Building and Managing Systems
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Part Four Building and Managing Systems
14.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience evaluating information systems projects, using spreadsheet software to perform capital budgeting analyses for new information systems investments, and using Web tools to analyze the financing for a new home.
Management Decision Problems
1. In 2001, McDonald’s Restaurants undertook a project called Innovate to create an intranet connecting headquarters with its 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries to provide detailed operational information in real time. The new system would, for instance, inform a manager at the company’s Oak Brook, Illinois, headquarters immediately if sales were slowing at a franchise in London, or if the grill temperature in a Rochester, Minnesota, restaurant wasn’t hot enough.
The idea was to create a global ERP application touching the workings of every
McDonald’s restaurant. Some of these restaurants were in countries that lacked network infrastructures. After spending over $1 billion over several years, including $170 million on consultants and initial implementation planning,
McDonalds terminated the project. What should management have known or done at the outset to prevent this outcome?
2. Caterpillar is the world’s leading maker of earthmoving machinery and supplier of agricultural equipment. Caterpillar wants to end its support for its Dealer
Business System (DBS), which it licenses to its dealers to help them run their businesses. The software in this system is becoming out of date, and senior management wants to transfer support for the hosted version of the software to
Accenture Consultants so it can concentrate on its core business. Caterpillar never required its dealers to use DBS, but the system had become a de facto standard for doing business with the company. The majority of the 50 Cat dealers in North America use some version of DBS, as do about half of the 200 or so Cat dealers in the rest of the
Part Four Building and Managing Systems
14.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience evaluating information systems projects, using spreadsheet software to perform capital budgeting analyses for new information systems investments, and using Web tools to analyze the financing for a new home.
Management Decision Problems
1. In 2001, McDonald’s Restaurants undertook a project called Innovate to create an intranet connecting headquarters with its 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries to provide detailed operational information in real time. The new system would, for instance, inform a manager at the company’s Oak Brook, Illinois, headquarters immediately if sales were slowing at a franchise in London, or if the grill temperature in a Rochester, Minnesota, restaurant wasn’t hot enough.
The idea was to create a global ERP application touching the workings of every
McDonald’s restaurant. Some of these restaurants were in countries that lacked network infrastructures. After spending over $1 billion over several years, including $170 million on consultants and initial implementation planning,
McDonalds terminated the project. What should management have known or done at the outset to prevent this outcome?
2. Caterpillar is the world’s leading maker of earthmoving machinery and supplier of agricultural equipment. Caterpillar wants to end its support for its Dealer
Business System (DBS), which it licenses to its dealers to help them run their businesses. The software in this system is becoming out of date, and senior management wants to transfer support for the hosted version of the software to
Accenture Consultants so it can concentrate on its core business. Caterpillar never required its dealers to use DBS, but the system had become a de facto standard for doing business with the company. The majority of the 50 Cat dealers in North America use some version of DBS, as do about half of the 200 or so Cat dealers in the rest of the