QUESTION: Define the four competitive strategies. How could information systems support Able Sisters to pursue each of these strategies?

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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. Mabel Able 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 Sabel Able Bakery Manager Raymond LaBelle Able Nuez Accountant Manager Bakery Staff Order Coordinator Custom Orders Retail Staff Cleaning Logistics Shipping & Service cloud, but a hurricane." She keeps all the recipes on hand- written 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! warehouse 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 6-8 weeks when they move into the new location. 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. Mabel Able 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 Sabel Able Bakery Manager Raymond LaBelle Able Nuez Accountant Manager Bakery Staff Order Coordinator Custom Orders Retail Staff Cleaning Logistics Shipping & Service cloud, but a hurricane." She keeps all the recipes on hand- written 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! warehouse 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 6-8 weeks when they move into the new location.