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IntroductionThe following is an interview with Mick Kazinski, a senior marketing executive

Introduction

The following is an interview with Mick Kazinski, a senior marketing executive with Bridge Co, a Deeland-based construction company. It concerns their purchase of Custcare, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software package written by the Custcare Corporation, a software company based in Solland, a country some 4,000 km away from Deeland. The interview was originally published in the Management Experiences magazine.

Interviewer: Thanks for talking to us today Mick. Can you tell us how Bridge Co came to choose the Custcare software package?

Mick: Well, we didn’t choose it really. Teri Porter had just joined the company as sales and marketing director. She had recently implemented the Custcare package at her previous company and she was very enthusiastic about it. When she found out that we did not have a CRM package at Bridge Co, she suggested that we should also buy the Custcare package as she felt that our requirements were very similar to those of her previous company. We told her that any purchase would have to go through our capex (capital expenditure) system as the package cost over $20,000. Here at Bridge Co, all capex applications have to be accompanied by a formal business case and an Invitation to Tender (ITT) has to be sent out to at least three potential suppliers. However, Teri is a very clever lady. She managed to do a deal with Custcare and they agreed to supply the package at a cost of $19,995, just under the capex threshold. Teri had to cut a few things out. For example, we declined the training courses (Teri said the package was an easy one to use and she would show us how to use it) and also we opted for the lowest level of support, something we later came to regret. Overall, we were happy. We knew that Custcare was a popular and successful CRM package.

Interviewer: So, did you have a demonstration of the software before you bought it?

Mick: Oh yes, and everyone was very impressed. It seemed to do all the things we would ever want it to do and, in fact, it gave us some ideas about possibilities that we would never have thought of. Also, by then, it was clear that our internal IT department could not provide us with a bespoke solution. Teri had spoken to them informally and she was told that they could not even look at our requirements for 18 months. In contrast, we could be up and running with the Custcare package within three months. Also, IT quoted an internal transfer cost of $18,000 for just defining our requirements. This was almost as much as we were paying for the whole software solution!

Interviewer: When did things begin to go wrong?

Mick: Well, the implementation was not straightforward. We needed to migrate some data from our current established systems and we had no-one who could do it. We tried to recruit some local technical experts, but Custcare pointed out that we had signed their standard contract which only permitted Custcare consultants to work on such tasks. We had not realised this, as nobody had read the contract carefully. In the end, we had to give in and it cost us $10,000 in fees to migrate the data from some of our internal systems to the new package. Teri managed to get the money out of the operational budget, but we weren’t happy.

We then tried to share data between the Custcare software and our existing order processing system. We thought this would be easy, but apparently the file formats are incompatible. Thus we have to enter customer information into two systems and we are unable to exploit the customer order analysis facility of the Custcare CRM.

Finally, although we were happy with the functionality and reliability of the Custcare software, it works very slowly. This is really very disappointing. Some reports and queries have to be aborted because the software appears to have hung. The software worked very quickly in the demonstration, but it is painfully slow now that it is installed on our IT platform.

Interviewer: What is the current situation?

Mick: Well, we are all a bit deflated and disappointed in the package. The software seems reasonable enough, but its poor performance and our inability to interface it to the order processing system have reduced users’ confidence in the system. Because users have not been adequately trained, we have had to phone Custcare’s support desk more than we should. However, as I said before, we took the cheapest option. This is for a help line to be available from 8.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs Solland time. As you know, Solland is in a completely different time zone and so we have had to stay behind at work and contact them in the late evening. Again, nobody had closely read the terms of the contract. We have taken legal advice, but we have also found that, for dispute resolution, the contract uses the commercial contract laws of Solland. Nobody in Bridge Co knows what these are! Our solicitor said that we should have asked for this specification to be changed when the contract was drawn up. I just wish we had chosen a product produced by a company here in Deeland. It would have made it much easier to resolve issues and disputes.

Interviewer: What does Teri think?

Mick: Not a lot! She has left us to rejoin her old company in a more senior position. The board did ask her to justify her purchase of the Custcare CRM package, but I don’t think she ever did. I am not sure that she could!

Required:

(a) Suggest a process for evaluating, selecting and implementing a software package solution and explain how this process would have prevented the problems experienced at Bridge Co in the Custcare CRM application. (15 marks)

(b) The CEO of Bridge Co now questions whether buying a software package was the wrong approach to meeting the CRM requirements at Bridge Co. He wonders whether they should have commissioned a bespoke software system instead.

Explain, with reference to the CRM project at Bridge Co, the advantages of adopting a software package approach to fulfilling business system requirements compared with a bespoke software solution. (10 marks)

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更多“IntroductionThe following is an interview with Mick Kazinski, a senior marketing executive”相关的问题

第1题

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attemptedFor 11 years, Marco was a senior salesman at

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted

For 11 years, Marco was a senior salesman at AQT, a company specialising in IT certification courses. During that time, AQT became the most successful and dominant training provider in the market.

