Management Information System part a.b and c

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Management Information System

Systems Development.

Part A

If TMS develops the system in house, they should use waterfall approach. This approach is used with the assumption that the final deliverable is not needed as quick as possible and high level of accuracy is required. Other reasons include:-

Waterfall approach helps in providing the necessary documentation for users at all stages of development.

There will be opportunity to check for errors at all stages.

It will offer enough time for analysis and final implementation.

There is no intensive user and/or client involvement in all phases of development which is very expensive in terms of time and commitment.

It enables requirements to be well defined before the system can be implemented.

This being a busy business enterprise, the client can participate in the development process while at the same time doing other duties.

It can also employ the use of prototype as an experimental way of gathering requirements such as data from the stakeholders involved.

Little training will be required for users after implementation since full documentation with user manuals are provided by this method.

Every stage in waterfall is well distinct, having the start and finishing point, with final product that can be identified for use in the following phase.

Sufficient information is also used which reduces problems of continuous future support by the developers.

The development, in addition, must take into an account all aspects of the working process. This in turn results to high reliability of the final product.

The method also provides thorough testing of the system. This also contributes to high efficiency and reliability.

The maintenance phase of this method consists of preventative and adaptive maintenance which will enable the system to be free from future flaws as well as easy conformance to the changing technology.

Corrective and perfective maintenance are also part of maintenance phase which ensures the correction of any existing errors in the system and to increase efficiency of operation respectively.

Part B

Although TMS have very skilled IS staff who can take on small new projects, outsourcing can be the best strategy in this case because:-

It is relatively cheap in terms of cost as compared to developing in-house system.

Since this is a business enterprise which is after maximizing profits, it should go for the method with lower cost like outsourcing.

Outsourcing will help TMS to enjoy the changing or latest technology from the external experts.

The TMS staff will also be better placed when it comes to learning and gaining extra knowledge from the outsourced professionals.

Outsourcing will also reduce over participation in the development of the new system by the TMS staff at the expense of daily business operations. This over participation is reduced because external experts will be responsible for system implementation.

Outsourcing will also help the project to be completed in time as the experts will have to meet the agreed deadline.

The external service providers can come with additional resources along with a pool of expertise which TMS may lack of sufficient scale within it’s IS department.

Since the TMS IS staff understand the system better, it will be easier for them to maintain the implemented system by external experts once they learn it.

The outsourcing provider can also help TMS enterprise to overcome inertia in consolidating data centers that the internal group of the enterprise cannot do as a result of merger acquisition.

The TMS enterprise will now be in a position to focus less attention in IS operations and more attention on core activities.

The strategy is also a way of helping TMS to free up most of their time to enable its employees use most of their energies in areas where core competencies are needed within the enterprise.

Outsourcing can also help TMS to effectively transition to fresh technologies.

The provider’s experienced consultants are extra readily available to the market place advances and best practices as compared to any trained and experienced in-house IT professional like those of TMS.

Therefore outsourcing providers will be instrumental in helping TMS to implement such technologies like enterprise 2.0, enterprise resource planning systems and web 2.0 tools.

Outsourcing providers can also offer IS personnel within an enterprise environment that atypical company or enterprise cannot afford to build.

The outsourcing provider in many cases opens greater opportunity for both training and advancement in IT than a single IS organization or enterprise.

Outsourcing will also relieve TMS of costly investments in constant training so that IS staff can get updated with the current marketplace technologies as well as headaches of hiring and retraining staff that can easily switch to other jobs with better pay or further lures.

Data management

There are anumber of management issues likely to occur if OIS is merged with OLDS. They include:-

Incompatibility issues since OIS is a package bought from the vendor while OLDS is customized by TMS. This makes the two systems have two completely different features that will require very high level of expertise to successfully integrate.

Difficulty in data administration. This difficulty is likely to arise given that the two systems may be using different formats for forms, queries and even reports.

