Read the case study given. You can focus on Section# 2 and Section# 3 only.

Analyze the business problems from all the roles (i.e., CIO, Account Receivable Manager, Customer Rep Manager, Marketing Manager, System Analyst) who attend the meeting.

What are the current information systems running in the company?

Conduct a stakeholder analysis on the proposed IS development project.

play than before, and that role-play enhanced the enjoyment of students of an undergraduate introductory information systems learning IS material. course in the business college of a fairly large mid-Atlantic Because technologies change rapidly, role-play exercises university. geared to IS-related scenarios can quickly become obsolete. The exercise gives an active learning experience relevant The technical issues of an exercise developed in the 1990s or to many of the knowledge areas, topics, and skills taught in the 2000 s are going to be very different from those of today. In course. The technologies of the role-play include several addition, the tools and methods used for student collaboration modern classifications of enterprise systems, including are also considerably different today compared to the past. customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise Nevertheless, many of the organizational concerns and resource planning (ERP), and e-commerce. One of the decision/communication skills used in role-play exercises are proposed projects in the role-play involves use of business relatively timeless. In a good IS role-play (even an old one) intelligence technology. Data warehousing. cloud services, relatively timeless. In a good IS role-play (even an old one) intelligence technology. Data warehousing, cloud services, we try to tap into the students' communication, analytical, and analytics, and social media are all included or implied in the decision-making skills. In this spirit, the authors of the We narrative. The narrative also includes security and privacy Sell Stuff, Inc. role-play exercise did what many role-play issues, system performance problems, and concerns related to authors do, which is to upgrade and evolve our exercise in web presence. order to remain timely and relevant. We Sell Stuff, Inc.'s specific product line is not specified The rest of this paper presents the role-play exercise throughout the narrative, but in general it is a company that (which includes both face-to-face and online collaboration) manufactures and sells products. Therefore, it faces similar (which includes both face-to-face and online collaboration) manufactures and sells products. Therefore, it faces similar and evaluates its use in the classroom. We start by giving an challenges and goals of other companies in the manufacturing overview of the case, including the expected deliverables from industry. The mission and environment of the organization is the students. Then we present each user's role. Next we assess captured in the CIO role's narrative, focusing mostly on our experiences using it in an introductory IS course and improving profitability. Particular attention is paid to product discuss future work. development, marketing, customer service, and supply chain. 2. AN OVERVIEW OF THE WE SELL STUFF, INC., On IT's role and circumstances. ROLE-PLAYEXERCISELikeallcompanies,WeSellStuff,Inc.,hasbothstrengthsandweaknessesandfacestypicalbusinesschallenges.The This exercise facilitates several learning objectives relevant to total needs and desires of the users exceed the resources, so an introductory IS course in a business college. These include, decision makers need to prioritize possible projects. The CIO but are not limited to, the following: role's narrative describes this from a strategic point of view, 1. Teamwork and interpersonal communications giving the CIO a bird' s-cye perspective of the company's The next section presents each role's viewpoint. Later, we enough knowledge about either the levels of inventory in stock discuss and evaluate our experiences using the exercise in the or the promotions and sales initiatives created by the classroom. marketing department. Therefore, there is often demand that is unfulfilled due to insufficient stock. While this is not a severe 3. ROLE NARRATIVES FOR WE SELL STUFF, INC. problem, it is one that sometimes generates negative customer The five roles for We Sell Stuff, Inc. include (a) the CIO, (b) One area of pride for WSS is their product development. an accounts receivable manager, (c) a customer representative For the products that WSS manufactures in-house, the process manager,(d)amarketingmanager,and(e)asystemsanalyst.isverysmooth,cost-effective,andlargelyautomated.WSSsHerewepresenteachrolesnarrative.home-grownproductshaveareputationforhighqualityat 2. A series of proof-of-concept prototype experiments 4. There is no way for a customer to make an overdue with business intelligence (BI) and data analytics payment online today. This feature would expedite the applications. You have attended some conferences and vendor exhibitions of BI/ analytics companies and collection of some funds. came away with the thought that these technologies 5. It is very hard to keep an experienced Account Receivable employee on the payroll. You would like to see some sort of online training in the system to allow new employees to learn the material more quickly. 