Marco has now left AQT and established his own training company, iTTrain, aimed at the same IT certification market as his former employers. He wishes to offer premium quality courses in a high quality environment with high quality teaching. He has selected a number of self-employed lecturers and he has agreed a daily lecturing fee of $450 per day with them. He has also selected the prestigious CityCentre training centre as his course venue. It has a number of training rooms which hold up to nine delegates. Each training room costs $250 per day to hire. There is also a $10 per day per delegate charge for lunch and other refreshments. Although not a lecturer, Marco is an IT expert and he has already produced the relevant documentation for the courses iTTrain will run. He sees this as a sunk cost and is not concerned about recovering it. However, printing costs mean that there is also a $20 cost for the course manual which is given to every course delegate.

Marco has scheduled 40 courses next year, as he is limited by the availability of lecturers. Each course will have a maximum of nine delegates (determined by the room size) and a minimum of three delegates. Each course is three days long.

iTTrain has been set up with $70,000 of Marco’s own money. He currently estimates that fixed annual costs will be $65,000 (which includes his own salary) and he would like the company to return a modest profit in its first year of operation as it establishes itself in the market.

Marco is currently considering the price he wishes to charge for his courses. AQT charges $900 per delegate for a three-day course, but he knows that it discounts this by up to 10% and a similar discount is also offered to training brokers or intermediaries who advertise AQT courses on their own websites. Some of these intermediaries have already been in touch with Marco to ask if he would be prepared to offer them similar discounts in return for iTTrain courses being advertised on their websites. There are also a number of cheaper training providers who offer the same courses for as little as $550 per delegate. However, these tend to focus on self-financing candidates for whom price is an issue. These courses are often given in poor quality training premises by poorly motivated lecturers. Marco is not really interested in this market. He wants to target the corporate business market, where quality is as important as price and the course fee is paid by the delegate’s employer. He is currently considering a price of $750 per delegate.

During his employment at AQT, Marco collected statistics about courses and delegates. Figure 1 shows the data he collected showing the attendance pattern over 1,000 courses.

Figure 1: Analysis of attendance at 1,000 AQT courses

Required:

(a) Suggest a pricing strategy for iTTrain, including an evaluation of the initial price of $750 per delegate suggested by Marco. Your strategy should include both financial and non-financial considerations. (16 marks)

(b) Physical evidence, people and process are three important elements of the marketing mix for services.

Analyse the contribution each of these three elements could make to the success of iTTrain’s entry into the IT certification market. (9 marks)

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第2题

World Engines (WE) is one of the largest producers of aircraft and ship engines in the wor

ld. It has assets in excess of $600bn. It is currently considering improvements to its marine engine production facilities. These improvements include the introduction of specialist hardware and software engine testing technology. Two companies have been shortlisted for supplying this technology.

Amethyst is a well-established company whose product provides sophisticated testing facilities and costs $7m. The software that supports the product is written in a conventional programming language. The solution is widely used, but it is relatively inflexible and it has an out-of-date user interface. Amethyst has been trading profitably for 20 years and currently has an annual turnover of $960m.

Topaz is a relatively new company (formed three years ago) whose product is more expensive ($8m) but it offers significant advantages in high volume performance and stress testing. It has a modular software design that allows it to be easily maintained and upgraded. It is written in a relatively new powerful programming language and it also has an attractive and contemporary user interface. Topaz currently has a turnover of $24m per year. Some WE executives are concerned about purchasing from such a young, relatively small company, although externally commissioned credit reports show that Topaz is a profitable, liquid and lightly geared company.

On a recent evaluation visit to Amethyst, WE’s complete evaluation team of five people, including the financial specialist, were killed when their aircraft crashed on its approach to landing. It was a small, 12 seat commuter aircraft that was flying the WE team on a short 100 km flight from the international airport to a small rural airport close to Amethyst’s base. It later emerged that small commuter airlines and aircraft were subject to less stringent safety procedures than larger aircraft used by established airlines.

Later that year, one of the divisional directors of WE was given responsibility for picking up and running the testing technology evaluation project. He has found the following table (Figure 1) produced by the financial specialist in the evaluation team who was killed in the air crash. The divisional director recalls that these returns were based on ‘tangible benefits resulting from the two options. The returns reflect the characteristics of the two products. Topaz produces better returns if demand for testing is high, but is less effective in low demand circumstances. This is a reflection of the fact that the two solutions differ slightly in terms of their functional scope and power’.

The divisional director also recalls a workshop convened to consider future market demand.

‘Demand in the marine industry is currently affected by global economic uncertainty and it is increasingly difficult to predict demand. I remember that we were also asked to estimate demand for our marine products for the next six years. We eventually came up with the following figures, although it was relatively hard to get everyone to agree and debate at the workshop became a little heated’.

– High demand for six years: probability p = 0·4

– Low demand for six years: probability p = 0·4

– High demand for three years, followed by low demand for three years: probability p = 0·2

These figures are confirmed by a document also recovered from the air crash site. ‘As I recall’, said the divisional director, ‘the financial specialist intended to develop a decision tree to help us evaluate the Amethyst and Topaz alternatives. However, there is no evidence that he ever constructed it, which is a pity because we could have taken the procurement decision on the basis of that decision tree’.

Required:

(a) Develop a decision tree from the information given in the scenario and discuss its implications and shortcomings. Ignore the time value of money in your analysis. (9 marks)

(b) The divisional director suggests that the procurement decision could have been taken on the evidence of the decision tree. Discuss what other factors (not considered by the decision tree analysis) should also be taken into consideration when deciding which option to select. (6 marks)

(c) WE executives are concerned about the risk of Topaz, as a relatively new company, going out of business. They have also expressed concern about the loss of the evaluation team in a fatal accident and they believe that this should lead to a review of the risks associated with employee travel.

