AIS Implementation Case Study

Steve Cowan is the stimulateer of a distri saveion confederacy of beauty salon hair products. The company, Professional Salon Concepts, (PSC) was growing and distinct to upgrade their AIS to actualise the demands of the company. Steve hired Mike, his brother-in-law to assist him and the two of them began to research the different products available believe they could expose mend the needs of the company than a consultant could. subsequently a short quantify they bought first one and therefore ever-changing their minds and bought a second arrangement. after(prenominal) a short take aiming bound the b atomic number 18-assed formation was installed with some rattling problematic first few sidereal days. Eventually the system was up and running tho neer amply doing what they had passe-partoutly treasured from the saucy system. Romney & Steinbart (2009).Implementing saucily AIS is some affaire that businesses e precisewhere deal to watch at some point and time. T he case of PSC and how they went ab bring out choosing and implementing their AIS is what we leave be flavouring at. There atomic number 18 six main points of consideration I will be covering in this study. The first is a come out at how good of a job PSC did in selecting, installing and implementing their new system. We will look at what they did wrong and what they could redeem dresse differently. We will try to determine how PSC could have avoided the deficient features, the transition and reporting problems they had. following we will review Steves analysis of his numbers and determine if his conclusions were correct. expression at his new shipping system we want to see if in that location is a way that PSCs customers brush aside defraud the company. Finally, we will run a look at the level of service PSC received from the company where they purchased their new AIS and how it could have been improved. Steves AssessmentSelecting the New AIS PSC spent months researching computer software and attending demonstrations. While doing research on their own is non a bad thing they however dismissed the possible use of consultants. again non always a bad thing but when they did their research, it is non clear if they had a confirmed set of requirements of their needs in the new AIS. As a result PSC never compared companies through a collect for proposals, (RFP) if they had they could have sent their requirements to the vendors. The vendors would then have sent back their proposals to PSC. After eliminating vendors that do not meet the minimum requirements, PSC could then do a comparison of the remaining vendors originally making a final decision. Romney & Steinbart (2009). The call is the set requirements and minimum standards they were willing to settle for.In the end they had decided on one system, paid for it and had started installing it when they changed their minds and went with a different company. The company, DSM was elect almost on a whi m. DSM could not demonstrate all of the features PSC had wanted and took a reassurance that they would get those features without documentation. PSC also did not do an extensive orbit check into DSM forward they purchased the new AIS. InstallationInstallation and implementing of the new AIS was anything but smooth. In retrospect even Steve knew they did not take the time take to fitly test or to train employees on how to use the new system. Three months was not sufficient time to try and work out the possible problems they would have with the new AIS. While Steve felt that training was very important he greatly underestimated the amount of time that was needed for proper training of employees on the new systems.The operators should have been involved from the beginning to determine what was needed and how it was creation implemented into the new AIS. Each of these operators should also have been include in the design of the interface they would be using. If their input was not a possible piece of the design they should have at the very least been included in the original installation and testing part of the new systems to determine what the possible problem failures would be and to better control the new systems. Missing FeaturesHow could PSC have avoided the problem of the missing features? If PSC had gotten RFPs the problem of missing features in the system they chose would have been eliminated during the vendor selection process. However, in the roadway they did take those features that were important to Steve but were not included in the AIS could have been included by having a systems requirements list and a written obtain with the specifications explicitly written out. Conversion and ReportingHow could PSC have avoided some of the novelty and reporting problems it faced? As I stated before, more time was needed in the testing and training portion of the conversion before the new AIS went online.One trick I learned from our own system change at the city I work in is to train a few operators on the new systems during the testing phase and then have them train a few more in their own departments. By using your own employees to train each other they are gaining a better understanding of how the system works. This way on the day of the change you have more people who understand the system and how to habitue or correct the things that can go wrong. The more people you can have happy this way before the system change the better off you will be at the critical moment. Steves abstractSteves analysis of the numbers is incomplete in my opinion. Steve looked simply at the initial equal of the package but he did not look at recurring costs of up keep of the hardware and software, systems maintenance, conversion cost, training expense, cost of running the testing phase as comfortably as several other things. The conversion alone cost him a 15% drop in sales and none of these expenses were calculated into the cost of the new AIS. Steve and Mike should have consulted an accountant to foster with the crunching of numbers before they had purchased the AIS from DSM. One other mistake they made in this purchase was not to have the extra features written into a contract as a part of the cost. Shipping and FraudIs there a way PSC could be defrauded by the new multi-box shipments? After looking online for ways the only thing I could come up with was for the customers to claim that not all of the boxes were received. Because they only require one packing slip for multiple boxes, one of the boxes could expert not make it to the stores or items could go missing from the shipments. I dont think it would be hard to say that one of intravenous wagesding or five boxes was missing an item. Without a packing slip in each box it would be easy for something to be overlooked when they are being packed. Im not sure if there is some other way the multi-box one packing slip approach could be defrauded. take of ServiceOn a l evel of one to five, one being the best, I would probably rate DSMs level of service about three. DSM was not the worst company I have read about but they could have stepped up their service. One of the things they could improve on is their training. Training was something of a disaster judging from the first day. More of the employees should have been trained and trained much better than they were. Another area of improvement would be in the testing phase of the installation before the new system went online.The sales person made assurances that it was apparent after the fact that they had no make up to made or no intention of keeping. The extra features that PSC was told would be included in their package were only going to be added for an extra fee that PSC would have to shoulder the majority of. One feature was added at an additive cost of ten thousand but the second feature was never added. ConclusionsIn the end Steve was snug with the new AIS. While the new AIS did drop the turnaround time to only twenty minutes from five hours it never did do all the things they had wanted. PSC is negotiating with DSM to write the programs that will complete the processes he wants the AIS system to do, for an additional cost.Upgrading from the system they had was necessary but, I cant help wondering if they wouldnt have been better off sticking with the original $20,000 purchase and having a company write the programs they were missing. The price PSC paid for the AIS from DSM was sort of steep in comparison. In the end Steve said he was satisfied but I have to wonder if he really was or if he was just trying to feel ok with what had happened and what he paid.