Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (a)
CISM7330 – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
Case Study 1 - Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A)
Wednesday August 24, 2010
Brian Putallaz
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit, member driven, business advocacy group is in the processes of upgrading their current information system. Midsouth has decided they need to upgrade their information system to a more currently system, in order to increase revenue producing opportunities. Their original IS system was built by an outside consultant (who is no longer in business) on a departmental need base, rather than a company wide need. The original system was put into place in 1987, with modifications done in 1993, and 1995. During this time all IS decision were made by outside consultants, since there were no in house IT personnel.
During the spring of 1996 the decision was made to hire Simon Kovecki as a systems analysis. Simon came to MSCC straight out of college and without every working with a membership organization or working with accounting software. He was placed in a difficult position since the company which originally built the system, was out of business so he had no ‘road map” on how the software was built.
In 1998 there was reorganization and all computer system was put under Jeff Hedges domain. This again placed Simon in difficult position because Mr. Hedges was as Vice President of Public Finance. Mr. Hedges lacked a technology background and often found himself wrapped up in other projects and too busy to attend to the technology side of his duties. The reorganization would have been a perfect opportunity to add a IS manager to the ranks of upper management, but MSCC declined to do so.
Later in 1998 a decision was made to move to a complete new system, an AS 400 system called UNITRAK. This particular company was chosen by Leon Lassiter and was poorly vetted. The software was in its infancy, they had only sold 1 copy, and changes were still being made to the software. During the
Case Study 1 - Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A)
Wednesday August 24, 2010
Brian Putallaz
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit, member driven, business advocacy group is in the processes of upgrading their current information system. Midsouth has decided they need to upgrade their information system to a more currently system, in order to increase revenue producing opportunities. Their original IS system was built by an outside consultant (who is no longer in business) on a departmental need base, rather than a company wide need. The original system was put into place in 1987, with modifications done in 1993, and 1995. During this time all IS decision were made by outside consultants, since there were no in house IT personnel.
During the spring of 1996 the decision was made to hire Simon Kovecki as a systems analysis. Simon came to MSCC straight out of college and without every working with a membership organization or working with accounting software. He was placed in a difficult position since the company which originally built the system, was out of business so he had no ‘road map” on how the software was built.
In 1998 there was reorganization and all computer system was put under Jeff Hedges domain. This again placed Simon in difficult position because Mr. Hedges was as Vice President of Public Finance. Mr. Hedges lacked a technology background and often found himself wrapped up in other projects and too busy to attend to the technology side of his duties. The reorganization would have been a perfect opportunity to add a IS manager to the ranks of upper management, but MSCC declined to do so.
Later in 1998 a decision was made to move to a complete new system, an AS 400 system called UNITRAK. This particular company was chosen by Leon Lassiter and was poorly vetted. The software was in its infancy, they had only sold 1 copy, and changes were still being made to the software. During the