Discuss how EACH of the above risks (supplier business failure and employee travel) might be avoided or mitigated. (10 marks)

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第3题

Emile Gonzalez is an industrial chemist who worked for the government of Pablos for more t

han 20 years. In his spare time, he continually experimented with formulating a product that could remove graffiti from all surfaces. Graffiti is a particular problem in Pablos and all previous removal methods were expensive, dangerous to apply and did not work on all surfaces. After many years of experimentation, Emile formulated a product that addressed all these issues. His product can be applied safely without protective clothing, it removes graffiti from all surfaces and it can be produced economically in small, as well as large, volumes.

Three years ago, Emile left his government job to focus on refining the product and bringing it to market. He formed a limited liability company, Graffoff, with initial share capital funded by his savings, his family’s savings and a legacy from a wealthy relative. He is the sole shareholder in the company, which is based in a factory in central Pablos. The company has filed two years of results (see Figure 1 for extracted information from year (2), and it is expected to return similar net profit figures in its third trading year. Emile takes a significant dividend out of the company each year and he wishes that to continue. He also wishes to remain the sole owner of the company.

Four years ago, Emile was granted a patent for the formula on which his product is based and a further patent on the process used to produce the product. In Pablos, patents are protected for ten years and so Emile has six further years before his formula becomes available to his competitors. Consequently, he wants to rapidly expand the company and plans to lease premises to create 30 new graffiti removal depots in Pablos, each of which will supply graffiti removing services in its local region. He needs $500,000 to finance this organic growth of his company.

Emile does have mixed feelings about his proposed expansion plan. Despite the apparent success of his company, he prefers working in the laboratory to managing people. ‘I am just not a people person’, he has commented. He is aware that he lacks business experience and, despite the technical excellence of the product, he has failed to build a highly visible brand. He also has particular problems in the accounts receivables department, where he has failed to address the problems of over-worked and demotivated employees. Emile dislikes conflict with customers and so he often offers them extended payment terms to the dismay of the accounts receivables section, who feel that their debt collecting effectiveness is being constantly undermined by his concessions. In contrast, Graffoff pays bills very promptly, due to a zealous administrator in accounts payable who likes to reduce creditors. Emile is sanguine about this. ‘I guess we have the money, so I suppose we should pay them.’

In Pablos, all goods are supplied to customers on 30 days credit. However, in the services sector that Graffoff is trading in, the average settlement period for payables (creditors) is 40 days. One supplier commented that ‘Graffoff is unique in its punctuality of payment.’

Emile is currently reviewing how to finance his proposed organic growth. He is unwilling to take on any further external debt and consequently he has also recently considered franchising as an alternative to organic growth. In his proposed arrangement, franchisees would have responsibility for leasing or buying premises to a specification defined in the franchise agreement. The franchise would have exclusive rights to the Graffoff product in a defined geographical region.

The Equipment Emporium has 57 superstores throughout the country selling tools and machines such as air compressors, generators and ventilation systems. It is a well-recognised brand with a strong marketing presence. It focuses on selling specialist products in bright, well-lit superstores. It has approached Graffoff to ask whether it can sell the Graffoff product through its superstores. Emile has rejected this suggestion because he feels that his product requires proper training if it is to be used efficiently and safely. He sees Graffoff as offering a complete service (graffiti removal), not just a product (graffiti removal equipment) and so selling through The Equipment Emporium would be inappropriate.

Figure 1: Extracted financial data for Graffoff’s second year of trading, reported at 31 December 2011

Required:

(a) Evaluate the franchising option being considered by Graffoff, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of this approach from Emile’s perspective. (10 marks)

(b) Johnson, Scholes and Whittington have identified franchising as a form. of strategic alliance. Evaluate how other forms of strategic alliance might be appropriate approaches to strategy development at Graffoff. (7 marks)

(c) A consultant has suggested that Graffoff should be able to completely fund its proposed organic expansion (at a cost of $500,000) through internally generated sources of finance.

Evaluate this claim. (8 marks)

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第4题

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attemptedMoor Farm is a large estate in the rural dis

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted

Moor Farm is a large estate in the rural district of Cornaille. The estate covers a large area of forest, upland and farmland. It also includes two villages, and although many of the properties in these villages have been sold off to private homeowners, the estate still owns properties which it rents out. The estate also has a large mansion house set inside a landscape garden designed in the 19th century by James Kent. The garden, although now overgrown and neglected, is the only surviving example of his work in the district. The estate was left as a gift to a charitable trust ten years ago. The trust is based at the estate. A condition of the gift to the trust was that the upland and forest should be freely accessible to visitors.

The estate has a manager, four full-time staff and 45 volunteers. These volunteers undertake most of the work on the estate, including the continuing excavation of Kent’s original garden design. They are happy, well-motivated and fully support the current manager who is due to retire in the very near future. Three of the volunteers have become acknowledged experts on land management, through their work on the estate. Government grants for initiatives such as tree planting, protected pasture land and rural employment have been received by the estate in the past. However, a recent change in government means that this funding is unlikely to continue. This will also affect funding for the maintenance of the mansion. It was built almost 80 years ago when the climate of the area was much colder and drier. Recent warm wet winters have caused the fabric of the building to decay and increased the cost of maintaining it.

