MMIS 621 Information Systems Project Management
 
STUDENT NAME: Patrick Casimir
 
DATE: 4/1/02
 
ASSIGNMENT NUMBER: 1
 
ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Leadership Issues
 
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
 
 TASK SET 1: Chapter 1: ALTERNATE: IMPORTANCE OF 
 INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
 
 Review Questions
 8) Summarize the four main components of the model of the 
 IS function? 
 a. Technologies are systems infrastructures such as 
 Internet, wireless and fiber-based networks, and 
 multimedia used by employees, customers, 
 suppliers, and customers of a corporation.  
 b. Users are employees, customers, suppliers, and 
 customers that use the technologies of 
 corporation to provide or acquire services.
 c. System development is the overall delivery system
 that provides all kind of resources to users in  
 order to improve performance.
 d. IS management is the highest level of management 
  of the IT department. Its responsibility is to
 manage all IT resources needed to allow the 
 organizations reach its goals.
 
13) Why did Mead choose to implement ERP?
 Mead has implemented ERP to have the abilities to 
  use one image of SAP that runs the entire company. 
 That system will allow Mead to both leverage its  
 back-end shared services and obtain excellence in 
 customer satisfaction.
 
 Discussion Questions
1. Even though the PC dispersed control of processing 
power out of the IS department, the Internet will 
 return control to the department. Agree or disagree?
 Discuss. 
 While PCs have given employees the power to process
 information out of centralized IS department, the 
 misuse of Internet resources has forced IS 
 department of numerous companies to control the way
 Internet is used. Most of today’s companies are 
 taking advanced steps to stop employees from 
  Internet’s resources for private activities online 
 activities such as shopping, banking, gambling, and 
 accessing pornographic data. IS department are using
 software that requires users to have special 
 priviledges to open a web browser and that keeps 
 tracks of sites visited and for how long. It has 
 become vital for companies to control what is 
 viewed, downloaded, and transferred on the Internet.
 These new tasks have given a great deal of control 
 to most IS departments.
 
2) Do we really need a major change in the way the 
 information systems function is structured? Are the 
 necessary changes just minor modifications to 
 accommodate normal growth in the computer uses? 
 I do not think a major change is needed, but we need
 to add a fifth element to the information systems 
 model: Software Engineering and Development. Because 
 software has become so expensive and so vital to any
 organization’s success, that fifth element would be 
 responsible to obtain, develop, or engineer low cost
 software that is reliable and works efficiently on 
 real machines.
 
4) The e-economy is going to end up just like the old 
 economy with the huge conglomerates controlling 
 everything. Agree or disagree? Is this situation 
 desirable or not?
 E-economy will not end up like the old one. Since 
 1999 big conglomerates such as Ford and GM have 
 joined the e-business community, it is not likely 
 that they will control everything. Instead e-economy 
 has grown a stronger sort of triangle in which the 
 Internet helps to form a dynamic information 
 partnership among companies, suppliers, and 
 customers. The presence of those huge firms in the 
 e-business world allows millions of business 
 partners to realize tremendous gains in efficiency. 
 It also permits live collaboration that increases 
 the flexibility and responsibility of all partners. 
 Today’s customers want the e-economy to be 
 competitive. They would not appreciate any situation
 in which e-business is controlled by a handful of
 huge corporations.
 
TASK SET 2.0: Chapter 2: MUST: THE TOP IS JOB
 
 Review Questions
 3) What four trends are nibbling away at traditional IS
 departments?
 1. System building
 2. System analysis 
 3. Remote systems management
  4. Systems planning 
 
4) According to Cox what are the four areas that make up
 the overall responsibility of IS function? 
  1. Run operations
 2. Develop systems
 3. Develop architecture
 4. Identify business requirements
 
5) What the two roles IS departments are likely to play
 in the future?
1. IS department will become a broker between 
technical service providers and business units.
2. IS department will develop and manage Systems and 
 Information Architecture.
 
10) The text suggests seven ways to “Understand the 
 Business”. Briefly summarize these seven ways.
1. IS executives will have project teams analyze all
 aspects of the type of involved in. 
 2. IS executives must focus on specific lines of 
business instead of overall industry. By example,
IS executives a like Bellsouth will focus on a 
line of business such as providing Internet Services.
3. IS executives must allow intercommunication in a 
in a weekly basis. That will help employees to 
understand all aspect of their industry.
 4. They must extend the learning process outside the 
 company by taking line executives to forum and 
 conferences related to particular business.
 5. They must encourage IS employees to read any 
 publication related to their industry.
 6. They must help employees to participate in  
 informal listening activities. Those activities
 can strengthen relationship among employees. 
 7. They must partner with line managers to achieve  
  organizational goals. Employees perform better 
 when they are members of structured team. 
 
