory quantities, merchandising and order placement along with myriad other

variables, so they can respond quickly to environmental changes.

3. Why it was beneficial to integrate the customers’ database with SPRS?

The strategic impact of the SPRS-LCI data warehouse is that it offers Sears employees a tool for

making better decisions and Sears retailing profit have climbed more than 20% annually since

SPRS was implemented.

4. How could RFID change Sears’s operations?

RFID implementation will speed up Sears’s operations and simplify data storage.

CASE 4

Q1 Explain why the old, nonintegrated functional system created problems for the company. Be specific.

Old system was not scalable — adding new store or entering new state was a problem.

Many things were done manually and concerning the large size of the company, many

employees, many stores, etc. that also was the big problem.

Q2 The new system cost several millions dollars. Why, in your opinion, was it necessary to install it?

These inputs are justified and will be reworded in future. The system is scalable, that is

very important for such a large company. This system will help the company to save

much money in the future, as it saves company from many manually done operations.

Using of web-based applications is also a big advantage of that system — you need not to

install some additional software to your personal computer to use that system, you can

access functions from every computer all over the world via the Internet.

I feel the tendency for our professor not to check the content of our home assignments so

I pretty simply borrowed this stuff from Tatyana Mikhailova. My closest plans are to

implement this home assignment myself and replace this issue with my own result. The

problem is I am not habitual to work from Christmas till New Year so I still had no time

for it. But where will be plenty of time for this job from New Year till exam, so if you

read this for any reason check soon for new release.

Q3 Lawson Software Smart Notification Software (lawson.com) is being considered by Dollar General. Find information about the software and write an opinion for adopting or rejection.

“Lawson Smart Notification simplifies the process of reporting, analysis and information

dissemination. Smart Notification automatically delivers actionable information and

insights to the right people at the right time, empowering them to act quickly and

intelligently.

Smart Notification improves employee effectiveness and business performance by

proactively monitoring data sources, filtering out the noise and delivering vital, easy-to-

understand information to decision-makers at all levels of your organization.”

(lawson.com)

In my opinion, Smart Notification can be useful for Dollar General. Filtering of the

information is very important for such a large company, which deals with big amount of

information. If right people will get information that they need at the right time it would

improve decision-making in the company.

Q4 Another new product of Lawson is Service Automation. Would you recommend it to Dollar General? Why or why not?

“Many internally-focused organizations, such as information technology departments,

strive to meet a growing demand for their services even while they contend with a limited

supply of human and financial resources. Increasingly, they are also expected to play a

more strategic role in the enterprise, directly contributing to the company’s financial

performance and competitive position. Lawson Services Automation assists service

organizations in overcoming their obstacles, responding to tough questions and meeting

or exceeding the goals they’ve set for themselves.” (lawson.com)

To my mind, Lawson Services Automation can be useful for Dollar General´s IT

department, as it should operate with a huge amount of information and perform many

various functions.

CASE 5

Q1 Why do airlines need optimization systems for crew scheduling?

1. Crew scheduling is very important for the airlines companies since it was an industry that provides services to other people. If there is a problem related to crew scheduling, there would be a problems for the airlines companies to handle this situations. So, the airlines companies would need optimization systems for crew scheduling because:

To prevent the shortage of the company’s flight crew or understaffing. This is very important because they need the people to serve other people. If there is one crew that fall sick, he or she needs to be replaced immediately. So, with the systems that can find the solution for this problem; it will make the airlines companies’ operation work smoothly.

To save the airline companies’ time in terms of managing the crew rosters. It is not easy to reschedule or rearrange the rosters for the flight’s crew since there were many crews for the airline companies such as cockpit crews, cabin crew and so on. It will take time to do all these and if there is a problem occurs, it is difficult to resolve it immediately.

 Besides that by using the expert systems, it will increase the quality of the services because it will provide consistent advice and reduce error rates.

To make a fast or quick decision making, so that the airline companies do not have to worry how to find a solution for each uncertainties or difficulties occurred. Unfortunately, this will decreased decision-making time.

Q2 What role can experts’ knowledge play in this case?

People that are expert usually have their own expertise. Expertise is the extensive, task specific knowledge acquired from training, reading and experience. It enables experts to make better and faster decisions than nonexperts in solving complex problems. Expertise takes a long time to acquire, possibly years, and it is distributed in organizations in an uneven manner.

The transfer of expertise from an expert to a computer and then to the user involves four activities, which is:

· knowledge acquisition (from experts or other sources)· knowledge representation (in the computer)· knowledge inferencing· knowledge transfer (to the user)

The role of experts’ knowledge can play in this case are:

Experts that possess an expertise need to transfer their expertise to the computer. This knowledge is then organized and stored in the computer. The users can call on the

computer for specific advice as needed. The computer can make inferences and arrive at a conclusion. Then like a human expert, it advises the non experts and explains.

 If someone got the knowledge and expert in certain areas, they need to apply it regularly or store it in safety place because the human mind is just too complex to duplicate. Sometimes we can even forget what we have done just now.

 In this case, the experts’ knowledge should implement and transfer their expertise and knowledge, so that the best solution or decision making can be made.

Q3 What are the similarities between the systems in Singapore and Malaysia?

As we know, Malaysia and Singapore Airlines is the top ten airlines in the world that provide the best services to their customers. Both airlines are competing successfully in the region, and their balance sheets are better than most other airlines. They also used quite similar systems to optimize flight crew utilization. The similarities between the systems in Singapore and Malaysia Airlines are:

Both of the airlines used Web-based intelligent systems such as expert systems and neural computing to manage the company’s flight crew scheduling and handle disruptions to the crew rosters. The system that they used was called the Integrated Crew Management System (ICMS) which has been implement and operate as below:

Singapore   Airlines

The ICMS consists of three modules: one roster assignment module for cockpit crew, one for the cabin crew and a crew tracking module. The first two modules automate the tracking and scheduling of the flight crew’s timetable. The second module tracks the positions of the crew and includes an intelligent system that handles crew pattern disruptions.

For example, crews are rearranged if one member falls ill while in a foreign port, then the system will find a backup or other crew in order to avoid understaffing on the scheduled flight. The intelligent system then determines the best way to reschedule the different crew members’ rosters to accommodate or replace the sick person. When a potentially disruptive situation occurs, the intelligent system automatically draws upon the knowledge stored in the database and give advises on the best course of action that they should taken. This might mean repositioning the crew or calling in backup staff. The crew tracking system includes a crew disruption handling module which provides decision-support capabilities in real time.

  Malaysia   Airlines.

The Malaysia Airlines also used the system called ICMS, in which it leverages optimization software from ilog.com. Its Crew Pairing Optimization (CPO) module utilizes Ilog Cplex and Ilog Solver optimization components to ensure it compliance with airline regulations, trade union agreements and company policies in order to minimize the costs associated with crew accommodations and transportations and to efficiently plan and optimize staff utilization and activities associated with long term planning and daily operations. This system is similar to the Singapore Airlines’ system used.

Q4 The airlines use ADSs for their pricing strategy (pricing and yield optimization). Can they use an ADS for crew management? Why or why not?

Yes.The Crew Duty Assignment(CDA) module provides automatic assignment of duties to all flight crews. The system consider work rules, regulatory requirements and crew requests to produce an optimal monthly crew rosters.

 So, from the above both system used by Singapore and Malaysia Airlines, we can see the similarities in terms of crew accommodations or replacement if any problems occur to the crew, the system will determine the best way to reschedule the different crew members’ rosters and efficiently plan and optimize staff utilization and activities associated with long term planning or daily operations.