The estate has appointed a new manager who is due to take over the estate when the current manager retires. She is working alongside the current manager so that she understands her responsibilities and how the estate works. As a one-off project, she has commissioned a stakeholder survey which has requested information on the visitor experience to help with a planned re-design of the estate’s website. The website is generally thought to be well structured and presented, but it receives fewer visitors than might reasonably be expected. It provides mainly static information about the estate and forthcoming events but currently users cannot interact with the site in anyway.

Here are some extracts from the survey:

‘I live in one of the villages and I am angry about visitors crowding around the village attractions – the tearooms, the craft shops, the souvenir stalls. We feel that we are prisoners in our own village and the traffic is terrible.’ Homeowner, from a village on the estate

‘We had a good day, but the weather was awful. If we had known it was going to rain all day, then we probably would have postponed the visit until a fine day. It spoilt a family day out.’ Visitor with small family

‘We were very disappointed, on arrival, to find that the family fun day was fully booked.’ Visitor who had travelled 100 kms with two small children to visit a special event

We all love it here, but we didn’t know you had a website!! We almost had to type in the complete website address before we found it! I am sure more people would come if they could only find the website!’ Visitor aged mid-20s

‘As usual, we had a great time here and took great photos. It would have been nice to be able to share our pleasure with other people. We would recommend it to anyone who loves the outdoors.’ Visitor – family with teenage children

‘We met the volunteers who were excavating the buildings in the landscape garden. They were so helpful and knowledgeable. They turned something that looked like a series of small walls into something so much more tangible.’ Visitor – elderly couple

‘I was disappointed that I was not allowed into the farmland with my dog. As a human being, I have the right to roam. It is a basic human right.’ Visitor – elderly female dog-walker

‘We are regular visitors and we really want to know what is going on! There are many of us who would like to really be involved with the estate and help it thrive. We need more than just occasional questionnaires.’ Visitor – hiking group

‘We came out for a nice walk and ended up dodging cyclists. Next time we will go somewhere where they are not welcome.’ Visitor – hiking group

‘As a farmer, I am appalled with the reckless attitude of some dog walkers. Last week, I lost two sheep, ravaged by dogs that should not have been off their leads.’ Farmer – estate tenant

‘I’m a volunteer and I love it here. We are a happy, social group of people. I hope the new manager is not going to change things.’ Volunteer

Required:

(a) Evaluate the strategic position of the estate with specific reference to the expectations of stakeholders, to the external environmental factors beyond the control of the estate and to the strategic capabilities of the estate itself. (15 marks)

(b) Discuss how the website could be further developed to address some of the issues highlighted in the survey. (10 marks)

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第5题

Jayne Cox Direct is a company that specialises in the production of bespoke sofas and chai

rs. Its products are advertised in most quality lifestyle. magazines. The company was started ten years ago. It grew out of a desire to provide customers with the chance to specify their own bespoke furniture at a cost that compared favourably with standard products available from high street retailers. It sells furniture directly to the end customer. Its website allows customers to select the style. of furniture, the wood it is to be made from, the type of upholstery used in cushion and seat fillings and the textile composition and pattern of the covering. The current website has over 60 textile patterns which can be selected by the customer. Once the customer has finished specifying the kind of furniture they want, a price is given. If this price is acceptable to the customer, then an order is placed and an estimated delivery date is given. Most delivery dates are ten weeks after the order has been placed. This relatively long delivery time is unacceptable to some customers and so they cancel the order immediately, citing the quoted long delivery time as their reason for cancellation.

Jayne Cox Direct orders wood, upholstery and textiles from long-established suppliers. About 95% of its wood is currently supplied by three timber suppliers, all of whom supplied the company in its first year of operation. Purchase orders with suppliers are placed by the procurement section. Until last year, they faxed purchase orders through to suppliers. They now email these orders. Recently, an expected order was not delivered because the supplier claimed that no email was received. This caused production delays. Although suppliers like working with Jayne Cox Direct, they are often critical of payment processing. On a number of occasions the accounts section at Jayne Cox Direct has been unable to match supplier invoices with purchase orders, leading to long delays in the payment of suppliers.

The sofas and chairs are built in Jayne Cox Direct’s factory. Relatively high inventory levels and a relaxed production process means that production is rarely disrupted. Despite this, the company is unable to meet 45% of the estimated delivery dates given when the order was placed, due to the required goods not being finished in time. Consequently, a member of the sales team has to telephone the customer and discuss an alternative delivery date.

Telephoning the customer to change the delivery date presents a number of problems. Firstly, contacting the customer by telephone can be difficult and costly. Secondly, many customers are disappointed that the original, promised delivery date can no longer be met. Finally, customers often have to agree a delivery date much later than the new delivery date suggested by Jayne Cox Direct. This is because customers often get less than one week’s notice of the new date and so they have to defer delivery to much later. This means that the goods have to remain in the warehouse for longer.

A separate delivery problem arises because of the bulky and high value nature of the product. Jayne Cox Direct requires someone to be available at the delivery address to sign for its safe receipt and to put the goods somewhere secure and dry. About 30% of intended deliveries do not take place because there is no-one at the address to accept delivery. Consequently, furniture has to be returned and stored at the factory. A member of the sales staff will subsequently telephone the customer and negotiate a new delivery date but, again, contacting the customer by telephone can be difficult and costly.