6. You are very concerned about corporate security issues. Although you would like to get all of these wish-list items taken care of, you recognize that this may not be possible. For example, being a very busy person, you have limited time to devote to systems development efforts. You recognize that working hard now may help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your group in the future. You have been contacted by your Director who wants you to work with managers from other functional areas, the ClO, and the Information Systems staff to update your existing Information System. Several Managers (Supply Chain and Product Development) and your Director are out of the country for a while, but he wants to get this project moving quickly. He realizee that everyone is extremely busy, and it will be hard to met again face-to-face. He recognizes that the current organization promotes Information Silos, and he wants to move to a more integrated approach. He insists that the team use Office 365 as a collaboration and document storage mechanism so that he can review the team's progress and monitor your contributions to the effort. This team will explore the ways to make the Account Receivable job easier via some systems development efforts. The Planning Team meeting is today. The meeting is about to begin... top management, you have scheduled a meeting with a Product Development) and your Director are out of the systems analyst from your department and with managers quickly. He realizes that everyone is extremely busy, and it from marketing, customer service, and payment collection. will be hard to meet again face-to-face. He recognizes that the The topic of this meeting is to investigate the ways to address current organization promotes Information Silos, and he wants WSS's problems and improve its competitiveness via systems to move to a more integrated approach. He insists that the development efforts. Thus, you, the systems analyst, and the team use Office 365 as a collaboration and document storage development efforts. Thus, you, the systems analyst, and the team use Office 365 as a collaboration and document storage customer rep manager form the IS PLANNING TEAM for mechanism so that he can review the team's progress and this project. You are the manager of a group of accounts receivable representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your are the manager of a group of customer account representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your gepresentatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your group are responsible for collecting payments from customers. representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your group responsible for providing support and service to People in your group have been complaining about their existing customers. People in your group have been existing information system and have a long wish-list of complaining a lot about their existing information system and possible improvements. Specifically, the following issues have have a long wish-list of possible improvements. Specifically, come up: 3. When serving the customer, it is helpful to have the 1. In order to better target potential customers for total history of transactions that have been completed for the customer. This would greatly facilitate the customer service functions that representatives perform. Currently, only data about the most recent marketing and promotion efforts, it would be nice to transactions are retained in the database; ideally, all analyze buying behavior. Currently, no such system previous transactions should be kept. 4. e. Rackspace provides cloud hosting for e-commerce, big data, and has their own servers. A 15GB server with 620GB of storage can be leased for $657.00 /month. They also offer managed server virtualization services. f. Magento has a start-up e-commerce package that offers marketing tools such as targeted promotions, coupons, wish lists, customer rewards, and other features that work to engage and retain customers. The package is scalable and can be upgraded as demand increases. The start-up package (Magento Enterprise) is priced at $15,550.00 g. Training for data mining and OLAP software costs about $5,000 per person. Training for Java and internet classes cost around $6,000 per person. h. The Marketing manager has asked if IT could develop a blog that Marketing could use to highlight products and generate sales. You are aware that Marketing has created a Facebook page, but without online ordering capability, it hasn't resulted in any sales increases. Most of the systems analysts and senior programmers are quite busy working on other projects. Specifically, the inventory control MIS system is being totally revamped (project is 80% complete; some enhancements have already been implemented and are being used). In addition, a new project was recently started for automating the manufacturing and production scheduling processes. Although many senior people are busy on these existing tasks, there are some relatively inexperienced programmers who have time to take on additional projects. You have recently been contacted by the manager of We Sell Stuff, Inc.'s Information Systems department (the CIO) who wants you to participate on an IS Planning Team. This team will explore ways to make the end-user jobs easier via some systems development efforts. The end-users are responsible for marketing, customer service, and payment collection. These areas have been suffering in the company, and there have been many complaints from the end-users about the system's performance. Your CIO wants you to support the group's collaboration efforts and document storage using Office 365 . A meeting has been scheduled for today. The meeting is about to begin