Overview of Case

m Mrs. Fields Cookies began with one cookie store in

1977 in Palo Alto, CA.

m Mrs. Fields Cookies sells mostly chocolate chip cookies in

small stores, located mostly in shopping malls

m Explore the use of IT to enable rapid growth

while maintaining control

m Opportunity to study the design of an IT architecture

 Current Information System at MFC

 Electronic Mail

 Day Planner

 Labour Scheduler

 Skills Test

 Interviews

 Time Clock
Impact of IT on business at MFC
 Even when Debbi isnǯt there, sheǯs there, by this we mean
that IT leverages her ability to project her influence into
more stores than she could ever reach effectively without
IT.
 IT clearly has enabled standardization and tight control.
 IT used to expand store manager capabilities in the role
Debbi and Randy wish them to fill Store managers
Dzinnovatedz on sales process and motivate employees to do
same.
Impact of IT on business at MFC

 IT relieve store manager of tasks he/she can

concentrate on marketing, promotion to the public,
etc.
 escription of the Organization
Structure of MFC.

 Debbi and Randy.

 4 senior regional directors.
 17 regional directors Operations (RDO) .
 105 district sales managers.
 Store Managers
 Store Clerks
 MIS Hierarchy of Organization

 Debbi and Randy

 MIS Director
 Programmer
 Manager
 Program/Application Manager Ȃ Finance
 Program/Application Manager Ȃ Sales
 Micro Systems Manager
 Operations Manager
 Programmers/Operators
IT- Centralization OR Decentralization

@ The large presence of stores across the world with one single
owner made centralization mandatory.
@ IT has definitely added to centralization of the stores.
@ IT helped to accommodate growth without expanding staff
@ Existing manager can focus more on selling and future outlook
than on daily paperwork and accounting
@ Information of each stores at regional levels can be collected by
the regional managers who all can direct their report to the
central headquarter.
@ since the product is of short duration it is important to have
immediate sales and scheduling report which the decentralized
IT at each stores will help in
@ IT has helped managing each stores at individual level along
with the overall operation of the brand at a large scale
IT Infrastructure in 1988

 MS-DOS system with 8086 base CPU.

 1 Floppy disc drive.

 20 MD Hard disk.

 1200 bps Modem.

IN 2010

 [indows XP with core i3 processor

 500 GB Hard disk.
 [i-Fi Router 54 Mbps.
 USB support.
 Technical support team.
 Create Data warehouse that could be a
accessed by different systems.
î
 
 

 Facilitate backup daily, weekly and Monthly

and access data remotely.
 3G and 4G services could be utilized.
 ERP systems could be implemented as the
reach of the company is expanding and
reduction of errors in operation processes
could help in increasing profits.
 [hy MFC reported loss in 1988

 MFC was on diversification and acquisition spree since

1984
 It tried to diversify into combination stores
 In 1984 MFC acquired local retail cookie chain FCCC
 In 1987 MFC acquired 119 pepsico bakery/Sandwich stores.
 Some diversified shops didnǯt work well
 Some of the strategies applied by MFC in new stores didnǯt
work well
 Reason can be lack of expertise or lack of proper
management.
 Companies sold out non-working shops
 It created loss to the MFC
 Company represented it as R&D loss in Financial
statement.
 [hat IT can do

 Facilitate decision making on specific IT acquisitions

 Ensure compatibility of IT and business strategy
 Improve likelihood of IT integration and
interconnectivity
 Define framework for control
 Influence user decision making concerning IT