Case Study Midsouth Chamber of Commerce

Management of Technology Resources Instructor: Professor Emir AAA Minimize Introduction Leon Leister, Vice President of Marketing with the Mouths Chamber of Commerce (MASC.), ran into some issues while converting their information technology software. All the members of his staff were frustrated with the transition to the new system. With all the complexities of implementing a new system along with not exhausting your resources.

Leon is heading the conversion process, but has no information technology history or back ground, this can be a serious issue.

If this issue is not corrected the entire Monmouth chamber of commerce will be affected by this. Leon Leister (Vice President of Marketing) and the entire Monmouth chamber of commerce are affected b The major question is: How do Leon fix issues with conversion from the old software to the new software? Should he continue to rely on Collective, a disgruntled IT employee? Should he bring in someone else?

Introductions for case studies in this course should be one paragraph In length. Background The Monmouth Chamber of Commerce has been around since the early sass, armed originally to lobby for reasonable transportation services to the melodious region In order to help the growth of business as well as the economy. By the year 2000, the staff had grown to 24 employees, but the cash reserve had shrunk from $1. 5 2.

300, mainly due to the loss of major manufacturers In the melodious region. The In the reserve was supported by the Board of Directors In order to grow the staff and capabilities.

Also during this time, the Melodious Chamber of Commerce moved Into larger offices and upgraded their workstations. Tater projecting a tattletale AT S u Tort Itasca year 2001, Mr. Leon Lassoer was unlearn as the Vice President of Marketing and Membership and sole mission was to turn the company around and grown revenue more aggressively. Leon having 12 years of experience in sales management, and marketing went into action.

His first order of business was to do a review of all of the companies programs, departments, and processes.

During the review Mr. Leister discovered that though the company had purchased and installed new workstations for sales and marketing and had installed some custom software, but the systems was still limited in capability. Mostly due to concerns over security, none of the staff members had access to all the data necessary to operate the marketing and sales activities of the company. Though seeing a lack of attention to the fast growing information technology, Mr.

. Leister was able to help the company grow revenue in a short period of time.

Though MASC. was seeing growing profits, Mr.. Leister felt that they can do more if the company would address the lack of information technology issues.

After 5 years working with MASC. Mr.. Leister was able to convince the company to contract a small footwear company called UNITARY, to help increase the software capabilities of the company. In March of 2006 MASC.

finally started to implement the new software, but due to a new and unproven software there were issues getting everything up and running as planned. Now as frustration grows Mr..

Leister taking the brunt of the blame for the system not being up in the a timely manner and not being able to go back to the old system cause the files were corrupt. Now Leister is stuck wondering what could be done to get things moving in the right direction.

Discussion Mr.. Leister met with the dilemma of upgrading the software to help increase the Meany’s capabilities and earning potential, and staying within budget. In order to meet these goals Mr..

Leister purchased software from a smaller unproven company in UNITARY. Mr..

Leister and his IT representative did not see eye they on the implementation of the new software. Ultimately the software is not working as planned and the functioning of the entire company has suffered. Repeated attempts to get the software up and running has failed.

What should be done now? Whenever you’re looking to implement a new system, software or hardware there’s no more important process than the planning process. Marketing managers may be better served as guides to get through the integration of the new software or system.

According too 1985 article in Harvard Business Review “Just as marketing managers carefully plan the research through which they will gather critical product information, so implementation managers must develop an iterative, almost accordion-like framework to guide decisions about when and how to collect needed information from all groups affected by an innovation. ” (Leonard-Barton, Krause 1985) Mr..

Leister did a good Job of scheduling training for his employees for the new footwear installing, but he didn’t plan for any of the complexities of the software installation.

There was no testing or demos set up. He didn’t do any thorough research of the company or software to ensure that it will work. You should never overlook the importance of testing. “Testing the new technology at ten worst performing unlit, even tong It may De winner ten Innovation Is most needed and would show the most spectacular results, is no better a choice.

If the project fizzles, the implementation manager will not know how much of the failure was caused by extraordinary problems with the site and how much by the inherent repertories of the technology.

If the project succeeds, critics will be quick to note that anything would have helped operations at that site. ” (Leonard-Barton, Krause 1985) Just by testing the software some of the problems that UNITARY was having could’ve been identified before the start of the software implementation. Thru out this entire case we see a company reluctant to change with time, and a new sales manager trying to guide the company in the way of the new technology. Lack of communication between managers, and trying to do everything at once.

If I as I charge of this project I would’ve implemented the changes in stages and sections that way not to handicap my entire company. For example MASC. has Just at 40 employees I would’ve installed the new software on 10 of the workstations to begin with allowing the rest of the company to function as normal. At this point you are already in the installation phase and many of mistakes have been made. Now the best thing to do is not dwell on the mistakes of the past but how much you can do from this point forward.

The first thing I would do is call in a few information technology consultants. To get another opinion on the issues.

You might have to come to the realization that you may lose some of your older files, which is why you should’ve did a system back up before the start of this installation. The only options left for Mr.. Leister would be to hire the help of a specialist in dealing with these issues or scrap the project and start over.

Either way you can’t continue to take the approach of let’s sit and wait and hope something good happens. Conclusion During this entire process many mistakes wear made, but the project upgrades may still work. First thing that should be done is to hold a meeting with everyone involved.