Siblings Lana Lincoln and Lance Lincoln grew up in the Santa Fe area and returned there after college and grad school, where each earned a MFA degree. They had always wanted to be a part of the vibrant arts community in New Mexico’s capital city. A couple of years after returning, Lance and Lana hit upon the idea for a business venture: Arts Smarts. The focus of the business is to rent gallery and workspace to young and “young at heart” artists. Arts Smarts also sells a variety of arts supplies and promotional services. After some lean years, the business achieved profitability in 2012. It has enjoyed modest profitability increases each year since 2012.
Arts Smarts does not produce its own supplies, but relies upon a carefully-vetted vendor selection process. The company does keep inventory. It must track this resource, as well as promotional services, and gallery/studio reservations.
Arts Smarts has two physical locations in Santa Fe. Spurred by the success, the Lincolns expanded operations to out-of-state locations in New Orleans and Austin.
Over the years, Arts Smarts has hired 10 ‘specialists’ as employees. Each specialist handles an area such as booking promotional services. The specialists get along, but each generally does her/his own thing (e.g., keeping of records). The Lincolns admit that this situation has been encouraged by the company’s culture of encouraging each person to “find her/his own path.”
The Lincolns, as co-owners of Arts Smarts, have a number of concerns:
Employees email spreadsheets for tracking inventory, bookings, etc. The use of spreadsheets has been complicated by:
a resistance to move to an online, editable product such as Google Sheets,
and
employees using the spreadsheets in “creative” and inconsistent ways, such as adding many explanatory flags written in an obscure shorthand.
Arts Smarts’ website has been sitting with large portions listed as “under construction,” ever since the IT specialist left to pursue her dream of starting a boutique IT consulting firm in Fort Worth. In its best condition, the site never had capabilities for online ordering and did not link with other company processes. As a side channel, the company’s Twitter account has been used as an informal means of taking orders. Followers send messages to place orders; the company (actually Lana, who is an avid social media user) does promotions for new products, services, etc.
The Lincolns are adamant that they want Arts Smarts to maintain a Twitter presence (the company currently has 18,502 followers). However, they also want to shift ordering and reservations to a web site-centric approach. They also want to establish efficient, accurate communications with the New Orleans and Austin locations (currently, 75% of communications are via phone, and the rest using email and Twitter).
The Lincolns want our firm’s advice in sorting through and addressing these issues, without losing the company’s culture.
1. In addition to the information provided in the case, what additional information systems-related “reasonable” assumptions are you making related to Arts Smarts?
Note: “Reasonable” assumptions do not include that the organization has unlimited amounts of resources (e.g., money or personnel). To which specific question or questions (2 through 5 below) does each assumption pertain? Why are you making these assumptions? You must provide a rationale to support each assumption.
2. What are the most critical information systems-related management issues facing Arts Smarts? Why?
3. What are the most critical information systems-related organizational issues facing Arts Smarts? Why?
4. What are the most critical information systems-related technology issues facing Arts Smarts? Why?
5. Based on the issues outlined in items 2, 3, and 4, what are the most critical information systems related issues and what specific recommendations do you have for the Lincolns to address the most critical issues?