CASE BACKGROUND

MGMT Software Solutions (MSS) is a company that works with young clients to increase their popularity on various social networks. After all, likes and views can be a ticket to fame for upcoming artists. That is, likes follow friends; retweets are the social currency of the 21^st century. MSS also negotiates to have their clients wear, advertise or use a product or a brand, or even interact with a celebrity to increase their online visibility.

MGMT Software Solutions collects as much data as possible from its clients fans. This data is generated when a fan retweets, clicks Like, or creates a comment thus creating a demographic profile of that fan. For example, MSS has clients Collins, Acadia, Julia and Tyler.

When Collins friends like his profile picture, Facebook tracks who his most popular friends and family are. Why? Those persons in turn like products, services and celebrities information that would be valuable to those advertisers.

When Acadia likes dozens of brands on Facebook, those brands can learn more about potential customers all of her friends.

When Julia and her friends retweet news about The Hunger Games, or the Wedding Ringer, the movie studio is able to track those responses in real time.

When Tyler searches YouTube, Google (that owns YouTube) can track his every move and push content that may appeal to him, including other videos of young and upcoming artists to start their popularity.

This is where the currency of likes and retweets and searches turns into actual currency. The selfies each client takes so that others will like them on Instagram helped that company sell for a billion dollars. Sending a tweet helped raise the value of Twitter to around $30 billion while Facebook is valued at approximately $140 billion.

Congratulations, you have been promoted! You are now a manager in one of the departments of MGMT Software Solutions, and you get to choose your department.

You must now participate in a series of discussions to assess the business, technology and other issues at hand.

NOTES

1. Congratulations, you have been promoted!
2. You have been placed in a group of 5 or 6 group-mates. You are required to share with and critique information in the group.
3. This is an exercise where you get to experience and demonstrate several concepts in gathering, analyzing and using information for management reporting.
4. You are now a manager in one of the departments of the company. Each of you will select:

• ONE Management Level that you will represent (operational, management/tactical or strategic). More than one person will have the same level.
• ONE department that you will represent. A department can only be represented ONCE in the group. Firstcome, first-served allocation method.

Once you have chosen a persona, all contributions MUST be delivered from the perspective of that persona.

REQUIRED

Management Reporting

You are attending a number of routine meetings that are conducted online. You are to post questions and respond with information related to your analysis. Posts can be conversational among managers asking and responding to questions. There is no requirement for groups to meet outside of the course for this discussion, as it is expected that the meetings/posts will proceed in a manner similar to messaging with a corporate collaboration tool.

Forum 1: Introduce yourself, identifying your Management Level and your Functional Area

For your FIRST discussion, make a post that states your management level and department you will represent. No two students should choose the same department.

For example: CIO (strategic) of the IT department (functional area).

Forum 2: Is there an invasion of social web apps coming on stream? Discuss the impact that MGMT Software Solutions can have on clients and celebrities as they travel on tours around the world.

1. From the perspective of your department and management level:
   1. Suggest ONE advantage for the clients and ONE advantage for the celebrities using web apps.
   2. Request information from TWO other departments that could assist in your investigation. Please specify both the TYPE, and specific CONTENTS of the report you are requesting (Unit 3 types of output)

Forum 3: Anecdotal data suggests that Facebook is for older people. Discuss how MGMT Software Solutions can maintain a competitive advantage and stay ahead of the competition.

1. From the perspective of your department and management level, discuss the implications of competition, new apps on the existing clients.
   1. Suggest ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage.
   2. Discuss ONE privacy issue that could arise posting on social media.
   3. Critique TWO posts made by group mates from other departments

Forum 4: Create the swim-lane process diagram

1. DESIGN and DRAW a high level as-is swim-lane process diagram depicting how MGMT Software Solutions could have implemented any change control process (please look up the phrase on Google or any other search engine). Examples include but are not limited to: adding a new web app; on-boarding a new client; terminating an old client; retiring an old computer which has sensitive information on the hard drive e.g. summary data for clients. The process must involve a minimum of three (3) functional areas, i.e. three (3) lanes/bands, six (6) process steps and must show where two (2) or more decisions are made.

Forum 5: Summarise and make Recommendations

1. Summarise the information shared thus far, and discuss TWO findings about your analysis from your management level that can be used to justify the time and money spent and the risk taken to maintain MGMT Software Solutions as a going concern. From the following models - subscriptions (usually all you can eat), a la carte (pay for what you use) and freemium (uses advertising revenue to provide content for free), make TWO recommendations on ways to start generating more revenue for the company.