The effort to integrate two applications has far reaching implications due to their extensive scope. In this case, an integration that fails or even misbehave can cost the enterprise huge loss in terms of millions of dollars.

There is also inadequate amount of control that the integration developers normally have over the participating applications. For instance, the majority of systems are legacy systems or packaged applications that cannot be altered. The systems are simply connected to the solution of integration. As a result, developers are left in asituation where they have to compensate for the gaps or differences amid the applications.

Although it can be easier to implement part of the solution within the application, this alternative might not be available due to internal corporate politics.

There are only a few standards which have established themselves in the integration domain despite the extensive requirement for the integration solution.

The available standards also do not offer solution to all integration concerns. A good example is XML web services that tackles just apportion of such challenges.

The merging of the two applications also require significant shift in corporate politics.It is because business applications, usually center on particular areas of operations like customer relationship management, finance, billing and others.

There is also difficulty in moving data from one system to another due to differences in data format. The majority of packaged, legacy and customs applications are not equipped to take part in integration solution.

As developing EAI solution is also challenging, operating and even maintaining such a solution can be extra intimidating. The combination of different technologies along with the distributed nature of EAI solutions makes it complex for troubleshooting, monitoring and deployment.

Ethics of selling the customer list

The first thing to do is to find out whether it is better to sell client list in an up market or down market. As a business person running an enterprise, this will be more of personal decision. The value of the book for the sales person in business will be greater at atime when the business is most active.It means that the book will be more valuable in the seller’s market if it consists of mainly prospective business with sellers.

However, if the book consists of mainly prospective business with buyers, it will tend to be extra valuable in the market of buyers. Therefore, before selling customer list, an individual wishing to do so have to take into an account the nature of the business along with prevailing market conditions.

Before selling customer list, it is also important to determine the value of the book of business for the salesperson. In this case, the dollar value for the sales person’s book of business relies on the prospect income that the book can be anticipated to produce over time. The present value can be estimated using the projected future income stream at a discount rate that mirrors the risk of receiving that income projection over time.

The quantity and quality of information that the sales person has affects the value of the book of business. Nevertheless, there are also other contributing factors. As an example, to have a good will of say, 40 potential buyers for $100000 properties may be less valuable as compared to having 10 potential buyers for $9 million properties. The same reasoning is true for information and relationships with potential sellers and tenants too. As a result, quantity and quality can be used as the criteria for adding value to the books of business.

The sales person can be willing to stop working immediately and cash out by selling the potential income that could be produced from his or her good will. In such a case, it can be arational choice to sell client list at retirement.

You also have to decide who the client list should be sold to. In this case, you should keep in mind that the income stream that could be produced from a retiring sales’ person’s book of business relies on who gets it from the retiring sales’ person. It also relies on how well the person who gets it can be responsible for the good will of the retiree under his/her stewardship. Therefore, the more income the acquirer anticipates to produce, the more valuable the good will.

In order to draw up an agreement, the parties involved should negotiate a simple contract that involves the sale/purchase of retiree’s book of business on their own. Nevertheless, if the transaction structure becomes complicated, the service from an attorney would be advisable.

The agreement should openly define what is to be sold. It may include the names, addresses and other information from the retiree’s client book. It may also comprise of tangible items like computer equipment, office supplies, marketing materials and many others.

As far as the payment arrangement is concerned, the parties may agree to a one-time, lump sum payment or a combination of lump sum amount. It will then be followed by prospect payment as the transactions are closed based on the contract. The terms of future payments should also be well defined. They should also agree on the right duration possible for the payment arrangement in order to minimize the liability of tax.

Recommendation to Jane

I would like to advise Jane that she should first of all consider three things before selling her enterprise customer list. She should consider who to sell customer list to, the prevailing market conditions and whether she is willing to retire. Only with the condition that she is willing to retire and with other considerations being favorable in terms of the value of sale, then she can go ahead to sell customer list, else she should not.