Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems

Debacle

Gregory B Tenenbaum

Regis University

College for Professional Studies

MSCC 610 Information Technology Concepts

January 17, 2012

Hal Friskey
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle

Abstract

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) started out as a group of powerful

businesspeople with a goal of representing concerns to the state

government. When this organization began in the early 1900s the main

focus was on gaining access to reasonable transportation services which at

the time was a huge economic and business development problem. Fast

forwarding to the new millennium MSCC has a new business development

problem this time internally in their organization. The following analysis will

focus on the way MSCC has approached IT/IS in the past and also allow for a

direction for them to take not only for IT/IS but also management into the

future.
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information

Systems Debacle

Introduction

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) has been around since the

early 1900s. Through the years as an organization, it has withstood the

times and under seen many different changes. From its initial conception as

a way to lobby legislature for transportation access issues to expanding in

the 1930s into a variety of issues that affect business such as state banking

laws, industrial development, and business taxes just to name a few. One of

the most recent eras for MSCC was the Jack Wallingford era.

During this time for MSCC, it was probably the one thatentailed the

most change and growth. From the year 1988, the company went from a

staff of 14 employees to a staff of 42 employees in 2005. One of the driving

factors that allowed MSCC to grow was the investments they did make in

technology. This analysis is focused on where MSCC has come from, and

where they are going in terms of information systems (IS).

Problem Statement

Over the years MSCC did realize that investing in IS/IT was the way to

go but, failed in their approach of investing. They underwent issues from the

beginning of trying to implement technology in their organization. With these

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issues that they encountered they failed to realize that they had problems

that consistently were left with no resolution and still failed to properly

address and implement change management after the fact. The obvious

early solution would have been to employ someone to specific to head the IS

business function at MSCC.

Since the first IS, implementation back in 2000 where Lassiter

purchased workstations and custom software that had limited functionality

and did not allow for anything other than for each workstation to perform a

specific function should have clearly shown a need for someone more

qualified to make IS/IT decisions. This made it difficult for any one staff

member in sales or marketing to do their job on their own. Either way with

this minimal functionality and short-term approach for investing in

technology the time quickly came where they outgrew the IS. In June of

2003, MSCC made their first leap into actually trying to get some

knowledgeable assistance in IS.

MSCC hired a systems analyst named Simon Kovecki who began to

work on upgrading the workstations and maintaining the software,

whichbegan functioning on the highest level since inception. MSCC began to

show promise and growth again with 2005 approaching. Lassiter recreated a

new IS mess with the purchase of UNITRAK which he rushed in and

purchased for MSCC. This is the first repeat by MSCC and the largest

breakdown I see for the organization.

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MSCCs main issues up until this point had been purchasing

information systems without having specialized IT personnel and with every

instance of mistakes made by MSCC it seems to have been mostly because

the personnel who did pull the trigger and make decisions had no business

doing so in the first place. The main issue I see with the UNITRAK situation is

that now at this point Lassiter did have an IT professional (Kovecki) and still

went ahead and made an unqualified purchase. Lassiter did not have Kovecki

evaluate UNITRAK, and did not look for a proper review of capability of

compatibility. In addition, he failed to get adequate buy in from staff in

general.

As time passed and Kovecki had been asked to implement the UNITRAK

product he ran into significant issues. Kovecki was unable to transfer all of

the data (less than 15%) also the new implementation left data corrupted

and many workstations inoperable. Due to the pressures of management and

the failure of Kovecki to first, begin in a test environment MSCC had to move

forward with the loss. Another issue that should have been addressed would

have been an IT project manager this would have set up a proper testing

plan and schedule for implementation also would have allowed for better

staff buy in without this mechanism for MSCC they held training on the new

IS and then users were not able to begin to use it for over two months.

The problems I have discussed up until this point were minimal

compared to what they began to encounter in 2007. The UNITRAK system

had its limitations but it was operational and supported by UNITRAK until this
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point. UNITRAK encountered financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy,

which led to MSCC losing its support. This put Kovecki into a bad situation,

Lassiter then hired an outside consultant to help with UNITRAK, which only

made Kovecki more concerned with his role at MSCC.

Kovecki left MSCC in September of 2008. In October of 2008, MSCC

hired his replacement Gramen who was a former staff computer trainer.

Without trying to learn the UNITRAK system and having no real experience

with anything other than HP environments, he began making

recommendations after a month to replace the system. This further led to

another poor product purchase on behalf of MSCC. Even though you now had

an IT professional, involved this new situation still goes back to having

qualified personnel and Gramen was not that. He based his decision off his

previous use not what was a best fit for MSCC, at this point Lassiter now had

a better understanding and did not want to rush through the process. Even

with Lassiters concerned mentality this time around for the deal with HP

(Hewlett-Packard), their VAR (value-added reseller), and DMA (Data

Management Associates) only tabled the process shortly with the board until

MSCC ended up in pretty much the same boat. Except this time around there

was negligence in the fact that Lassiter allowed the contract to be signed

without any review from legal. This led to over a quarter million dollars of

money spent on the solution from DMA that does not work and DMA refusing

to give MSCC any more support to try to get it up and running without MSCC
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle

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paying even more. The contract did not have any way for MSCC to get their

money back or to make DMA perform so they are stuck.

Research

The research that would need to be done would be mostly technical

but there is a great amount of IT project management and general

management research that would also need to be completed. The technical

research would be how the new IS would fit in with MSCC. The project

management research would provide for accountability and visibility

throughout this project. The general management research would be

directed to buy in from staff for whatever system is selected because at the

end of the day technology is supposed to make everything easier and more

efficient.

Current Situation

The current situation at MSCC is Wallingford retired, Lassiter has been

selected as President of MSCC, and MSCC has hired Sage Niele. DMA is

claiming that they have already incurred an extra quarter million dollars that

they have not charged MSCC due to the nature of the situation. Niele seems

to actually be the first person with the correct knowledge to be able to

handle the situation but, where MSCC seems to be currently is beyond repair

and they will have to spend more money to get everything they need up and

running.

Goal Statement
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The current goal at MSCC is to get the information system fully

functional and compatible with their business unit functions while incurring

the minimum cost necessary. In addition, we also need to come up with a

plan to get everything operational within the next 100 days.

Recommendations

My personal recommendations would be to begin with a proper

analysis of all of the various business units needs at MSCC. After a complete

analysis, I would then begin shopping the various products and solutions.

Even though I am saying, I would begin to shop for new solutions I was not

disregard DMA. I would try to negotiate a new contract that would hold them

to terms if they for some reason were unable to perform I would make sure

that the contract would allow for a refund and an allotment for damages

incurred. After shopping the various alternatives to DMA and renegotiating a

new deal with DMA, I would assess which solution would be the most cost

effective, take the most time to implement, and which solution would seem

to require the least buy in by my end users and staff. I would then weigh the

pros and cons accordingly and make a decision with the best blend of the

following three areas that would repair the damage done in the least amount

of time, with the least amount of cost, and greatest benefit to my staff.
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References

DeHayas, Daniel W. (2000), Midsouth Chamber of Commerce: The Role

Of The Business Manager In Information Systems, ManagingInformation

Technology, 7thEdition, (pp.11-16).

DeHayes, Daniel W., Nelson, Stephen R. (2010), Midsouth Chamber of

Commerce (B): Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle,Managing

Information Technology, 7thEdition, (pp. 177-185).