Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 1
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle Gregory B Tenenbaum Regis University College for Professional Studies MSCC 610 – 610 – Information Information Technology Concepts January 17, 2012 Hal Friskey
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 2
Abstract
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) started out as a group of powerful businesspeople with a goal of representing concerns to the state government. When this organization began in the early 1900’s the main focus was on gaining access to reasonable transportation services which at the time was a huge economic and business development problem. Fast forwarding to the new millennium MSCC has a new business development problem this time internally in their organization. The following analysis will focus on the way MSCC has approached IT/IS in the past and also allow for a direction for them to take not only for IT/IS but also management into the future.
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 3
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle Introduction
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) has been around since the early 1900’s. Through the years as an organization, it has withstood the times and under seen many different changes. From its initial conception as a way to lobby legislature for transportation access issues to expanding in the 1930’s into a variety of issues that affect business such as state banking laws, industrial development, and business taxes just to name a few. One of the most recent eras for MSCC was the Jack Wallingford era. During this time for MSCC, it was probably the one that entailed the most change and growth. From the year 1988, the company went from a staff of 14 employees to a staff of 42 employees in 2005. One of the driving factors that allowed MSCC to grow was the investments they did make in technology. This analysis is focused on where MSCC has come from, and where they are going in terms of information systems (IS). Problem Statement
Over the years MSCC did realize that investing in IS/IT was the way to go but, failed in their approach of investing. They underwent issues from the beginning of trying to implement technology in their organization. With these issues that they encountered they failed to realize that they had problems that consistently were left with no resolution and still failed to properly address and implement change management after the fact. The obvious early solution would have been to employ someone to specific to head the IS business function at MSCC. Since the first IS, implementation back in 2000 where Lassiter purchased workstations and custom software that had limited functionality and did not allow for anything other than for
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 4 each workstation to perform a specific function should have clearly shown a need for someone more qualified to make IS/IT decisions. This made it difficult for any one staff member in sales or marketing to do their job on their own. Either way with this minimal functionality and shortterm approach for investing in technology the time quickly came where they outgrew the IS. In June of 2003, MSCC made their first leap into actually trying to get some knowledgeable assistance in IS. MSCC hired a systems analyst named Simon Kovecki who began to work on upgrading the workstations and maintaining the software, which began functioning on the highest level since inception. MSCC began to show promise and growth again with 2005 approaching. Lassiter recreated a new IS mess with the purchase of UNITRAK which he rushed in and purchased for MSCC. This is the first repeat by MSCC and the largest breakdown I see for the organization. MSCC’s main issues up until this point had been purchasing infor mation systems without having specialized IT personnel and with every instance of mistakes made by MSCC it seems to have been mostly because the personnel who did pull the trigger and make decisions had no business doing so in the first place. The main issue I see with the UNITRAK situation is that now at this point Lassiter did have an IT professional (Kovecki) and still went ahead and made an unqualified purchase. Lassiter did not have Kovecki evaluate UNITRAK, and did not look for a proper review of capability of compatibility. In addition, he failed to get adequate buy in from staff in general. As time passed and Kovecki had been asked to implement the UNITRAK product he ran into significant issues. Kovecki was unable to transfer all of the data (less than 15%) also the new implementation left data corrupted and many workstations inoperable. Due to the pressures
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 5 of management and the failure of Kovecki to first, begin in a test environment MSCC had to move forward with the loss. Another issue that should have been addressed would have been an IT project manager this would have set up a proper testing plan and schedule for implementation also would have allowed for better staff buy in without this mechanism for MSCC they held training on the new IS and then users were not able to begin to use it for over two months. The problems I have discussed up until this point were minimal compared to what they began to encounter in 2007. The UNITRAK system had its limitations but it was operational and supported by UNITRAK until this point. UNITRAK encountered financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy, which led to MSCC losing its support. This put Kovecki into a bad situation, Lassiter then hired an outside consultant to help with UNITRAK, which only made Kovecki more concerned with his role at MSCC. Kovecki left MSCC in September of 2008. In October of 2008, MSCC hired his replacement Gramen who was a former staff computer trainer. Without trying to learn the UNITRAK system and having no real experience with anything other than HP environments, he began making recommendations after a month to replace the system. This further led to another poor product purchase on behalf of MSCC. Even though you now had an IT professional, involved this new situation still goes back to having qualified personnel and Gramen was not that. He based his decision off his previous use not what was a best fit for MSCC, at this point Lassiter now had a better understanding and did not want to rush through the process. Even with Lassiter’s concerned mentality this time around for the deal with HP (Hewlett-Packard), their VAR (value-added reseller), and DMA (Data Management Associates) only tabled the process shortly with the board until MSCC ended up in pretty much the same boat. Except this time around there was negligence in the fact that Lassiter allowed the contract to be signed without
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 6 any review from legal. This led to over a quarter million dollars of money spent on the solution from DMA that does not work and DMA refusing to give MSCC any more support to try to get it up and running without MSCC paying even more. The contract did not have any way for MSCC to get their money back or to make DMA perform so they are stuck. Research
The research that would need to be done would be mostly technical but there is a great amount of IT project management and general management research that would also need to be completed. The technical research would be how the new IS would fit in with MSCC. The project management research would provide for accountability and visibility throughout this project. The general management research would be directed to buy in from staff for whatever system is selected because at the end of the day technology is supposed to make everything easier and more efficient. Current Situation
The current situation at MSCC is Wallingford retired, Lassiter has been selected as President of MSCC, and MSCC has hired Sage Niele. DMA is claiming that they have already incurred an extra quarter million dollars that they have not charged MSCC due to the nature of the situation. Niele seems to actually be the first person with the correct knowledge to be able to handle the situation but, where MSCC seems to be currently is beyond repair and they will have to spend more money to get everything they need up and running. Goal Statement
The current goal at MSCC is to get the information system fully functional and compatible with their business unit functions while incurring the minimum cost necessary. In
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 7 addition, we also need to come up with a plan to get everything operational within the next 100 days. Recommendations
My personal recommendations would be to begin with a proper analysis of all of the various business units needs at MSCC. After a complete analysis, I would then begin shopping the various products and solutions. Even though I am saying, I would begin to shop for new solutions I was not disregard DMA. I would try to negotiate a new contract that would hold them to terms if they for some reason were unable to perform I would make sure that the contract would allow for a refund and an allotment for damages incurred. After shopping the various alternatives to DMA and renegotiating a new deal with DMA, I would assess which solution would be the most cost effective, take the most time to implement, and which solution would seem to require the least buy in by my end users and staff. I would then weigh the pros and cons accordingly and make a decision with the best blend of the following three areas that would repair the damage done in the least amount of time, with the least amount of cost, and greatest benefit to my staff.
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle 8 References
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