Page 553 -

552 Part Four Building and Managing Systems

At the end of each month, orders are totaled and manually keyed into the company’s production planning
system. Data from the past month’s production and inventory systems are manually entered into the firm’s
order management system. Analysts from the sales department and from the production department analyze
the data from their respective systems to determine what the sales targets and production targets should be for
the next month. These estimates are usually different. The analysts then get together at a high-level planning
meeting to revise the production and sales targets to take into account senior management’s goals for market
share, revenues, and profits. The outcome of the meeting is a finalized production master schedule.
The entire production planning process takes 17 business days to complete. Nine of these days are required
to entire and validate the data. The remaining days are spent developing and reconciling the production and
sales targets and finalizing the production master schedule.
• Draw a diagram of the existing production planning process.
• Analyze the problems this process creates for the company.
• How could an enterprise system solve these problems? In what ways could it lower costs? Diagram what
the production planning process might look like if the company implemented enterprise software.

Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Design a
Customer System for Auto Sales

Software skills: Database design, querying, reporting, and forms
Business skills: Sales lead and customer analysis

This project requires you to perform a systems analysis and then design a system solution using database
software.
Ace Auto Dealers specializes in selling new vehicles from Subaru in Portland, Oregon. The company
advertises in local newspapers and is listed as an authorized dealer on the Subaru Web site and other major
Web sites for auto buyers. The company benefits from a good local word-of-mouth reputation and name
recognition.
Ace does not believe it has enough information about its customers. It cannot easily determine which
prospects have made auto purchases, nor can it identify which customer touch points have produced the
greatest number of sales leads or actual sales so it can focus advertising and marketing more on the channels
that generate the most revenue. Are purchasers discovering Ace from newspaper ads, from word of mouth,
or from the Web?
Prepare a systems analysis report detailing Ace’s problem and a system solution that can be implemented
using PC database management software. Then use database software to develop a simple system solution.
In MyMISLab, you will find more information about Ace and its information requirements to help you
develop the solution.

Achieving Operational Excellence: Analyzing Web Site Design and
Information Requirements

Software skills: Web browser software
Business skills: Information requirements analysis, Web site design
Visit the Web site of your choice and explore it thoroughly. Prepare a report analyzing the various functions
provided by that Web site and its information requirements. Your report should answer these questions: What
functions does the Web site perform? What data does it use? What are its inputs, outputs, and processes?
What are some of its other design specifications? Does the Web site link to any internal systems or systems
of other organizations? What value does this Web site provide the firm?

MIS_13_Ch_13 global.indd 552 1/17/2013 2:31:25 PM