 13) What three kings of partnerships must be developed
 by the IS executive?
1. Relationships with senior management: CEO, CFO, 
COO, division presidents, and other members of 
 the top management team 
 2. Relationships with customers: both internal and
 external
 3. Relationships with suppliers and other external 
 partners 
 
Discussion Questions
 2) Present both sides of the argument that business   
 process owners will/will not take over management of
 IT.
 Argument 1. The evolution of e-business has been 
 too fast for IT managers to keep up with. That 
 trend has allowed business process owners to 
 dictate how technologies are managed, implemented, 
 and transformed if necessary. If that trend 
 continues, process owners will completely take over 
 the function of IT management.
 Argument 2. Process owners will control the 
 applications required by their particular lines of
 business. But, IT managers will still be needed to 
 centralize all those applications into company-wide
 shared services. Process owners will never take 
 over the function of IT management.
 
 3) What is going to happen to organizations whose senior 
 executives do not appreciate the value of data 
 processing, let alone information or knowledge 
 processing?
 These organizations will be left behind in today’s
 e-economy. They will loose their competitive edge 
 and most likely go out of business.
 
 
TASK SET 3.0: Chapter 3: MUST: TODAY’S STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE E-BUSINESS
 
Review Questions
1) What are the three basic types of e-business and how do
Their strategic roles differ?
 1. Business-to-Employee. To improve internal 
 processes and structure of a firm
 2. Business-to-Consumer. To improve a firm’s 
 products, services, and relationships with its 
 customers.
 3. Business-to-Business. To improve a firm’s
 processes and relationships with its business
 partners
 
3) What are the major barriers to e-business?  
 1. The need to redesign business processes
 2. The dearth of e-business skills
 3. The lack of integration between front-end and
 back-end systems.
 
5) What is a corporate portal, and how does it help solve
 some of the problems with managing an intranet? 
 A corporate portal is a gateway to a firm’s internal
 resources, information, and Internet services. It 
 brings access to company data and applications 
 together in a single site. 
 The portal provides IS management with a way to 
 monitor and control the growth of internal Web sites.
 Also, it provides a link to Internet resources 
 external to the company, such as sites for industry
 news, customers, and business partners. 
 
8) 8) Describe what is meant by “supply chain integration.”
  The supply chain integration is the process of 
 integrating all individual information systems,
 for example, scheduling, inventory, procurement,
 production planning, and demand forecasting systems, 
 within a company and across business partners. 
 
11) What are the three categories of e-business security 
 concerns?
1. Sniffing: the interception and reading of 
electronic messages as they travel over the 
 communication networks. 
 2. Spooling: the assumption of a false identity
 and the execution of fraudulent transactions.
 3. Hacking: the unauthorized access to a host 
 computer.
 
13) What are the four methods of legal protection of 
 intellectual property?
 1. Copyrights
2. Patents 
3. Trademarks
4. Trade Secrets
 
Discussion Questions
1) With the failure of many high-profile e-retailers, and 
 with many, such as Amazon.com, failing to make a profit, 
 some have argued that selling over the Internet will be
 limited to a few products. Do you agree? Support your
 opinion.
 I do agree that selling over the Internet must be 
 limited to a few products such as books, DVDs, and 
 CDs. The reason is these products can be ordered 
 with some criteria such as ISBN that guarantee 
 delivery of the right item. One of the biggest
 barriers of e-business the delivery of a wrong item. 
 On an average, customers wait four to six weeks to 
  have the money credited back to their credit card. 
 Too often, customers must pay shipping fees to get the 
 product sent back to e-retailers. 
 
3) Companies are using e-business applications to build
 profiles of customers. Privacy advocates consider this
 practice to be dangerous. Do you agree? Discuss.
 As a customer, I am against that practice because
 most companies sell those informations to third parties 
 telemarketers. Telemarketers, on their side, will 
 invade customer’s privacy by using phone numbers, 
 addresses to offer their products.
 