Delivery of furniture is made using the company’s own vans. Each of these vans follow a defined route each day of the week, irrespective of demand.

The company’s original growth was primarily due to the innovative business idea behind specifying competitively priced bespoke furniture. However, established rivals are now offering a similar service. In the face of this competition the managing director of Jayne Cox Direct has urged a thorough review of the supply chain. She feels that costs and inventory levels are too high and that the time taken from order to delivery is too long. Furthermore, in a recent customer satisfaction survey there was major criticism about the lack of information about the progress of the order after it was placed. One commented that ‘as soon as Jayne Cox Direct got my order and my money they seemed to forget about me. For ten weeks I heard nothing. Then, just three days before my estimated delivery date, I received a phone call telling me that the order had been delayed and that the estimated delivery date was now 17 June. I had already taken a day off work for 10 June, my original delivery date. I could not re-arrange this day off and so I had to agree a delivery date of 24 June when my mother would be here to receive it’.

People were also critical about after-sales service. One commented ‘I accidently stained my sofa. Nobody at Jayne Cox Direct could tell me how to clean it or how to order replacement fabrics for my sofa’. Another said ‘organising the return of a faulty chair was very difficult’.

When the managing director of Jayne Cox Direct saw the results of the survey she understood ‘why our customer retention rate is so low’.

Required:

(a) Analyse the existing value chain, using it to highlight areas of weakness at Jayne Cox Direct. (12 marks)

(b) Evaluate how technology could be used in both the upstream and the downstream supply chain to address the problems identified at Jayne Cox Direct. (13 marks)

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第6题

IntroductionThe country of Mahem is in a long and deep economic recession with unemploymen

Introduction

The country of Mahem is in a long and deep economic recession with unemployment at its highest since the country became an independent nation. In an attempt to stimulate the economy the government has launched a Private/Public investment policy where the government invests in capital projects with the aim of stimulating the involvement of private sector firms. The building of a new community centre in the industrial city of Tillo is an example of such an initiative. Community centres are central to the culture of Mahem. They are designed as places where people can meet socially, local organisations can hold conferences and meetings and farmers can sell their produce to the local community. The centres are seen as contributing to a vibrant community life. The community centre in Tillo is in a sprawling old building rented (at $12,000 per month) from a local landowner. The current community centre is also relatively energy inefficient.

In 2010 a business case was put forward to build a new centre on local authority owned land on the outskirts of Tillo. The costs and benefits of the business case are shown in Figure 1. As required by the Private/Public investment policy the project showed payback during year four of the investment.

Figure 1: Costs and benefits of the business case for the community centre at Tillo

New buildings built under the Private/Public investment policy must attain energy level targets and this is the basis for the estimation, above, of the energy savings. It is expected that the new centre will attract more customers who will pay for the centre’s use as well as increasing the use of facilities such as the cafeteria, shop and business centre. These benefits are estimated, above, under increased income. Finally, it is felt that staff will be happier in the new building and their motivation and morale will increase. The centre currently employs 20 staff, 16 of whom have been with the centre for more than five years. All employees were transferred from the old to the new centre. These benefits are shown as better staff morale in Figure 1.

Construction of the centre 2010–2011

In October 2010 the centre was commissioned with a planned delivery date of June 2011 at a cost of $600,000 (as per Figure 1). Building the centre went relatively smoothly. Progress was monitored and issues resolved in monthly meetings between the company constructing the centre and representatives of the local authority. These meetings focused on the building of the centre, monitoring progress and resolving issues. Most of these issues were relatively minor because requirements were well specified in standard architectural drawings originally agreed between the project sponsor and the company constructing the centre. Unfortunately, the original project sponsor (an employee of the local authority) who had been heavily involved in the initial design, suffered ill health and died in April 2011. The new project sponsor (again an employee of the local authority) was less enthusiastic about the project and began to raise a number of objections. Her first concern was that the construction company had used sub-contracted labour and had sourced less than 80% of timber used in the building from sustainable resources. She pointed out the contractual terms of supply for the Private/Public policy investment initiatives mandated that sub-contracting was not allowed without the local authority’s permission and that at least 80% of the timber used must come from sustainable forests. The company said that this had not been brought to their attention at the start of the project. However, they would try to comply with these requirements for the rest of the contract. The new sponsor also refused to sign off acceptance of the centre because of the poor quality of the internal paintwork. The construction company explained that this was the intended finish quality of the centre and had been agreed with the previous sponsor. They produced a letter to verify this. However, the letter was not counter-signed by the sponsor and so its validity was questioned. In the end, the construction company agreed to improve the internal painting at their own cost. The new sponsor felt that she had delivered ‘value for money’ by challenging the construction company. Despite this problem with the internal painting, the centre was finished in May 2011 at a cost of $600,000. The centre also included disability access built at the initiative of the construction company. It had found it difficult to find local authority staff willing and able to discuss disability access and so it was therefore left alone to interpret relevant legal requirements. Fortunately, their interpretation was correct and the new centre was deemed, by an independent assessor, to meet accessibility requirements.

