Cougar Collection Agency (B)

Prepared By

Chris Diaz

for Professor C.E. Reese

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

ACC 504- Advanced Accounting Information Studies

College of Business/Graduate Studies

St. Thomas University

Miami Gardens, Fla.

Term SP 1/ Spring 2021

February 3rd, 2021

 Table of Contents

Issues

Facts

Analysis

Conclusion
 Issues

1. How did your systems design from the Cougar Collection Agency (A) case differ

compare to Melvin Cooley’s design characteristics described in this case? Explain any

differences.

2. Why are internal controls missing from Melvin Cooley’s list of design characteristics?

List four (4) controls that should have been included.

3. What mistakes did Melvin Cooley make on this project? How could these mistakes have

been avoided?

4. What should Melvin Cooley do now?

5. From Jim Lake’s perspective, is this a lost project? Can it be salvaged? How?
 Summary of the Facts

Over the period of the next several months, Melvin Cooley made several visits and phone calls to

Cougar Agency. He then presented to Jim Lake and his assistant manager, Andria Seely, a

conceptual design of an automated collection system that had the following characteristics:

1. The new system would be a personal computer (PC) environment utilizing a secondhand

workstation that the manager had purchased at an auction.

2. Initially, the system would use batch processing in the single workstation to generate

daily status reports. Personnel would use the reports for manual file inquiries.

3. When more development funds become available, the system would be upgraded to real

time with multiple workstations and a local area network.

4. The processing for delinquent customer and payment register files would be automated.

Any entry to the payment register file would automatically update the other files.

5. Data entry screens designed according to human factors considerations would allow

relatively untrained operators to update records more quickly than making manual

entries.

6. Customer checks would be generated automatically every two weeks. The amount of

each check would be computed automatically and consolidated from separate entries on

the payment register.

7. The delinquent file would be scanned automatically once a month to produce a report of

cases recommended for legal action

 8. There is one problem that would not be solved. Without multiple workstations and a

LAN, the proposed new system could not promise better posing of credit collection

contacts. However, daily reports annotated by individual collectors can facilitate manual

entry of actions. Clerical personnel then could enter these entries the next day. This

would help, but not fully solve, the problem.

John Lake was enthusiastic about the proposed system and signed a letter of agreement with

Melvin Cooley relating to consulting fees, payment schedules, scope of the project, delivery

schedule and Melvin’s post-changeover responsibilities. Melvin then began the detailed design

and programming of the new system. However, problems began to surface and boil. Melvin felt

that most of these problems might have existed in a large system environment, but they seemed

complicated by the small business setting of Cougar Collection Agency. Some of these problems

became quite serious.

1. Workstation competition: Clerical personnel had started to use the PC for word

processing tasks (e.g., letters and contracts). There was not always sufficient time during

the day for Melvin to enter his test programs. The workstation available to the consultant

was compatible with others. Melvin began using the workstation at night and on

weekends to perform his database design and programming.

2. Change of Scope: Almost daily, the manager and assistant manager requested changes to

the proposed system to address points they had forgotten. These changes to the proposed

system slowed down development. Very late in the project, Melvin Cooley was asked to

suggest how a Web-based application might work. Melvin never responded to this

particular request.
3. Lack of File Integrity: The manager hired a part-time programmer to develop a small

Access customer and delinquent file to generate mailing labels. Melvin would return to

find part of his programs and test files missing or modified, presumably by the part-time

programmer. He decided to take a complete dump of his work whenever he left the

agency. He then had to reload his system whenever he returned.

4. Disruptive Setting: Credit collection is an emotional business. Credit collectors threaten

and shout at debtors; debtors shout back. The atmosphere in a credit collection firm is

angry and tense. Managers and credit collectors often took out their frustrations on the

young and underpaid clerical personnel. Melvin himself, working in a tension-charged

atmosphere, became tense and made more than the expected number of logic errors. It

was like a student trying to take an examination on the floor of the New York Stock

Exchange.

5. Impatience: Jim Lake became impatient with development progress although the project

never was more than a week behind schedule. Even when the system was about to be

implemented, Jim’s impatience grew. Melvin Cooley decided that there were not enough

clerical hours available to convert the entire old customer delinquent and payment

register card files to the new automated format. So he decided to convert individual cards

(records) when some activity (e.g., payment) occurred. This is called a “day-one

approach”. It would take about one month for all active records to be converted to the

new system. When Melvin tried to explain this to the computer-naïve Jim Lake, Jim

Ranted, raved and started to treat Melvin the same way as he treated the browbeaten

clerical personnel.
Jim lake withheld the next scheduled payment to Melvin Cooley. Melvin had called Jim and

explained that he could not continue working on the new collection system until he received his

payment. Jim Lake had shouted at Melvin over the phone, and threated to sue Melvin. After this

Melvin Cooley discontinued his work on the collections system.

 Analysis

Conclusion