 
INTERNET TASK 1:
 
 Enterprise Modeling 
 URL: http://www.sybase.com/products/enterprisemodeling
 
 Summary: Enterprise modeling is a tool that supports a broad range of skill sets and existing IT resources, and allows multi-disciplinary teams to communicate, collaborate, and create more effectively
 
INTERNET TASK 2: 
Throughout the process of completing the first assignment, I realized I could have saved a lot of time if I had an agent structure helping me with some of the tasks. I decided to create Patou, my software agent, will assist me by: 
 1. helping me find Web addresses and information to   
 complete Task 1 of the Internet Tasks
 2. filtering all the Online Journals and helping me select
 one from a particular stream of articles 
 3. helping me collect data related to the company and/or 
 the system on which my case is based
  4. filtering the Web and sending me emails when news 
 related to a specific MIS topic are found
 
 
READING REVIEW
 
MMIS 620 Management Information Systems 
 
Assignment – 1. Leadership Issues 
 
The importance of Information Systems Management to an organization
 
Patrick Casimir. pcasimir
 
Jahangir Karimi, Toni M. Somers, & Yash P. Gupta (2001). 
 Impact of Information Technology Management Practices on 
 Customer Service. Journal of Management Information 
 Systems, 17, 125–128.
 
 Subject Headings: customer relationship management, customer service, information technology management practices, information technology management sophistication, information technology leader’s role.
 
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.
In today’s e-economy, customer service is a top priority for businesses willing to succeed. Companies are spending millions of dollars in IT management practices to boost their customer satisfaction index ratings. These practices have a role in transforming both marketing and operations, which gives firms advantage by helping them increase customer service satisfaction. A lack of clear organizational processes for effective IT management practices can prevent companies from achieving long-term strategic plans. If this trend continues, it will disrupt a firm’s evolution in its management orientation, planning, organization, and control aspects of its customer satisfaction objectives.
 
STRATEGIES OR TECHNIQUES USED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
 IT Planning: some firms have changed the nature of IT planning from a computing plan with a technology management focus to a long-range strategic plan with a data resource management focus. 
 IT Control: some corporations have used new methods of IT control based on benefits’ priorities and technical standards, and are based on the organizational goals rather than cost.
   IT Organization: companies have placed the direction, development, and operations of IT applications in the hands of business units and IT organizations that are customized to meet specific business unit needs.
 IT Integration: companies have contributed to a high degree of technology integration for better exploitation of IT within the company
 
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
This research has proved that in firms where IT plays a strategic role, it has enabled massive transformation of operational and marketing aspects of the value chain. In those firms, IT is being used to improve customer service and quality, and to link independent functions into integrated systems to enable firms to deliver new and more complex products quickly.
 To be successful in using IT management practices to improve customer service, a firm must:
clearly define the organizational role of IT and the rank of the IT leader
use IT investment in the development of marketing support systems and infrastructures 
needed to track industry leaders and manage marketing and execution.
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.
Any future research will focus more deeply on issues related to instrument validation, data collection, and the measurement of the research variables
 
LIST OF REFERENCES.
Applegate, L.M., & Elam, J.J. (1992). New Information systems leaders: A changing role in a 
 changing world. MIS Quaterly, 16, 1190 –1204.
 
Applegate, L.M., McFarlan, F.W., & McKenney, J.L. (1996). Corporate Information Systems
 Management: The issues Facing Senior Executives. Chicago: Irwin.
 
Asbrand, D. (1997). Is your automated customer service killing you? Retrieved not mentioned, 
  from datamation.eartweb.com.

Boynton, A., & Zmud, R.W. (1987) Information technology planning in the 1990s. MIS Quaterly. 11, 59 – 71.

 
CASE ANALYSIS:
 
THE MAIN PROBLEM THAT WAS OR IS TO BE SOLVED:
 What is the main problem in the case that reflects the 
 and the pain that led the organization to design the 
 system or search for the solution?
 The main problem was the fact that IS department was 
 focusing on cost reduction and not enough relationship
 with internal customers. 
 
 What are some side issues in the case?
 1.The IS was too centralized and was not involved in all
 aspects of the organization. 
 2.IS managers were not partners with line executives and 
 their team.
 3.IS employees did not know as much about each line of 
 business as the people in those units.
 