Unfortunately, the new centre was not as successful as had been predicted, with income in the first year well below expectations. The project sponsor began to be increasingly critical of the builders of the centre and questioned the whole value of the project. She was openly sceptical of the project to her fellow local authority employees. She suggested that the project to build a cost-effective centre had failed and called for an inquiry into the performance of the project manager of the construction company who was responsible for building the centre. ‘We need him to explain to us why the centre is not delivering the benefits we expected’, she explained.

Required:

(a) The local authority has commissioned the independent Project Audit Agency (PAA) to look into how the project had been commissioned and managed. The PAA believes that a formal ‘terms of reference’ or ‘project initiation document’ would have resolved or clarified some of the problems and issues encountered in the project. It also feels that there are important lessons to be learnt by both the local authority and the construction company.

Analyse how a formal ‘terms of reference’ (project initiation document) would have helped address problems encountered in the project to construct the community centre and lead to improved project management in future projects. (13 marks)

(b) The PAA also believes that the four sets of benefits identified in the original business case (rental savings, energy savings, increased income and better staff morale) should have been justified more explicitly.

Draft an analysis for the PAA that formally categorises and critically evaluates each of the four sets of proposed benefits defined in the original business case. (12 marks)

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第7题

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attemptedIntroductionFlexipipe is a successful compan

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted

Introduction

Flexipipe is a successful company supplying flexible pipes to a wide range of industries. Its success is based on a very innovative production process which allows the company to produce relatively small batches of flexible pipes at very competitive prices. This has given Flexipipe a significant competitive edge over most of its competitors whose batch set-up costs are higher and whose lead times are longer. Flexipipe’s innovative process is partly automated and partly reliant on experienced managers and supervisors on the factory floor. These managers efficiently schedule jobs from different customers to achieve economies of scale and throughput times that profitably deliver high quality products and service to Flexipipe’s customers.

A year ago, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Flexipipe decided that he wanted to extend the automated part of the production process by purchasing a software package that promised even further benefits, including the automation of some of the decision-making tasks currently undertaken by the factory managers and supervisors. He had seen this package at a software exhibition and was so impressed that he placed an order immediately. He stated that the package was ‘ahead of its time, and I have seen nothing else like it on the market’.

This was the first time that the company had bought a software package for something that was not to be used in a standard application, such as payroll or accounts. Most other software applications in the company, such as the automated part of the current production process, have been developed in-house by a small programming team. The CEO felt that there was, on this occasion, insufficient time and money to develop a bespoke in-house solution. He accepted that there was no formal process for software package procurement ‘but perhaps we can put one in place as this project progresses’.

This relaxed approach to procurement is not unusual at Flexipipe, where many of the purchasing decisions are taken unilaterally by senior managers. There is a small procurement section with two full-time administrators, but they only become involved once purchasing decisions have been made. It is felt that they are not technically proficient enough to get involved earlier in the purchasing lifecycle and, in any case, they are already very busy with purchase order administration and accounts payable. This approach to procurement has caused problems in the past. For example, the company had problems when a key supplier of raw materials unexpectedly went out of business. This caused short-term production problems, although the CEO has now found an acceptable alternative supplier.

The automation project

On returning to the company from the exhibition, the CEO commissioned a business analyst to investigate the current production process system so that the transition from the current system to the new software package solution could be properly planned. The business analyst found that some of the decisions made in the current production process were difficult to define and it was often hard for managers to explain how they had taken effective action. They tended to use their experience, memory and judgement and were still innovating in their control of the process. One commented that ‘what we do today, we might not do tomorrow; requirements are constantly evolving’.

When the software package was delivered there were immediate difficulties in technically migrating some of the data from the current automated part of the production process software to the software package solution. However, after some difficulties, it was possible to hold trials with experienced users. The CEO was confident that these users did not need training and would be ‘able to learn the software as they went along’. However, in reality, they found the software very difficult to use and they reported that certain key functions were missing. One of the supervisors commented that ‘the monitoring process variance facility is missing completely. Yet we had this in the old automated system’. Despite these reservations, the software package solution was implemented, but results were disappointing. Overall, it was impossible to replicate the success of the old production process and early results showed that costs had increased and lead times had become longer.

After struggling with the system for a few months, support from the software supplier began to become erratic. Eventually, the supplier notified Flexipipe that it had gone into administration and that it was withdrawing support for its product. Fortunately, Flexipipe were able to revert to the original production process software, but the ill-fated package selection exercise had cost it over $3m in costs and lost profits. The CEO commissioned a post-project review which showed that the supplier, prior to the purchase of the software package, had been very highly geared and had very poor liquidity. Also, contrary to the statement of the CEO, the post-project review team reported that there were at least three other packages currently available in the market that could have potentially fulfilled the requirements of the company. The CEO now accepts that using a software package to automate the production process was an inappropriate approach and that a bespoke in-house solution should have been commissioned.

Required:

(a) Critically evaluate the decision made by the CEO to use a software package approach to automating the production process at Flexipipe, and explain why this approach was unlikely to succeed. (12 marks)

(b) The CEO recommends that the company now adopts a formal process for procuring, evaluating and implementing software packages which they can use in the future when a software package approach appears to be more appropriate.

