RECENT ASSIGNMENT

INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Botswana Lesotho Swaziland

COURSE NAME: BACHELOR OF ARCHIVES AND RECORDS AND MANAGEMENT
(Year 3, semester 1)
MODULE NAME: SYSTEM ANALYSIS DESIGN AND EVALUATION

MODULE FACILITATOR: MR TLHOBOGANG
QUESTION: USING RELEVANT EXAMPLES DISCUSS THE FOUR PILLARS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. HOW DO THEY HELP IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
STUDENT NAME: GOITSEONE SIANYANA
QUESTION 2
Question Two Mamochachos @ IDM is a small business that caters meals, receptions and banquets for business and social occasions such as manyalo, baby showers and graduation parties. It was inspired by Sethunya’s love of cooking and her talent for preparing fine meals. At first it was a small company with a handful of employees working on small projects. Sethunya met with customers to determine the number of people, the type of meals and other information necessary to cater an event. As their reputation for creating superb food and quality of the service began to blossom, the number of events started to increase. The building of a new convention centre along with a prospering business community in the city, increase the number of catering events. Sethunya was able to manage the business using spread sheets and word processing but found difficulty in keeping up with endless phone calls about what type of meals were available, changes to the number of guest attending the event, and the availability of specialty dietary items, such as vegan, vegetarian, low-fat, low carbohydrate and so on. Sethunya’s decision to hire a number of part-time employees to cook and cater the events meant that the complexity of scheduling personnel was becoming overwhelming to the new human resources manager. Sethunya decided to hire your Consulting Company to help her address the problems her catering company was facing.
After performing interviews and observing a number of key staff, the consultants found the following concerns:
1. The master chef ordered supplies (produce, meat, and so on) from suppliers for each event. The suppliers would provide discounts if greater quantities were ordered ate a single time for all events occurring in a given time.
2. Customers often called to change the number of guest for an event with some changes, made only one or two days before the event was scheduled.
3. It was too consuming for Sethunya and her staff to handle each request for catering with about 60 per cent of the calls in a contract.
4. Conflicts in employee schedule were occurring and some events were understaffed. Complaints about the timeliness of service were becoming more frequent.
5. Sethunya does not have any summary information about the number of events and types of meals. It would be helpful to have trend information that would help guide her customers in their choice of meals.
6. Events are often held at hotels or other meeting halls, which provide table setting for sit-down meals. There are problems with having sufficient wait staff with the number of guests.
Given the above narration, prepare a SYSTEM REQUEST for the management of Mamochachos. The system request should outline the problems, issues identified, the objectives of the system, the business need and the business requirements. Any special constraints identified should be included in your proposal. [20 Marks]
ANSWER
QUESTION 3 [25 Marks]
Read the narration below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Williwonk’s Chocolates of St. Louis makes an assortment of chocolate candy and candy novelties. The company has six in-city stores, five stores in major metropolitan airports, and a small mail order branch. Williwonk’s has a small, computerized information system that tracks inventory in its plant, helps schedule production, and so on, but this system is not tied directly into any of its retail outlets. The mail order system is handled manually.
Recently, several Williwonk’s stores experienced a rash of complaints from mail order customers that the candy was spoiled upon arrival, that it did not come when promised, or that it never arrived; the company also received several letters complaining that candy in various airports tasted stale. Williwonk’s has been selling a new, low-carb, dietetic form of chocolate made with sugar-free, artificial sweetener. Sales have been brisk, but there have been problems shipping the wrong type of chocolate to an address with a diabetic person. There were a number of complaints and Williwonk’s sent a number of free boxes of chocolate to ease the situation.
Management would like to sell products using the Web but only has a few Web pages with information about the company and an order form that could be printed. Web ordering does not exist. One of the senior executives would like to sell customized chocolates with the name of a person on each piece.
Although the production area has assured management that this could be easily done, there is no method to order customized chocolates. Another senior executive has mentioned that Williwonk’s has partnered with several European chocolate manufacturers and will be importing chocolate from a variety of countries. At present, this must be done over the phone, with email, or by mail. The executive wants an internal website that will enable employees to order directly from the partner companies. All this has led a number of managers to request trend analysis. Too much inventory results in stale chocolate, whereas at other times there is a shortage of a certain kind of chocolate.
Seasonal and holiday variation trends would help Williwonk’s maintain an adequate inventory. The inventory control manager has insisted that all changes must be implemented before the next holiday season. “The time for this to be complete is an absolute due date,” remarked Candy, a senior manager. “Make sure that everything works perfectly before the site goes public,” she continues, “I don’t want any customers receiving the wrong orders!” In addition, the order processing manager has mentioned that the system must be secure.
A.You had been working for two weeks with Williwonk’s on some minor modifications for its inventory information system when you overheard two managers discussing these occurrences. List the possible opportunities or problems among them that might lend themselves to systems projects.
b. Where is most of the feedback on problems with Williwonk’s products coming from in Problem 1? How reliable are the sources? Explain in a paragraph.
2. After getting to know them better, you have approached Williwonk’s management people with your ideas on possible systems improvements that could address some of the problems or opportunities given in Problem 1.
a. In two paragraphs, provide your suggestions for systems projects. Make any realistic assumptions necessary.
b. Are there any problems or opportunities discussed in Problem 1 that are not suitable? Explain your response.
QUESTION 4
Reflective Summary
You should use this section to reflect on what you learned from completing the assignment. a) Explain any problems you had and how you went about solving them. b) Explain anything you would do differently if you were to start it again. [10 MARKS]