RECOMMENDATIONS:
 What are your comments or thoughts on the way the problem 
 was approached in this case?
 I think the system was implemented in ways to 
 effectively use services of the IS department by 
 allocating such services to the needs and requirements
 of functional departments. By doing so, the relationship 
 between the IS department and internal customers will 
 crease to the point that IS executives and line 
  executives become partners.
 
 What additional resources need to be expended to do an even
 better job of resolving the problem?
 Resources such as: training sessions for account and 
 executives to better teach them about their role in the
 new environment, weekly forum discussions between 
 account and line executives to reinforce partnership, 
 survey and evaluation sessions to evaluate results and 
 redifine new goals.
 
 What are some of the “way out” things that the organization 
 Could have done. Dream a bit.
1. Place a “Partnership Control Manager” in each 
department with the duty of evaluating the overall 
 evolution of partnership between account executive
 and line executive, and reporting to the CIO barriers 
  and advances in each department.
 2.Replace all line executives with people of strong IS
 backgroung. 
 3.Give the CIO the rights to fire any line executive
 not willing to fully comply to the new system. 
 
UPDATE:
SHORT-TERM VIEW: State some recent changes that have occurred in the specific industry of the case organization that may have an impact on the organization in this case in the Short-term (one year to 18 months out).
 The drop in U.S. auto sales in recent months has 
 affected every company in the auto industry. Companies 
 were forced to cut cost by reducing their work force. 
 Federal-Mogul, after filing for financial restructuring 
 in Banruptcy Court, will be very limited in investing
 required funds to fully implement this new system 
 
LONG-TERM VIEW: What changes do you predict for this system? The industry is constantly changing and there will be areas 
That will be upgraded or made absolute by new technology. Briefly describe what you think will happen to this system in the next 2-5 years. 
 Automakers like GM & Chrysler are investing heavily in 
 Private collaborative design and supply chain network.
 Doing so, they will they will force automotive 
 aftermarket companies like Federal-Mogul to create 
 integrated software teams able to implement special 
 software for a global shared network. Line and account
 executives will work to get each department ready to 
 use such network.
 
Find some recent advertising for the case organization and indicate what are they trying to portray?

Federal-Mogul's Moog® chassis parts, Fel-Pro® gaskets and Champion® spark plug brands and the company's F-M TEC training program. Federal-Mogul has used its advertising to present its utilization of lean manufacturing throughout the company to further improve process capabilities and eliminate waste. Application of additional lean manufacturing techniques such as value stream mapping, autonomous maintenance and cellular manufacturing will ensure our continuous ability to identify and eliminate waste in an effort to satisfy the needs of our customers and all of our stakeholders. Overall, the company is portraying the following core values:
· We are a team first.
· We respect, trust and help each other.
· We act with integrity.
· We are driven toward mastery in all we do.
· We celebrate our success.

 
OTHER:
What other materials would you have liked to have had about this case organization in order to review it more effectively?
  1.A clear description of the CIO, account executive,
 and line executive responsabilities.
 2.What processes used by each department 
 3.What type of hardware, software, and system network 
 being used to implement the new system. 
 
 
REVIEW QUESTION:
Develop a one paragraph summary of your activities on this assignment indicating the key points that you have learned. 
 I started the assignment by reading the chapters needed to answer the required questions. I those chapters, I learned
about the mission of Information Systems, the newest model 
of IS function in a structured organization, the future of IS, the main responsibilities of a CIO, e-business and its implications. Next, I completed the Internet tasks where I learned about enterprise modeling, software agents, and how to create a software agent. In the reading review, I learned about the impact of IT management practices on improving customer satisfaction. Finally, I did the case analysis where I learned about the implementation of a new IS system in an organization.
 
 
EMBEDDED EVALUATION ITEMS:
1. What direct applications were you able to make to your 
 job? If you do not have a job, indicate what concepts 
 seem most practical to you.
 One direct I was able to make to my job is to identify
 all the four elements of the IS function model:
 Technologies: hardware and other infrastructures 

 managed by the IS department
 Users: employees and customers 
 System Development: all software applications 
 Information System Management: the chief engineer and
 Other senior engineers of the MIS department.
 
2. How could the existing objectives and tasks in this 
 assignment be modified to make them more useful to you? 
 The overall tasks of each assignment could be reduced 
 by 25%. Instead, each student would have to complete
 a Project Research in an existing company on a issue 
 related to the assignment.