INFO20000D | Business Information Systems | Individual Case Study Assignment (Part 2)

Little Corp.

This case assignment is separated into two interrelated parts. Part 1 draws from the Information Technology
Concepts module on Database Systems (Chapter 3). Its purpose is to provide you with experience in analyzing
the data and information needs of organizations and logically structuring these needs in a manner that can be
understood and used by relevant organizational stakeholders to create information systems that deliver
maximum organizational value. Part 2 draws from the Business Information Systems and the Systems
Acquisition and Development modules (Chapters 5 to 8). Its purpose is to provide you with experience in
analyzing organizational information systems, making recommendations to improve these systems, and
formulating a plan to execute on your recommendations.

Questions (Case Study Assignment Part 2) (30 marks)

1. Describe the main issue in Part 2 of the case. In other words, what is the big problem or challenge that
needs to be addressed? Clearly describe why you see this as the main issue. (5 marks)
2. Analyze the qualitative and quantitative data that the case presents. What does the information in the
case tell you about the main issue and the effect it is having on the company? Make sure you draw
conclusions from your analysis. (5 marks)
3. Identify and describe two complete, distinct alternative solutions to the main issue that your analysis
suggests as being relatively likely to successfully resolve the main issue. Consider both the short and long
term in formulating your alternatives. (5 marks)
4. What are the key 4-5 decision criteria that should be used to identify the best alternative? Make sure you
define and clearly explain why these are the key decision criteria. (5 marks)
5. Recommend one of your alternatives that is the best solution to the main issue and justify your
recommendation. Your justification should be based on the key decision criteria and you must clearly
explain why the chosen alternative is better than the other alternative. It is recommended that you use a
weighted decision matrix as part of the recommendation justification. (5 marks)
6. Describe which implementation strategy you would use and why? You must fully justify why this
implementation strategy is the best one for the solution you recommended. (5 marks)

Formatting
For your submission, use 12 pt. Arial or Calibri font and include page numbers. Figures and tables can be
included as appendices. In preparing your submission you must abide by Sheridan policies and procedures
governing Academic Integrity. Be sure to use APA style referencing when you incorporate ideas and content that
are not your own. The Instructor will use Turnitin to check every submission for Academic Integrity violations.

Sheridan is committed to Academic Integrity. In this course the professor has chosen to require students to use
Turnitin to check their own written work to ensure originality.
• By taking this course students agree that they will submit written work for this course to Turnitin for
text comparison.
• Students will have the opportunity to review their initial work and correct any issues identified by
Turnitin prior to submitting their final work.
• Students will include the final Originality Report as a part of the written work submission.
• Students are encouraged to discuss the Originality Report at any time with their faculty member.
• Assignments submitted to Turnitin will be included as source documents in Turnitin.com's restricted
access database, solely for the purpose of detecting text copying.

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 INFO20000D | Business Information Systems | Individual Case Study Assignment (Part 2)
Little Corp.

Submission
Submit an electronic copy of your final report as either a Word document (.docx) or PDF file (.pdf) to the Slate
“Case Study Assignment (Part 2)” Assignment Dropbox before the deadline. Late assignments will be penalized
by a grade reduction of 10% for every 24 hours that the assignment is late. Assignments submitted more than 96
hours (4 days) late will not be accepted and be assigned a grade of zero.

Resources
Completion of this assignment can be supported through effective use of the following resources:
• The course textbook (Chapters 5-8 in particular) and class discussions (weeks 8 to 11 in particular) which
provide important background information regarding Business Information Systems and Systems
Acquisition and Development.
• Any other relevant online or library resources that you can identify.

The Case – Part 2

Little Corp., a bicycle manufacturer located in Burlington, Ontario was a medium sized business that consisted of
just over 200 employees. Of these employees, approximately 50 worked in the office while the remaining 150
employees worked in the manufacturing and warehouse facilities. Little Corp. designed, manufactured,
assembled and shipped high-end bicycles (both road bikes as well as mountain bikes) both directly to end
consumers as well as to retailers across North America. In the last year, Little Corp. sold over 30,000 bicycles at
an average price of $1,000.

