Group A:

Amy GandhiRobert SopkoStephen MillerJazimar Bailey

You are a new manager of a company that generates $100 million in sales

Next day COO tells you that the new computer budget is $80,000 and asks if that is enough?

She needs an answer within 2 days

If you say its enough…

And its not enough then the deptmt will lack computers and you’ll have a management problem.

If you say its not enough…you must justify by

1. documenting the equipment your dept needs

2. explain why you need it

3. estimate the cost

Since you are a new manager, your schedule is probably booked solid, so now you have three options:

1. answer the question yourself

2. assign it to other employees

3. ask for help from the IS dept.

Whoever ends up answering the question must have knowledge of …

A. computer hardware capabilites

B. computer software capabilities

C. costs… in order to assess the

quality of the answer

All existing computers will be upgraded to Windows Vista and Office 2007.

New computers can’t have this software; if its included IS dept will destroy it

IS dept has allocated that each computer with:

A. Office 2007 will cost $100

B. And another $75 for each that uses Vista

Class of computer Current hardware specification( main memory, processor, disk)

Hardware required after upgrade (main memory, processor, disk)

A 256MB, 0.5 GHz, 30GB

1GB, 1GHz, 80GB

B 512MB,1 GHz, 80GB 2GB, 2GHZ,150GB

C 1GB, 2GHz, 2x125GB

4GB,2GHz,-dual, 2x250GB

Job Title # of employees

Computer System Required

Computer type

Product manager

8 B Laptop

Telesales 12 A Desktop

Department administrator

2 A Desktop

Marketing communications manager

4 B Laptop

Marketing analyst

4 C (desktop)B (laptop)

Both, a desktop and laptop for each analyst

Marketing programs manager

6 B Desktop

You 1 ??? ???

A computer can be reassigned to others if it meets requirements.

Laptop must have display, mouse, keyboard

IS dept assesses each computer an annual $1200 fee for network, server, & other overhead cost

Telesales dept will grow 10% within the yr 10 existing class B comps= max main

memory of 1GB Other class B comps= 512MB. Max Existing class = max main memory 4GB

No

About $100,000 Computer costs Upgrades Annual fees and Service charges Department growth

The issue with this situation in having only two days to get everything is that everyone wants to have his/or her own way.

Please look at this chart here from this study

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Product manager

Telesales Depart administ marketing comm manager

marketing analyst

marketing programs manager

me

# OF COMPUTERS

Departments

Types of computers by Department

Series1

Series2

Series3

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

$$$$

Productmanager

Telesales Depart administ marketing commmanager

marketinganalyst

marketingprogramsmanager

me

Departments

Types of cmputers by $

A

B

C

As you can see in both of the graphs, more than half of the of the employees want the “B” type of computer than type “A”

Through calculation and research, my team and I have found out that $80,000 is not enough for the company to have in such a short time

The best way to meet the computer needs for the employees is to do this:

1. set up a quick mtg with all of them

2. check all of the prices from the different companies like from Dell,HP etc and check with the balance that you have.

3. The next step would be to revise the strategy by getting all type B computers

4. After some review about this, I say this because

1. time is running short, money is not there for all computers

2. And if we got type B, employees would more enough memory, processoring and space

Even though it may be a difficult decision, that’s what I would have done.

A wise man once told me that it is better to be safe than sorry. It is better to save up than to spend money that you don’t have

That is one of the main keys in being a good manager: making the difficult decisions in the difficult moments

Describe the modification and reallocation of existing computers

There are 3 Database Management Systems on page 136 -Microsoft Access 2007- is used to help you track and report information. You can also collect information through forms in email or import data from external applications and helps organize it. -Microsoft Project 2007-  is a database system that offers a variety of management tools that help manage projects more efficiently. It also is very effective with things like schedules and finances. -SQL Server 2005- is a complex database specializing in XML data, the system is self organizing and self maintaining for digital media pictures, audio, video, and other multimedia data.