Analyse how a formal process for software package procurement, evaluation and implementation would have addressed the problems experienced at Flexipipe in the production process project. (13 marks)

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第8题

The Institute of Solution Developers (ISD) offers three basic certificates in Information

Technology; Software Engineering; and Solutions Architecture. ATL is one of many training companies certified by the ISD to offer training courses to prepare candidates for these three certificates. ATL has, traditionally, taught these courses over five days culminating in a multiple choice examination. It has differentiated itself in the marketplace by offering high quality training in well-equipped training centres. Its prices are slightly higher than its competitors, but it is well regarded by both candidates and employers. ATL also provides training courses through sales intermediaries known as training brokers. These brokers negotiate a reduced fee with ATL and then add a profit margin to determine the price that they charge the end customer. All ATL courses are run in Eothen, an established industrial nation with a high standard of living.

In the last six months, ATL has developed an e-learning course for the certificate in Information Technology. There are three main reasons for this development. The first reason is to allow candidates to prepare for the examination in a flexible way, studying ‘at their own pace in their own place’. Currently, courses are only run in Eothen and each certified course takes five days. In contrast the e-learning product will be delivered over the Internet. The second reason is to provide a cheaper route to the qualification. Course places currently cost $950 per person. Finally, ATL wishes to exploit a global market. It believes that there is a ‘very large market’ for e-learning for this qualification, particularly in countries where disposable income is less than in Eothen. It feels that overseas customers will be sensitive to price, but they have no estimate of this sensitivity.

Eothen, itself, is in a period of economic decline and the top 500 companies, which are specifically targeted by ATL, are reducing their training budgets. Figure 1 shows the results of research from MidShire University into the relationship between average training spend per employee and companies’ gross profit. Data given below is from 10 of the top 500 companies targeted by ATL. Statistics produced by the Eothen government suggest that the average gross profit of the top 500 companies in Eothen will fall to $50m next year. In this analysis, the independent variable (gross profit) is x, which is being used to estimate a dependent variable y (average annual training spend per employee).

Figure 1: Training spend analysed against gross profit

The e-learning product has been specified by an experienced lecturer and developed by a business analyst. The latter will also be responsible for supporting students once the product has been released. ATL is the first company to produce an e-learning product for the ISD market. It wishes to quickly build on its success and to offer e-learning for the other two certificates – Software Engineering and Solutions Architecture.

Each certificate examination costs $125 and is available on demand in test centres all over the world. This makes it very accessible to the countries that ATL are targeting. The managing director of ATL has also discovered the following analysis of nationwide e-learning sales published by Training Trends, a respected Eothen-based publication. Here the independent variable is time (x) and e-learning sales is the dependent variable (y).

Figure 2: E-learning sales in Eothen analysed by quarter (source: Training Trends).

The period column has been inserted to facilitate the regression analysis.

Required:

ATL needs to determine the price (or prices) of its e-learning product:

(a) Identify and discuss the factors that need to be taken into consideration when pricing the e-learning product. (15 marks)

(b) Figures 1 and 2 provide important, independent, statistical data:

Evaluate the potential of each set of statistical data for use in the pricing decision for the e-learning product, particularly highlighting any limitations in using such data. (10 marks)

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第9题

HomeDeliver is a nationwide company that sells small household goods to consumers. It prod

uces an attractive, comprehensive catalogue which it distributes to staff known as catalogue supervisors. There are 150 of these supervisors in the country. Each supervisor has approximately 30 part-time home-based agents, who then deliver the catalogue to consumers in their homes. Agents subsequently collect the catalogue and any completed order forms and forward these forms to their supervisor. Payment is also taken when the order is collected. Payment is by cash or cheque and these payments are also forwarded to the supervisor by the agent. At the end of the week the supervisor returns completed order forms (and payments) to HomeDeliver. Order details are then entered into a computer system by order entry administrators at HomeDeliver and this starts an order fulfilment process that ends with goods being delivered directly to the customer. The supervisors and the agents are all self-employed. HomeDeliver rewards supervisors on the basis of how many agents they manage. Agents’ reward packages are based on how many catalogues they deliver and a commission based on orders received from the homes they have collected orders from.

In August 2010 HomeDeliver decided to replace the physical ordering system with a new electronic ordering system. Agents would be provided with software which would allow them to enter customer orders directly into the computer system using their home personal computer at the end of each day. Payments would also be paid directly into a HomeDeliver bank account by agents at the end of each day.

The software to support the new ordering system was developed in-house to requirements provided by the current order entry administrators at HomeDeliver and managers concerned with order fulfilment and invoicing. The software was tested internally by the order entry administrators. At first, both the specification of requirements and initial software testing progressed very slowly because order administrators were continuing with their normal operational duties. However, as project delays became more significant, selected order administrators were seconded to the project full-time. As a result the software was fully acceptance tested by the end of July 2011, two months behind schedule.

In August 2011 the software was rolled out to all supervisors and agents. The software was claimed to be easy to use, so no formal training was given. A large comprehensive manual with colour screenshots was attached as a PDF to an email sent to all supervisors and agents. This gave detailed instructions on how to set up and use the software.

Unfortunately, problems began to appear as soon as the agents tried to load and use the software. It was found to be incompatible with one particular popular browser, and agents whose computers used that browser were advised to use an alternative browser or computer. Agents also criticised the functionality of the software because it did not allow for the amendment of orders once they had been submitted. It emerged that customers often contacted agents and supervisors to amend their order prior to it being sent to HomeDeliver. This was no longer possible with the new system. Many agents also claimed that it was not possible to enter multiple orders for one household. However, HomeDeliver confirmed that entering multiple orders was possible; it was just not clear from the software, or from the instructions provided, how this could be achieved.