After 10 years of growth, Little Corp was beginning to feel the strains of a small organization that was rapidly
becoming too large to continue operating in the way that it had in the past. Until quite recently decisions had
largely been made informally by company founder, Catherine Kuijpers, based on her knowledge of the business
and her industry expertise. Although Catherine was as engaged as ever with Little Corp.’s growth, over the past
two years it had become clear to her that she needed to introduce more formal systems to ensure that this
growth was sustainable. With its most recent annual sales now in excess of $30 million, the company was simply
becoming too big to make informal decisions. There was too much at stake and resources were being wasted by
decisions that had been made without sufficient analysis. Hence, over the past year the company had begun to
introduce formal processes in a wide range of areas including employee recruitment and strategic planning
efforts. This latter effort, in particular, had pleased Catherine as it had yielded a set of clear objectives and
performance metrics that were now being used to guide organizational decisions.

From a background perspective, prior to founding Little Corp., Catherine had worked at a very large bicycle
manufacturer headquartered in the north eastern United States. After more than a dozen years working in
various operational and marketing roles at this organization, she identified an opportunity to manufacture high-
end bicycles that could be sold at a premium price. After some discussion with family and colleagues, she
decided to return to Canada to pursue this opportunity. Many challenges arose during the early years of the
business including challenges related to where product development efforts should be focused, how to establish
and develop relationships with new and prospective customers and retailers, and how to acquire access to cost
effective manufacturing capabilities. In many cases the financial and other pressures were such that hasty
decisions were made that largely aimed to quickly resolve whatever crisis was at hand.

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Little Corp.

Short-term thinking was also evident in information systems decision making. Over time, Little Corp. had
acquired a wide range of information systems that had been implemented to address specific problems as they
arose. At present, the organization was operating and maintaining over 50 separate systems that addressed
needs across all functional areas. Most of these systems did not interface with the other systems at Little Corp.
The major systems included a financial accounting system, a production planning system, an employee time-
tracking system, payroll system, two product labeling systems, a knowledge management system, three shipping
systems provided by the company’s three main shipment service providers, and a wide range of personal
productivity tools.

Among the systems that had been introduced was a system to keep track of employee compensation and
benefits. This had been developed by a small vendor that had since ceased operations. As a result, human
resources staff were regularly required to make “adjustments” to system data to support changes in
employment practices and legislation. Every second week the data from this system was exported to an Excel
spreadsheet and sent to an online payroll service provider that was responsible for handling employee salary
and benefit payments. Reports were generated by the payroll service provider after employees were paid and
these reports were then used to manually update Little’s internal compensation and benefit system.

Accounting and manufacturing staff experienced similar frustrations as both departments were using systems
that relied on considerable manual data entry. The lack of integration between accounting and manufacturing
systems was also problematic. For example, although orders were entered into the financial accounting system
(based on the Excel spreadsheets that were used), the details of these orders needed to then be transferred via
other Excel spreadsheets to manufacturing staff. Manufacturing would then use this information to plan
production, acquire necessary raw materials, and ship finished product to Little’s customers. Sales, marketing,
and accounting staff had only limited insight into raw material orders or the manufacturing process such that an
email or text message was often necessary to determine the status of orders and verify the need for payment. In
some instances, products had been shipped to customers without invoicing these customers. Issues such as this
were embarrassing and they were having negative implications for Little Corp’s operational and financial
performance.

A recent problem with the compensation and benefit system that delayed payment of employee salaries led
Catherine to think once again about what to do with Little Corp’s current mix of aging and often incompatible
systems. Her IT manager was a long-term employee who seemed to be able to keep current systems running but
the world had changed a great deal in the last ten years. Consumers were now highly connected with mobile
services having become the norm, particularly among the types of people that typically purchased Little Corp’s
bikes. These consumers had come to expect mobile service options, access to real time information concerning
the order status of their bikes, rapid assistance in the event of bike failures and warranty repairs. In short, there
seemed to be many new opportunities for Catherine to consider in light of the technological and social changes
that had been taking place. Almost too many opportunities!

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