Papers R Us
1. Papers R Us Proprietary Limited is a national provider of academic papers and publications for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the discipline of business. It is based in Melbourne and contracts with colleges and educational consultancies to provide papers to individuals and organizations throughout Australia and overseas.
2. Papers R Us approaches educational institutions and providers to gain contracts to provide academic papers for Papers R Us, and conversely educational providers approach Papers R Us to supply them with a selection of papers to be sold through the book stores that this are also sold directly to the students through mail. Papers R Us guarantees a minimum standard for all publications provided through its brokering.
3. Ordering of publications is handled centrally through the use of an One 3 telephone number that is outsourced to telemarketing company which Papers R Us has an agreement.
4. The records of all publications ordered held centrally and account histories from different provider organizations and authors can be supplied to the clients. There is also a database of all academics that have written papers, listing contact details, papers written and areas of expertise.
5. Most of the provider organizations are connected to the Internet and can receive the data electronically. The database is also used for marketing purposes. There many standard letters that are sent to students/clients and provider organizations using mail merge facilities of the word processing package, with the variable data being extracted from the student/client database. To enable this (as well as other things) everyone at Papers R Us is connected to a LAN and extensive use is made of the e-mail facility.
6. Papers R Us would like to set up a worldwide website to publicize its papers and to facilitate requests/persons.
7. Papers R Us uses a package accounting system running on a PC that keeps track of all customer financial records, and these need to be consistent with the client database. The correspondence about papers provider organizations, bookstores and clients has been outsourced to a direct-mail company.
8. Papers R Us is a new company is still developing its application systems. It has employed one programmer and is currently using several other contractors for this development work-including an application development manager on a short-term contract. It has employed a PC support technician to deal with the day-to-day problems. Papers R Us has its own PC LAN. All of these systems are in-house. The systems administration is outsourced to a facilities management company.
9. Papers R Us is about to expand its range of offerings. It has decided to publish a range of management videos. It is also forming alliances with a wider range of provider organizations, including secondary colleges. It recognizes that its information systems are not well coordinated and that this may inhibit its future plans. It has decided to start by appointing an IT manager to create a coherent focus for IT at Papers R Us. This will enable current applications to work as efficiently as possible and to provide the IT framework in which new business directions will occur.
You are the IT manager. Investigate the future directions of IT.
1. What is the main function and role of Papers R Us?
2. Is it currently being met?
3. What would be the 1st task you would set yourself as the IT manager?
4. Should the software and hardware be standardized? Can it be standardized without bringing in new software?
5. Can the IT area be integrated with the main function of the business?
6. What systems acquisitions options does this company have? (In house development, purchase, outsource)
7. Prepare a plan for the future.
You aim is to provide an overall analysis with a proposed solution rather than a jumble of disjointed answers to the specific questions listed above. Your recommendations need to be backed by appropriate rationales.