Most of the agents were reluctant to print off the manual (preferring to read it on screen) and a significant number claimed that they did not receive the email with the manual attachment. Agents also found quite a number of spelling and functionality errors in the manual. At certain points the software did not perform. in the way the manual stated that it would.

Internal standards at HomeDeliver require both a post-project and a post-implementation review.

Required:

(a) Explain the purpose of each of the following: a post-project review, a post-implementation review and a benefits realisation review. (6 marks)

(b) Evaluate the problems and the lessons that should be learned from a post-project review and a post-implementation review of the electronic ordering system at HomeDeliver. (12 marks)

(c) HomeDeliver does not have a benefits management process and so a benefits realisation review is inappropriate. However, it does feel that it would be useful to retrospectively define the benefits to HomeDeliver of the new electronic ordering system.

Identify and discuss the potential benefits to HomeDeliver of the new electronic ordering system. (7 marks)

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第10题

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attemptediCompute was founded twenty years ago by the

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted

iCompute was founded twenty years ago by the technology entrepreneur, Ron Yeates. It initially specialised in building bespoke computer software for the financial services industry. However, it has expanded into other specialised areas and it is currently the third largest software house in the country, employing 400 people. It still specialises in bespoke software, although 20% of its income now comes from the sales of a software package designed specifically for car insurance.

The company has grown based on a ‘work hard, play hard work ethic’ and this still remains. Employees are expected to work long hours and to take part in social activities after work. Revenues have continued to increase over the last few years, but the firm has had difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. Approximately one-third of all employees leave within their first year of employment at the company. The company appears to experience particular difficulty in recruiting and retaining female staff, with 50% of female staff leaving within 12 months of joining the company. Only about 20% of the employees are female and they work mainly in marketing and human resources.

The company is currently in dispute with two of its customers who claim that its bespoke software did not fit the agreed requirements. iCompute currently outsources all its legal advice problems to a law firm that specialises in computer contracts and legislation. However, the importance of legal advice has led to iCompute considering the establishment of an internal legal team, responsible for advising on contracts, disputes and employment legislation.

The support of bespoke solutions and the car insurance software package was also outsourced a year ago to a third party. Although support had been traditionally handled in-house, it was unpopular with staff. One of the senior managers responsible for the outsourcing decision claimed that support calls were ‘increasingly varied and complex, reflecting incompetent end users, too lazy to read user guides.’ However, the outsourcing of support has not proved popular with iCompute’s customers and a number of significant complaints have been made about the service given to end users. The company is currently reviewing whether the software support process should be brought back in-house.

The company is still regarded as a technology leader in the market place, although the presence of so many technically gifted employees within the company often creates uncertainty about the most appropriate technology to adopt for a solution. One manager commented that ‘we have often adopted, or are about to adopt, a technology or solution when one of our software developers will ask if we have considered some newly released technology. We usually admit we haven’t and so we re-open the adoption process. We seem to be in a state of constant technical paralysis.’

Although Ron Yeates retired five years ago, many of the software developers recruited by him are still with the company. Some of these have become operational managers, employed to manage teams of software developers on internal and external projects. Subba Kendo is one of the managers who originally joined the company as a trainee programmer. ‘I moved into management because I needed to earn more money. There is a limit to what you can earn here as a software developer. However, I still keep up to date with programming though, and I am a goalkeeper for one of the company’s five-a-side football teams. I am still one of the boys.’

However, many of the software developers are sceptical about their managers. One commented that ‘they are technologically years out of date. Some will insist on writing programs and producing code, but we take it out again as soon as we can and replace it with something we have written. Not only are they poor programmers, they are poor managers and don’t really know how to motivate us.’ Although revenues have increased, profits have fallen. This is also blamed on the managers. ‘There is always an element of ambiguity in specifying customers’ requirements. In the past, Ron Yeates would debate responsibility for requirements changes with the customer. However, we now seem to do all amendments for free. The customer is right even when we know he isn’t. No wonder margins are falling. The managers are not firm enough with customers.’

The software developers are also angry that an in-house project has been initiated to produce a system for recording time spent on tasks and projects. Some of the justification for this is that a few of the projects are on a ‘time and materials’ basis and a time recording system would permit accurate and prompt invoicing. However, the other justification for the project is that it will improve the estimation of ‘fixed-price’ contracts. It will provide statistical information derived from previous projects to assist account managers preparing estimates to produce quotes for bidding for new bespoke development contracts.

Vikram Soleski, one of the current software developers, commented that ‘managers do not even have up-to-date mobile phones, probably because they don’t know how to use them. We (software developers) always have the latest gadgets long before they are acquired by managers. But I like working here, we have a good social scene and after working long hours we socialise together, often playing computer games well into the early hours of the morning. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken!’

Required:

(a) Analyse the culture of iCompute, and assess the implications of your analysis for the company’s future performance. (13 marks)

(b) iCompute is currently re-considering three high level processes:

(i) Advice on legal issues (currently outsourced)

(ii) Software support (currently outsourced)

(iii) Time recording (in-house, bespoke software development)

Evaluate, using an appropriate framework or model, the suitability of iCompute’s current approach to EACH of these high level processes. (12 marks)

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