Question

You have been working for some time at UMUC Pizza, a pizza restaurant located near UMUC campus. The owner, Bill, is very interested in expanding his successful business. He has just bought Priority Pizza, a pizza shop in a high-quality location across town, and has hired a store manager. He has sure to name the new business UMUC Pizza. Bill's research shows that there are many other local stores that sell pizza- outlets for major pizza chains in malls and other locations, small outlets and specialty shops, and larger restaurants. As Bill has been keeping all his records of orders, sales and inventory on paper, records at Priority Pizza are placed on the manager's PC in Excel files. Bill realizes that he ought to treat the two stores as a single business, with one set of accounts, one billing structure, etc. He thinks this is also a fine time to stop using paper records for his orders, sales and account. Bill really hopes to continue to expand his business by buying other pizza outlets, but he will require good information about his current businesses to know after he must make his next acquisition. He has asked you to help him develop business strategy and IT Plan to accomplish his goals. You identify that there are methodologies for analyzing business environment and that there are various ways to expand the business. You also recognize that IT is an important component for achieving Bill's goals.

1. Explain Porter's Five Forces Model and how Bill can apply it to analyze his current business and his expansion. Be sure to address each of the 5 forces and explain to Bill what they signify for his UMUC Pizza business.
2. Based on your examination in question 1, choose one of the five forces and describe how Bill can incorporate his analysis of that force into his Strategic Business Plan (SBP).
3. List three business areas and or methods used in the UMUC Pizza shops that could be supported by an IT solution.
4. List and explain three IT projects that should be a part of Bill's IT Plan - one project to support each area and or method identified in question 3 above.
5. Describe how each IT project listed above specifically gets better and or supports Bill's UMUC Pizza business.