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Chapter 13 Building Information Systems 527

SAP and Burton worked together to improve “reorder” season. Burton’s dealers place orders
communication between warehouses and supply to stock their stores well before winter sets in.
chain efficiency. As consumers start buying the merchandise, the
A management dashboard developed with the dealers reorder with Burton to replenish their stock
help of SAP shows how smoothly a critical process or to buy new products. Now they are able to see
is running at a certain point in time. Information more timely product availability data, and receive
from the dashboard helps Burton’s key users orders more rapidly.
discover inconsistencies, gaps, or other areas that
Sources: Lauren Bonneau, “How Burton Snowboards Remains as
they should be monitoring more closely.
Nimble as Its Riders,” SAP InsiderPROFILES, AprilªJune 2011; “The
All of these process improvements proved Burton Corporation Company Profile,” Yahoo! Finance, accessed
especially valuable during what Burton calls its August 27, 2012; and www.burton.com, accessed August 27, 2012.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Analyze Burton using the value chain and 3. Explain exactly how these process improvements
competitive forces models. enhance Burton’s operational performance and
2. Why are the business processes described in this decision making.
case such an important source of competitive
advantage for Burton?

Systems development is a structured kind of problem solved with distinct
activities. These activities consist of systems analysis, systems design, program-
ming, testing, conversion, and production and maintenance.
Figure 13.4 illustrates the systems development process. The systems
development activities depicted usually take place in sequential order.
But some of the activities may need to be repeated or some may take place
simultaneously, depending on the approach to system building that is being
employed (see Section 13.4).

FIGURE 13.4 THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Building a system can be broken down into six core activities.

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