Case Study - Able Sisters Bakery - Part 1 Background The Able Sisters Bakery company was established in 1997 and is currently run by three sisters, Sabel, LaBelle, and Mabel. Able Sisters Bakery makes specialty breads and custom cakes. They have a few consistent contracts with high-end hotels and restaurants and have recently started a small retail operation. They source highquality ingredients directly from a variety of mostly local suppliers. They have always made everything in-house, with as natural a product as possible. The company started with jokes and conversations around the family dinner table while the sisters were growing up. Their parents always had friends over for dinner, so the girls learned how to help and quickly prepare meals for large groups of people. Sabel, the oldest, became an expert cook and baker, and especially loved ordering people around the kitchen. She went to culinary school straight after high school, with dreams of becoming a world-class baker of fancy cakes. The youngest sister, Mabel, did not like being bossed around the kitchen, so as soon as she could, she left for business school, with dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. There was a constant clash between the oldest and youngest - both wanted to oversee whatever was going on. The middle sister, LaBelle, was the peacekeeper. She balanced the conflict by spinning the conversation into laughter, helping the other two sisters resolve any issue that arose. LaBelle studied sociology and psychology. After their university and college days, the girls worked at a variety of different jobs, not ever finding a perfect fit. When their parents decided to retire in the mid-1990s, they sold the big family house and moved into a townhouse closer to where the girls were living at the time. After a wonderful house-warming party, Mom and Pop Able sat the three girls down and told them that they had seen enough playing around, that it was time for them to get serious about their careers. The parents put up the seed funding, and the girls launched the bakery they had talked about for so long. In the late 1990 s and early 2000 s they grew quickly, starting with bread and cakes, then later adding more items to their list. Their focus was exclusively the commercial market, providing baked goods for luxury hotels and restaurants. In the late 2000 s, they started a small retail service with custom sandwiches, from the front of the bakery. Since then, they have further diversified and now offer a wide range of bakery items and other goods. Their commercial side still makes up more than 95% of the company's revenue. Over the years they have moved locations a few times, to accommodate larger numbers of ovens and other equipment. They still have only a single location, with a large bakery section, a food storage area, one small office, and a small retail counter in the area for shipping and receiving. Their current location is not ideal, as they are near the river, and have consistent issues during Spring rains with minor flooding, a bad-weather year could be very problematic! Because the family has owned the business for many years, and they are great communicators, they have built excellent relationships with most of their corporate and direct customers. Going to work is fun, and every day is a new challenge to build the best baked goods possible. The sisters have enjoyed working at their current location but are feeling the need to expand and increase their reach into the commercial market space, as local retail bakery competition is getting fierce. While they see great changes in their future, all three sisters are dedicated in keeping the business friendly and welcoming for everyone, customers, and employees alike. Today Now, Able Sisters has 14 employees, most of whom have worked here for many years, and a very informal family-like atmosphere. Mabel, the CEO, has an office in the building, and does a fair amount of work in the office, but meets with larger clients and others outside the office several times per week. Sabel, who runs the Bakery, does not have an office and does most of their work while moving around the bakery area. The Operations Manager, LaBelle, is nearly always behind the sales counter, chatting with customers, or wandering around making sure things get done properly. Their leadership team consists of only the three sisters. They split up the leadership roles based on their personalities and training. The youngest, Mabel, wildly energetic and outgoing, became CEO. She is responsible for the overall direction of the company and for Commercial Sales. She believes the company needs to grow to include more locations but knows they don't yet have the infrastructure to handle growth. The oldest, Sabel, took charge of their bakery and production. Her priority is to keep making amazing cakes and breads. Sabel is very leery of technology, she's described the internet as "no fluffy cloud, but a hurricane." She keeps all the recipes on handwritten index cards, which are kept locked away in the office. And LaBelle initially helped in the bakery, and later became the Operations Manager. She loves keeping customers (and sisters) happy! There is significant technology in the baking area, with customized equipment for food preparation, storage, and baking. There greatest challenge is waste. Often, they end up disposing of some of their ingredients, especially milk and butter. The main office has several computers, all Windows 7 desktops. They are networked together in a simple ethernet network and share a single low speed wired internet connection. Mabel uses her computer primarily for email to connect with clients, or for prospect research. Raymond is using Excel to maintain some of the company financials, for some records he uses paper. Pat, the Order Coordinator also has a computer, used to keep track of custom orders, along with photos and descriptions of all of their product line, as they also do some marketing functions as part of their position. As a group, they primarily use the phone to receive orders and to connect with their custom-order clients. Their operation is manually maintained and updated using paper records. So, Raymond has recommended purchasing a local install of QuickBooks for maintaining financials. Mabel is finding her computing arrangement limiting, wanting some portability. She also wants new systems for each of them, plus a new POS for the retail counter, on a tight budget. With growing popularity in their retail area, they have decided to move to a new location that will house their existing bakery, have space for an expanded retail section, improved office space, and no floods! Their cousin Pete has found a nearly ideal location for them to pursue. Hopefully, this location will meet their needs as a growing company. They have approached you, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable college student, to work for them as a Business Systems Consultant and develop an Information Technology infrastructure and plan that will enable them to expand. They are tentative, do not understand technology, and do not have a huge budget for this portion of their expansion. They want to have something ready within the next 68 weeks when they move into the new location. Case Study - Able Sisters Bakery - Part 1 Case Study - Able Sisters Bakery - Part 1 Provide Able Sisters a detailed report to help them prepare for the future. The Plan (50 Marks*) 1. Goals \& Strategy (10 Marks) a. What are two primary goals that the Bakery is pursuing? Which is the most important of these goals? Why? b. How could they measure their progress towards the most important goal? Identify 3 Critical Success Factors (CSF) that will be used to identify success toward this goal. Then for each CSF provide 2 Key Performance Indicators (KPI). 2. Process Analysis (10 Marks) a. The BPMN provided in the case study (page 3) shows the process for purchasing a cake. Provide an analysis of the process. Discuss any problems with the current process and how the process may be improved. 3. Computing \& Infrastructure (10 Marks) a. Design a plan for the information technology and infrastructure they require to expand, both at the main bakery and into the new location, and "get with the times". Each of the three sisters have decided to get a computer. In addition, they want to consider a new computer for their part-time Accountant. Discuss requirements, do not research or recommend specific devices. 4. MIS Infrastructure (10 Marks) a. Evaluate your Computing \& Infrastructure plan against the characteristics of an Agile MIS Infrastructure. 5. Security \& Business Continuity (10 Marks) a. Develop a plan for future threats and possible incidents. Deliverable: Report (10 Marks) b. Publish the above items and plans in a report format, using the template provided. c. The report must provide properly used terminology and explanations of terminology where necessary