Captiva Conglomerate Case Summary
Captiva Conglomerate
I. Major Facts
Captiva Conglomerate held a management meeting to discuss the contract with S.O. Software (SOS). SOS hold a contract to develops a custom inventory and spare parts management system, the intent of the system is to provide the operations section with better support than the current system and reduce inventory levels. Sam Sliderule, the Inventory and Spares Manager, tested the spare management module and called the software a disaster, and the module is currently four months behind schedule. The regional and centralized inventory management system module is ten months late.
Jana Perry, IT Director, thinks the system is great (assumption Jim is Jana see 13th line of study), she is the only one at Captiva Conglomerate who initialed off on the specification, it is presumed that SOS created the specs.
The President of Captiva signed the …show more content…
contract that states ‘Best Offers,’ ‘Whenever Possible,’ making it difficult for Captiva to pursue legal action.
SOS used $1 million allocated for the contract and had seventeen unpriced change orders pending.
II. Major Problem
Software is behind in production and over budget.
The product, to date, is difficult for the layperson to operate. The contract was not vetted through all the departments and the specifications were approved by only one department head, the IT Director. Their is an appearance that the software developer wrote the specifications and the IT Director rubber stamped them.
III. Possible Solutions
A. Have the legal team look at the contract and see if they can take any legal actions Get a cross functional team together to go over exactly what they need. Either fix the software SOS developed or start from the beginning and work on getting a new product that answers this specific companies needs
C.
Have the legal team review the contract and confirm what action(s) they cab take against SOS. If you can try to get SOS to fix the deficiencies identified. The disadvantage to that is you never want to threaten legal issues with a company that you still want to do business with, it might be best to cut your losses and start from scratch if you intend to bring legal action against
them.. This is a great way to team build and get the company working on a common project most importantly this will spark communication between division. It will also bring people together to work on what they really want. It appears the divisions are all operating autonomy and not sharing their needs, ultimately hurting the company through loss of time and money and productivity Starting over may not be cost effective at this point, you have already invested a lot in SOS and they still have not delivered a product that is fully incorporated into the company, you have not seen the full potential of the finished product..
IV. Implementation
I would get a team together to include legal representation and see if it is financially a good decision to not go with SOS and begin the process from scratch. Lets say we begin again. You first need to develop a team to go over exactly what the company needs are. From there you
must write a good statement of work to include functionality and design. This is a project that affects every department in the company so you need to be committed to this project or you will wind up with another SOS project. After the team is satisfied with the product they hand it off to the buying team but continues to partner with them to make sure what they contract for and buy is indeed what the company wants. I would also make sure to incorporate ISO 9000 standards and hold the contractor to adhering to them. It will initially cost Captiva, but in the long run you will not have the problems you faced with the current SOS contact.
erate
I. Major Facts
Captiva Conglomerate held a management meeting to discuss the contract with S.O. Software (SOS). SOS hold a contract to develops a custom inventory and spare parts management system, the intent of the system is to provide the operations section with better support than the current system and reduce inventory levels. Sam Sliderule, the Inventory and Spares Manager, tested the spare management module and called the software a disaster, and the module is currently four months behind schedule. The regional and centralized inventory management system module is ten months late.
Jana Perry, IT Director, thinks the system is great (assumption Jim is Jana see 13th line of study), she is the only one at Captiva Conglomerate who initialed off on the specification, it is presumed that SOS created the specs.
The President of Captiva signed the …show more content…
contract that states ‘Best Offers,’ ‘Whenever Possible,’ making it difficult for Captiva to pursue legal action.
SOS used $1 million allocated for the contract and had seventeen unpriced change orders pending.
II. Major Problem
Software is behind in production and over budget.
The product, to date, is difficult for the layperson to operate. The contract was not vetted through all the departments and the specifications were approved by only one department head, the IT Director. Their is an appearance that the software developer wrote the specifications and the IT Director rubber stamped them.
III. Possible Solutions
A. Have the legal team look at the contract and see if they can take any legal actions Get a cross functional team together to go over exactly what they need. Either fix the software SOS developed or start from the beginning and work on getting a new product that answers this specific companies needs
C.
Have the legal team review the contract and confirm what action(s) they cab take against SOS. If you can try to get SOS to fix the deficiencies identified. The disadvantage to that is you never want to threaten legal issues with a company that you still want to do business with, it might be best to cut your losses and start from scratch if you intend to bring legal action against
them.. This is a great way to team build and get the company working on a common project most importantly this will spark communication between division. It will also bring people together to work on what they really want. It appears the divisions are all operating autonomy and not sharing their needs, ultimately hurting the company through loss of time and money and productivity Starting over may not be cost effective at this point, you have already invested a lot in SOS and they still have not delivered a product that is fully incorporated into the company, you have not seen the full potential of the finished product..
IV. Implementation
I would get a team together to include legal representation and see if it is financially a good decision to not go with SOS and begin the process from scratch. Lets say we begin again. You first need to develop a team to go over exactly what the company needs are. From there you
must write a good statement of work to include functionality and design. This is a project that affects every department in the company so you need to be committed to this project or you will wind up with another SOS project. After the team is satisfied with the product they hand it off to the buying team but continues to partner with them to make sure what they contract for and buy is indeed what the company wants. I would also make sure to incorporate ISO 9000 standards and hold the contractor to adhering to them. It will initially cost Captiva, but in the long run you will not have the problems you faced with the current SOS contact.
erate